HouseMate Magic Flute Quick Start Manual

The Magic Flute

Improvise or play a well-known melody
Comes with more then 100 sounds + MIDI + programmable = Endless Possibilities
Easy accessible – for starters or skilled musicians.

The Magic Flute was originally designed as an adaptive musical instrument for people
with little or no arm movement --with the goal of allowing people with a wide range of
disabilities the ability to perform live electronic music that can be at the highest
professional quality. It is also an exciting and rewarding way for people who have
limited lung function to carry out Breathing Exercises that will never become tedious
to them.

The Magic Flute is not only an instrument but also acts as the remote control for the

Control Module (sip & puff).

We want you either in your local school band or playing a professional gig with your
new group live on stage! We want you to be able to pursue music the way that you
have always dreamed no matter what physical condition you may have encountered in
your life's journey! You can play hundreds if not thousands of musical sounds from
saxophone, trumpet, pan flute and other breath instruments to guitar, drums, piano
for just starters -- and we challenge you to give this instrument a try. We are a new
community of users. We want our community to grow and you to be a part of it --we
want not only to share our instrument but your experiences and your ideas to make
this instrument better and better with your help.

How it works.

The flute swivels on top of a camera mount and can be moved up or down using the
mouth piece. An internal gyroscope detects the angular position and converts that
into a note or pitch. A keyboard, sound module, sampler,synthesiser, MIDI organ, a
software synthesiser or sampler on a computer can be used for sound but also there
is an internal sound card fitted in the Control Module. So you only need a set of small
computer speakers and you can start playing.
The strength of the breath into the mouth piece controls the volume of the note.
However, because we are interfaced with the computer we can also use several
adaptive switches and countless other adaptive strategies. We feel we are only a
limited by our imaginations. Breath pressure can be used to control volume as well as
pitch and other parameters. Multiple notes can be triggered in one breath. If you are
concerned that you are not physically able to access the instrument, we encourage
you to make inquiry and we will work toward making music happen for you. Please join
us.

Getting started A quick start guide:

You must plug the flute into the control module BEFORE you connect the power
supply.

Connect the power supply and keep the flute still during the calibration. The flute has
to be in a horizontal position.
Connect the Audio output to external active loudspeakers or use a MIDI* cable to
connect the MIDI output of the Control Module to the MIDI input from your musical
instrument or computer**.

The Control Module -The Magic Flutes control centre.

Select this picture on the display with Sip and Puff (or use the display buttons)

and start playing. You can see on the display which notes you play.

That's all. Enjoy!!

*MIDI (short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a music industry standard communications
protocol that lets MIDI instruments and sequencers (or computers running sequencer software) talk
to each other to play and record music.

**Keyboard, sound module, sampler,synthesiser, MIDI organ, a software synthesiser or sampler on a
computer.

Getting into details -

When you power up the Magic Flute you'll see this hourglass. Make sure the flute

is in a fixed position. It must be steady during the turn-on sequence so that the
internal gyroscope can initialise. If the flute is moved during the turn-on sequence it
will not function correctly and the notes will "drift" rapidly. This symbol tells you
that you have to keep the Magic Flute still for 45 seconds. If 45 seconds looks long
then beware of the fact that the Magic Flute is using new technology and stands
really on the edge of what is possible today.

User settings.

One very important aspect of the Magic Flute is that you can adjust the flute to your
own personal needs.
You can set the following parameters:

► Sensitivity (1-8) - The sensitivity determines the amount of angular movement
necessary to choose a different note in the scale. This is the most important setting.
Sensitivity 8 is so fine that only a very little head movement is required to play the
magic flute.
► In breath (strong, normal, light, none) - 4 different settings for the sip function.
“None” allows you to disable the Sip.

► Attack (200 100 or 50 milliseconds) - 3 different settings for breath action.
► Note changes (slow, normal, fast) - 3 different setting for note behaviour.
► Correct drift (yes, no) – Best set to “Yes”
► Transpose (-12 ~ + 12) Transposes the pitch down or up in semitone steps over a

range of two octaves. “No Transpose” corresponds to standard pitch. This is a global
setting, meaning that it will affect all scales including “Chords” and “Drum kit”. You
can think of it as a kind of “master tune”.
Using an overall transpose won't affect the scale letters in the display. This allows
you to learn a song in a simple key and then transpose it to any key you want to.

►Semitone (-5 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2) – This enables you to use a switch to transpose a scale

to a different key. NB. Chords and Drum kit are excluded from this transpose.
The “Semitone” switch transpose

will

affect the scale letter in the display. When you
press the switch you will notice that the displayed scale letter will change to the new
note.
N.B To use this switch option you'll have to select “Semitone” in the ‘switch
behaviour’ settings (see below).

To play the flute:

You can start playing the flute after you have selected this picto. You blow into
the mouth piece to play a note. The harder you blow the harder the sound will be.
This is because the magic flute sends breath control* data.

To select a different note rotate the flute up or down and blow into the
mouth piece again. In the display you'll see a bar and a letter which visualise the note
you are playing.

A dot will give you info on how close you are to the centre of each note.

To keep the flute well centred you have to breathe in now and then. It's best to
have the flute horizontal, and take a light sip till you see 2 arrows on the display. The
best way is to take a light sip frequently while keeping the flute horizontal. That way
it will quickly become part of your playing skill.

There is also a second way to achieve this. Therapists can use the "up" button.

There are 19 default scales and 4 memories for recording your own scales ­from simple (5 notes) to more complex and even a nice chord scale. For every
individual scale you can also program its MIDI channel number (1-16)** and its
(external) switch behaviour. These settings are memorised so the next time you turn
the flute on all your settings are kept.

You can plug in any external switch with a 1/8 mini jack. For every scale you
can set the switch behaviour.
The options are:

– Sharps/Flats
– Transpose Up
– Transpose Down
– Semitone