PIC Magick Musick
Approx construction cost US$56
Conjure music from thin air at the mere untouching gesture of a fingertip.
Having enchanted and puzzled his intimate audience with close-up magic, the lone magician raised his hands and made a grand sweeping gesture of departure, punctuated by the downwards glissando of an ethereal harp, conjured as though from thin air. Later in conversation with the author, the hotel's magical entertainer showed off the splendid capabilities of his Yamaha keyboard. Then, with a less dramatic gesture, he passed his hand over a small hole in the top of the keyboard - again the descending scales of a harp were heard. On being questioned, though, all the magician would say was "there's a magic beam"!
Intrigued by the foregoing wizardry, the author continued to puzzle for several days about what had actually been meant by the magician's cryptic reply. He did not have an assistant. Was the triggering done by a laser beam being intercepted? Infrared? Ultrasonics? Quite naturally, thoughts turned to how a similar effect plus individual note playing could be achieved as a hobbyist electronics project. This, then, was the inspiration for PIC Magick Musick. This project tells how it is achieved (without, we hope, triggering the wrath of the Magic Circle)!
More details on this construction project can be found in the January 2002 issue of EPE Online, the world's first web-delivered electronics and computing hobbyist magazine.
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