Background

  • Players find it very intuitive to tap with different fingers once they have Tap on their hand
  • People want to musical experiences with Tap given the likelihood of playing instruments and tapping with Tap

Prototype Purpose

  • Create a multiplayer performance experience
  • Make it visual light
  • Build one that runs smoothly on mobile devices

Design Details

  • Brief introduction
    • A multiplayer performance that consists of one conductor and five instruments, each paired with one Tap
    • The conductor controls switches to each instrument allowing the performers to play the instrument or not
    • The performers play their mapped instruments (mainly percussion instruments and keys) according to the directions of the conductor
  • Inspirations
    • Music generator
    • Laptop orchestra
    • Wii Music
  • Choice of instrument
    • Full Strings
    • Piano
    • Marimba
    • Brooklyn Drum
  • Mode
    • Percussions only
    • Piano Duet
    • Percussion + Strings

Implementation Details

  • Played sound assets both randomly and sequentially when the tap down event is detected
  • Used the identifier from the API to manage different Taps and players

Lessons Learned

  • Pros
    • Standalone use case with Tap
    • Enhances performance
    • Works well with percussions
  • Cons
    • The instrumental mapping for each player is limited to 5 inputs, may sound good enough on drum but not as good on other musical instruments
    • Not sure whether to add more inputs with combined taps.

Future Possibilities

  • More control panels on the conductor side
  • Better instrumental input decision ( whether or not it harmonical and good enough with one another)