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**Stage** Prototype
**Project Need** Agility / Dexterity
**Created By** Jathan Gurr
**Capabilities Needed** 3D Printing
**Time to Complete** —
**Cost to Build** —
**Creative Commons License** attribution-4-0-international

Hi,

My name is Jathan Gurr and for long as I can remember I wanted to be an instrumental musician. However, because of a complex set of Neuro-physical disabilities I don’t have enough control of the small motor functions of my hands to play traditional musical instruments. I do compose music though by recording myself humming through a guitar synthesizer pedal and converting those recordings into MIDI using software. While making music this way can be labor-intensive, it does works surprisingly well.
Unfortunately though, I’ve never had a musical instrument that I could perform with other musicians, improvise music with, or collaborate creatively with other musicians or artists in real time. Currently I am working with a software designer to develop an audio driven synthesizer app that I can control with my voice in real time.
What I would like to accomplish with this project is to build a physical MIDI controller with some simple buttons on it that I can strap to a microphone which one I will use to control some of the synthesizer app’s functions with my hands while humming into the microphone. This synthesizer app is designed to take in standard MIDI messages for some of its controls, and specifically what I need to have on the microphone is an up and down octave button, as well as a touch plate so that I can control the model wheel of the synthesizer with simple hand movements that I can do.
So if you yourself, or anyone you know would like to assist me in making this controller a please reach out to me. I believe that in conjunction with this synthesizer app we could create one of the most versital electronica musical instruments to help people who because of physical limitations can’t play a traditional musical instrument. Because I am disabled myself this technology has been built from the ground up with my input to make it as easy to use as possible for someone with limitations to play. It is my sincere hope to make this technology available to anyone who would like to make instrumental music who like myself might not have the physical capability to do so!

[More information](https://makersmakingchange.com/project/physical-controller-for-a-software-audio-controlled-synthesizer/)

[@justinwintour]

I’ve spent a year working on this, and it’s finally finished! It ended up being MUCH more than just 3D printing. The mechanical/ergonomic design took the longest, but then there was printing, soldering, software and testing.

Anyway, I’m working on some documentation now, and preparing files for upload – I just need to figure out how to do that.

[@justinwintour]


[@justinwintour]

The entire design package is available here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4097655/files

[@hannahh]

Wow @jwintour this is incredible! On behalf of MMC, thanks for your dedication and hard work! We would love to see this device in action when it reaches the user. We just enabled PDF files, so if you’d like to test out sharing, that would be great!

-Hannah, Information Specialist MMC

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