Currently, our most significant risks are the possibilities that the components we receive arrive broken or stop working during testing. We are addressing this by ordering extra parts to use in this case.
This week, we made many changes to our prior designs for the pedal. We settled on using rotary encoders for our dials instead of potentiometers, and we decided on a mechanism to control pitch-shifting. Pitch-shifting greatly increases our pedal’s functionality in a way that will be beneficial to our end users. Using potentiometers would limit our dials to controlling one parameter each, so we rejected that idea so that one dial could control pitch shifting for any of the sequence beats. We decided to use the delay time’s rotary encoder to change the pitch (in semitone increments) to whichever sequence note is selected among a set of switches. We also decided to allow users to mute the first note in the sequence, which we imagine could be useful and easy to implement.
Our schedule has more or less stayed the same. We are not behind on anything, and we anticipate having time to spare in case any of our components arrive late.
Part A (J. Frantz):
Our pedal will be a tool for making art, but there are still important safety issues to take into consideration. For starters, our pedal should be sturdy enough to withstand a person’s stomp. If our pedal were to shatter if someone presses too hard, it could send pieces flying and potentially injure someone. Also, it could expose our circuitry, which would be a shock hazard. Given that we want our pedal to be used indoors or outdoors, we want our pedal’s insides to be safe from the rain. So, we should ensure that the casing is water resistant.
Part B (N. Walker):
Our pedal should be usable by people from many different cultural and social backgrounds, and the most significant consideration for that is making sure anyone can understand how to use it. We cannot expect everyone who might use our pedal to speak the same language, but as it is an effects pedal for instruments, we can expect that they will understand basic musical terminology. Knowing this, we can use musical terms on the interface, such as “tempo” for delay time or using the terms for different beat patterns to control the delay patterns, and therefore make it as culturally accessible as possible.
Part C (C. Irkar):
By producing a single pedal, we provide an affordable alternative to expensive music technologies that have a wide range of functions that might not perfectly meet the needs of the user. A custom pedal allows us to cater to the needs of guitarists while reducing the cost of hardware, making it more cost-effective to produce and distribute. The compact design of our product makes it more portable, enabling musicians to easily transport our product and use it in an environment of their choosing. While the functionality of our pedal is our top priority, having a user interface that is straightforward and easy to use is something we will push heavily for. Our goal is to create a product that both an amateur and a professional can use. Considering these economic factors will mold our product into a user-friendly, affordable, and portable device that can aid any musician.