Shetu

The Shetu MIDI 2.0 controller is a research prototype designed to understand and respond to human actions. It can trigger and release individual notes and adjust each note’s pitch and sound pressure levels independently. Shetu uses USB to communicate with a Digital Audio Workstation on a personal computer and meets the MIDI-CI and UMP data requirements defined by the MIDI consortium. The Shetu’s hardware is designed with off-the-shelf parts, including an NXP K32-based board. Its software is programmed completely in C and is based on the TinyUSB and AmeNote ProtoZOA projects. Shetu’s use of a single programming language helps ensure its future portability to other microprocessors, thus providing us with the potential to rapidly prototype inclusive musical instruments for disabled musicians as part of our Designing Sound Futures (designingsoundfutures.org) and Building Access In Music Making (accessmusic.ca) research projects.

The primary innovations are in the Shetu controller’s use of off-the-shelf parts and a single programming language, C. These two innovations will facilitate future developments in accessible music instrument design and implementation with disability communities both in the Responsive Ecologies Lab, and, hopefully, globally.

This research project is part of a collaborative effort between multiple universities and disability arts/music organizations to make musical instruments accessible and customized to unique users according to their interests and requirements through inclusive design using bespoke controllers. We are working with disabled musicians to help make instruments that are more accessible for them, based on their unique interests and requirements, and ultimately challenges exclusionary boundaries in musical and music education cultures.