As I was looking through the vast array of instruments on GarageBand, I found this one arpeggiator called Droplets that had an interesting difference in sound between its short and long duration notes and sounded much more full than the other instruments I had previously looked through. I wanted to layer the two different textures (shorter, percussive notes vs. longer, warbly notes) to create a new texture. I played around the velocity a lot adding a slider instead of it being random, so that I could create a fade effect.
Max patch
3 Instruments
Cats’ Persistence Makes Music
My cats can be very persistent when it comes to getting food, and they will stare and meow at me until I finally stand up to give them food. So my idea for the instrument is to reflect their insistent meows through music. Pitch would be determined by the volume of their meows (lower volume - lower pitch). I considered the rate of their meows, how many times they meow in a certain time interval (5 minutes?), would control velocity to really give a sense of HOW much they're meowing. Duration would change depending on how long they stare or hover/sit next to me until I feed them; the longer they hover, the longer the note is.
What Does the Weather Sound Like?
Maybe instead of checking a weather app every morning, you can just listen to what the weather sounds like and create audio associations with certain states of weather. Pitch could be controlled by temperature (lower temperature - lower note). Velocity would be controlled by the amount of sunlight to really emphasize how dull or vibrant it is outside (lower amounts of sunlight - lower note). Duration would be controlled by humidity so that you can get long, thick, heavy notes with higher percentages of humidity.
Have You Drank Enough Water Today?
I'm really bad about drinking enough water, so why not have some music tell me I haven't drank enough. Pitch would be controlled by the temperature of the water. I usually pour cold water usually by the time I drink it, it's lukewarm, so an audio queue of the water temperature may or may not get me to drink it more often. Velocity would be controlled by the amount of time that's elapsed since I last took a sip/drink of water (the longer I don't drink, the louder it gets). Duration would be controlled by the amount of water in the cup/bottle.