How To DIY Hack A Machine To Read And Play Sheet Music

Now you can make a machine that reads sheet music better than you can. 

Never had the time or means to become a fluent reader and performer of sheet music? Never fear: With just a bit of basic computer knowhow, you can let machines do all the hard work for you.

Using optical music recognition software called SharpEye 2.68, this machine hack takes advantage of the processing power of machines to read music in a way that you can’t. The music scanning software recognizes notes (and even lyrics) from any photographed image and then converts this information into code, which can be read as either MIDI or played as MP3. This effectively means you can scan a sheet of Bach and have your ARP Odyssey, for example, perform it.

But the hack becomes even cooler when you transform that software into hardware. Using a 555 timer circuit, your newfound music can be converted to sound frequencies, meaning you can easily create physical music-generating devices from scratch. Sound complex? It isn’t: just follow the steps here.

Read more: Make your own polysynth from two hacked Nintendos