Composer / Multimedia Artist
Portfolio
Instruments
I've been doing electronic music instruments for a couple years, for me and for others. They range from simple launchpads to weird ribbon guitar light synths. Here are a couple of the ones that I've built.
More instruments and tutorials on: www.musiconerd.com
XT Synth
The XT Synth is a mix of guitar, violin and midi controller. My inspiration was to make an instrument that could be played like a guitar, with the expression of a violin, with the sounds of a synthesizer. The neck has 4 soft potentiometers that can be played similar to an string instrument. They can be tuned however the player wants. Because instead of strings it has soft pots, the instrument is not tempered, like a violin, allowing vibratos, portamentos, and microtones.
The XT Synth was a finalist at the Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition 2018.
Fliper RGB
The Fliper RGB is a DIY RGB arcade launchpad, great for clip launching, finger drumming, etc.
It was built using the Arduino platform, potentiometers, arcade buttons and addressable LEDs that lit up according to the incoming MIDI messages.
Totally open-source.
Traktorino
The Traktorino is a powerful low-cost DIY MIDI Controller. It is based in the Arduino platform and it comes in DIY kit, or assembled. In its core, there’s a shield that connects to an Arduino Uno, which uses open-source code, making it totally hackable.
The Traktorino is a MIDI class compliant device, designed for controlling Traktor. It has several features and custom made mappings, so you can take the most of the software. However, it can do much more than that. The Traktorino can control any software that accepts MIDI, like Ableton Live, Serato, FL Studio, Logic, etc.
MidiMood
The Minimoog is the most iconic analogue synthesizer of all times, with great plugin versions like the Arturia Mini V and the Moog’s Minimoog iPad app. I always wanted to have better control over my synths and I thought that building a MIDI controller with the layout of the Minimoog was the best way to go. Although it is based on the Minimoog, it can be used with any virtual synth, like Massive, Omnisphere, Sylenth, etc. This MIDI controller was made using an Arduino Pro Micro, and two multiplexers, besides the potentiometers and toggle switches.
Totally open-source
Fliper Dj
The Fliper DJ is a MIDI controller which is based in the Arduino platform. It contains 16 arcade buttons, 7 rotary potentiometers and 3 slider potentiometers. One of the potentiometers allows you to change the midi channel of the buttons, making it possible to have four banks of buttons, 16x4. The Fliper DJ is a USB-Midi class compliant device, no drivers or converters needed!
Music
Music has always been the core of everything I do. If it's just music, music and video, music and technology, music and theater/circus, it has always been about music. I had multiple music projects and I tend to not stick to a particular style. Here are som different pieces of different projects I had.
More music can be found here.
Bit Comma
In a proposal which combines music and video, Bit Comma breaks down the barrier between sound and visual, between electronic and organic. With sound and video, instruments like violin and drums blend with unusual electronic controllers, created by Silveira for the project. The influences range from IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Dubstep, to Progressive Rock, that get together with their Brazilian roots. Bit Comma makes use of "found footage", videos taken from the Internet, like a patchwork quilt. Mixing videos from different sources, with different messages, generates a distinct, unexpected, final product, this way, video creates poetry and melody in "synthetic songs".
Angry Young Preachers (Vapor Sessions)
Siyyonic Opera (Full Album)
Kiša
Kiša is a project that mixes electronic music with classical instruments like cello, celtic harp and flute and others, like kalimba, in an experimental electronic world music "thing".
Kiša Soundcloud.
Audiovisual
I always had a particular interested for art that pushes the boundaries between music, theater, visual arts, technology, etc. The following video contain excerpts of three audiovisual works, that merge music, video, graphics and installation.
The first piece is called Hang, which is part of a project called Bit Comma. Hang is a mix of electronic music and real time generated animations.
Software: Ableton Live and Max.
The second is called Angry Young Preachers, also from the Bit Comma project. Differently from Hang, it uses found footage from the internet. It takes the speech of the characters of the videos and reconstructs it, in order to create a new speech.
Software: Ableton Live.
The third piece is an audiovisual installation called Generative Temples. The installation aims to create an environment that resembles a temple, mediated by a computer software.
Software/hardware: Max and Arduino.
Online
Besides my involvement with making music, making things, I have been working a lot on sharing and teaching people how they can be makers too. The core of this is my blog Músico Nerd - or the Nerd Musician - which also has a Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. The Nerd Musician is devided on tutorials, on line courses and a store, all of them dedicated to people that want to learn how to use technology to build MIDI Controllers, Synthesizers and music softwares.
Nerd Musician on social media
On line course
Software / Multimedia
As an artist, I've been creating tools that could help me, or others, to use technology as a mean for expression. To create new music instruments, to transform non musical devices into instruments, or sound into visuals, creating a software have been also part of my creative process.
( . . . )
( . . . ) was born from my desire of doing juggling and music at the same time, of putting the juggler in control of the music, of using the juggler's abilty of manipulating several objects at time into the electronic music performance.
( . . . ) is a group of free Ableton Live Max For Live devices dedicated to map juggling into music. Although it's dedicated to juggling, it can be used to map any object's movement into music, since it's based in a motion tracking system.
The Pendulum Sequencer
This is an audiovisual application that uses the physics of pendulums to sequence MIDI. It was inspired by the visual effect of the pendulum wave, where each pendulum has to have a specific length in order to achieve the wave effect.
Each "ball" triggers a MIDI note when it hits a trigger, which can be created on the fly with a mouse. Each pendulum can have its length changed, as well the size of the ball. MIDI velocity is calculated upon the pendulum's speed and mass, depending on the momentum when it hits the trigger.
This application was created using Processing whereas the audio is being generated in Ableton Live.
Mind Garden
Mind Garden is an interactive audiovisual installation where thoughts are transformed into a generative digital garden.
Ink Body Droplet in a Liquid Virtual Canvas
One fun experiment I made inspired in the effect of a droplet of ink when dropped in liquid. Processing + Kinect.
Concert / Electroacoustic / Sheet Music
This section is dedicated to my sheet music for my orchestra, small ensembles or solo pieces, and for my electroacoustic pieces as well.
Publications
• “Using Juggling as a Controller for Computer-Generated Music: an Overview of the Creation of an Interactive System Between Juggling and Electronic Music” – Published as bachelor’s thesis by Universidade Federal de Pelotas. (Brazil, 2015).
• “Using Juggling as a Controller for Computer-Generated Music: an Overview of the Creation of an Interactive System Between Juggling and Electronic Music”. Published at the “XXV Congresso da Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Música”. (Brazil, 2015).
• “The XT Synth - An Expressive MIDI Controller for String Players”. Published as master’s thesis by Georgia Southern University. (Statesboro, GA – 2018)
• “The XT Synth - A New Controller for String Players”. Published in the NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) 2018 conference. (Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, VA)