Funk Machine

Funk Machine
Duncan Woodbury, John Aspinall

The Funk Machine is a system of two three-axis foot pedals that can be openly assigned to any parameter either through the use of MIDI or OSC. There is also a series of 4 stomp-buttons that can be utilized to switch through presets as well as manage and control accompanying audio or musical robotics. Each pedal is rigged up with a 3-axis accelerometer from Sparkfun, being run by a bus powered Arduino Mega. The pedals themselves are mounted onto two stages of ball bearing allowing for maximum possible motion in all directions. The bottom ball-bearing is mounted into a commercial project casing alongside the buttons. The concept is fairly simple but effective in offering an affordable way of controlling 6 continuous parameters simultaneously, with the ability to have multiple customized banks, allowing any musician to use it to bring a unique approach to it’s application.