Keyboard Instrument (KIns) Project Proposal

// everyone please feel free to add/remove/change things in here! This should be a continually developed document that states our goal, steps, features, etc. As we complete features we should come back to this document and strike through what we've done already so we can see how much we've accomplished :)

//Last update: 6/12/12

Goal: To create a digital instrument that is somewhat analogous to a real, physical instrument that is open source, free, very easy to learn and use, and can be a gateway to a deeper understand of both musical theory and digital audio.

Features:

Initial goals:

-sounds controlled by the computer keyboard completed

-able to play multiple sounds at once completed

-simple gui

-be able to switch between a few different instruments completed

-website that explains the goal and provides instructions on downloading and using

-a few tutorials on the website explaining the basics of how the instrument works

Stretch goals:

-ability to loop audio (press a button, play a melody, press the button again, and the melody will loop over and over)

-ability to record to both a common filetype (like a .wav file) and to a series of keystrokes

-ability to paste in a series of keystrokes into the gui and have the program play them back to you as a melody

-ability to distribute the program as an installable package, to eliminate the need for the user to compile it themselves
- ability to create own laptop orchestra by having some musical scores that allow multiple users to select different instruments and play an arrangement together (to improve timing, some networking functions might be useful)

Proposed steps to complete the project:

1. Do research on existing digital audio programs and refine our proposed list of features. We want to create something that is relatively unique, or at least is unique in its appeal to the beginner user base.
2. Make the KIns.

3. ???

4. Profit! (not really)