The Joy of Toy

The Task

• Find some toys;
• They should be cheap (check out charity shops);
• They should create a sound or (usually preferably) a number of sampled sounds. You can used synthesised sounds (you may not be able to tell the difference immediately) but you'll find them more difficult to deal with. Animal sounds and conversational speech are highly indicative of sampling;
• They absolutely must be battery powered;
• You shouldn't have any emotional attachment to them - in other words, you shouldn't be feeling worried they might break and never work again;
• One toy may be perfect and may be all you need, but you don't know, so it's usually best to have two or three. Hacked and bent toys regularly disintegrate;
• Remember batteries. You can use rechargeables, but remember that in general they are much less powerful and run out of juice much more quickly.

• Once you've got it, or them:
• Play with them for a while - discover what they can and can't do as far as audio is concerned.
• Arrange a performance using it (them) either on your own, with others or utilising a backing track. Be careful not to overwhelm your toy.
• At the very least, you'll need to ensure that your toy's audio output can be successfully routed through an external amplifier.
  
  
• Choose a couple of parameters that work well with controllers.
• Acquire a Project Box and fit your toy's main parts into it.
• Fit your controllers. Make sure it remains reliable.
• Perform and document.

Finally

• Send your audio file and documentation (photos, original appearance/sound/purpose, what you did,e etc.) as your_student_number_"arduino01" (e.g. 0504335_arduino01.zip or 0504335_arduino01.sit), include a readme with your name and student number and, if necessary, how to use or just open the patch, and submit the whole thing here.
• On Macintosh, zip or stuff your patches by selecting the relevant files and/or folders and right-clicking/control-clicking on them, choosing 'create archive'.