Inspiration
What if there was a way to make digital music feel more physical? Spinatra lets passionate listeners not only hear the music, but have a way to interact with songs via a vinyl-like component and visualize what they're hearing.
What it does
It is a physical interface for controlling and listening to digital music. It includes a vinyl that is used to forward, rewind, and pause, and it includes knobs to control volume, bass, reverb, and much more.
How we built it
It is a microcontroller-based system that handles real-time input, includes rotary encoders for track scrubbing, and other audio controls. We used a touch screen for easier controls and visual effects. Information from the microcontroller was used in Python scripts for audio processing, whose data was then fed into a fronted built with React + Typescript + Vite.
Challenges we ran into
There was encoder instability at high speeds, and debouncing issues that we encountered throughout the project. By far, the most challenging aspect was integrating the physical controls with the user interface for audio visualization.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully created a smooth, speed-sensitive scrubbing system that feels natural and responsive.
What we learned
We learned how challenging it is to integrate hardware control, audio processing, visual feedback, and AI into one cohesive system.
What's next for Spinatra
Explore machine learning-based sound personalization and recommendations. For the music enthusiasts, we hope to implement more advanced features in the future such as looping and enabling smoother transitions.
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