How this guy hacked his arm to make MIND MUSIC!! 🤯🤘

# Bertolt Meyer’s Prosthetic Arm Hack: A New Era in Music Production

Bertolt Meyer, a musician and DJ, has recently shared an intriguing project on his YouTube channel that showcases his unique approach to music production. In a video titled *Cynllun Prototype*, Meyer demonstrates how he hacked his prosthetic arm to create a device capable of translating muscle signals into musical manipulations. This innovative project, called **sin limb**, represents a groundbreaking intersection of technology and creativity.

## The Prosthetic Hand: A Tool for Music Manipulation

Meyer begins by introducing the prosthetic hand he wears daily. Controlled via electrodes on the skin’s surface, the device allows him to rotate the hand fully 360 degrees with ease. Originally designed for practical tasks like operating a record player, Meyer found inspiration in its potential for musical applications.

While exploring music production, Meyer discovered the challenges of using modular synthesizers—complex devices filled with knobs and buttons that are difficult to operate. However, he noticed something crucial: each button on these synthesizers has a Jack port, enabling remote control via cables. This observation led him to question why his prosthetic arm couldn’t bypass the traditional interface altogether.

Instead of relying on his arm to move a knob, which converts muscle signals into movement and then back into electrical signals, Meyer wondered if there was a more direct way. His solution? Plugging a cable directly into his arm to send musical signals straight to the synthesizer.

## From Concept to Reality: The Birth of *sin limb*

With some 3D printing, soldering, and parts from an older non-functioning prosthetic, Meyer and his friends managed to bring this idea to life. The result was a prototype device called **sin limb**.

Meyer explains how the device works with a demonstration: he spins the *sin limb* a few times, and it pops off like a prosthetic arm. Once detached, he attaches it to the synthesizer by plugging a cable into its port. This allows him to control various musical parameters directly through his muscle signals.

The process is not as straightforward as it seems. Meyer clarifies that while he doesn’t think about melodies in terms of cables, he uses the device to modify different parameters like pitch, groove, and length. For example, one signal might adjust the pitch, while another could cut the bass or open a filter. The versatility of modular synthesizers makes this possible, allowing him to control any musical parameter with a single cable.

## The Emotional Journey: Training the Body as an Interface

Meyer reflects on the years he spent training his body to produce specific muscle signals—essentially learning to use his body as an interface for technology. This skill has become second nature to him after two decades of practice, enabling him to translate his thoughts into musical manipulations seamlessly.

However, this level of control is not easily attainable by others. Meyer acknowledges that the steep learning curve makes such interfaces unsuitable for mass-market use. He envisions a future where brain-to-machine interfaces replace the need for muscle signals, but admits that significant research and development are still required to make this a reality.

## The Future of Music Production: A New Paradigm

Meyer’s project highlights the potential for body-controlled music production, offering a glimpse into a future where technology integrates more deeply with human creativity. While *sin limb* is currently a niche innovation, it opens doors for new ways of interacting with musical devices and challenges traditional methods of composition and performance.

## Conclusion: A New Era in Human-Machine Interaction

Bertolt Meyer’s *Cynllun Prototype* is more than just a fun experiment; it represents a significant step forward in human-machine interaction. By hacking his prosthetic arm to create the **sin limb**, Meyer has demonstrated how muscle signals can be repurposed for artistic expression, paving the way for further innovation in music production and beyond.

If you’re intrigued by this groundbreaking project, be sure to check out Bertolt Meyer’s YouTube channel and SoundCloud page. The attention his creation has received is a testament to its potential impact on the world of music—and it’s only the beginning.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI recently came across a video on youtube by bertolt Meyer a musician and DJ who hacked his prosthetic arm to create a new way of turning his muscle signals into musical manipulations I'm wearing this prosthetic hand right and it's a pretty neat device and it's controlled very easily with electrodes that sit on the surface of the skin as you can see you can rotate the hand a full 360 and it's kind of okay and easy to work a record player with that to DJ with records and so forth but a while ago I started into music production and I'm using modular synthesizers to do music and devices that look like this and these devices you know they have so many knobs and buttons it's really difficult to operate them or where the hand proceses like this but as you can see there is like a little Jack next to each button that way you can plug in a cable to remote control every button and I always thought it's kind of stupid that my arm picks up electricity from my body which is then transformed into a movement here and then I turn a knob there which is transformed back into electricity it's kind of a stupid detour so you know why not take the more direct way and find a way to plug a cable like this into my arm and send a signal directly into the synthesizer thanks to some 3d printing soldering and parts from an older non functioning prosthesis we're told and friends were able to make that dream into a real prototype device called sin limb I can pop this off I know it looks weird like don't be afraid you have to spin it a couple of times and then it'll just pop off like this and then we've developed this device here right and you can pop it on here like this switch it on right that's what looks like and now you can plug a cable in here and take the other end of the cable and plug it somewhere like in here right and then you can transform the signals from the proceses into the synthesizer so that's how it works you don't think about the melody and it comes out of these cables that's not how this works you can really use these two cables to modify different parameters and it really depends on where you plug them in so the way what I normally do is I program a little melody and then I I change the parameters of that melody with the signals coming from here so you change the pitch for example or you change the groove or you change the length and then you plug it into something else and then you can use it to cut the bass and then you can plug it into something else and then the same signal that just a second ago would cut the bass now opens and closes the filter that's the great thing about these modular synthesizers they're so versatile and you can you can basically control any parameter that's musical with a plug like this so the pitch will go up so I can now over the filter change the pitch it's difficult to describe how it feels how do you move your finger right you just think about it and then it and then it happens and so I think the thing that I would normally think to move the proceses you know it's something that I've learned to do for the past 20 years it's second nature for me to produce these signals so you just think about them and it happens and to experience that this thing that you do with your head does something completely different than you're normally loose used to like normally yours do you like your hand is moving and then suddenly if something musical happens and it's still a mixture of surprise and joy I've spent the past 20 years to learn to train my body to produce a specific muscle signal so I've kind of learned to use my body as an interface to produce specific signals that technology will understand and for everybody else it would be an extremely steep learning curve and that's why this kind of interface I think it's not that suitable for the mass market we need something that interfaces more dialect directly with the brain without the detour of brain to muscle to signal right but that will still need a lot of research you can find Bert alts full video on the cynllun prototype over on his youtube channel I'm still very very much overwhelmed by the kind of attention it has generated I mean just the fact that we're too talking right now kind of weird so but yeah have a look at the YouTube channel check out my soundcloud it'll be greatI recently came across a video on youtube by bertolt Meyer a musician and DJ who hacked his prosthetic arm to create a new way of turning his muscle signals into musical manipulations I'm wearing this prosthetic hand right and it's a pretty neat device and it's controlled very easily with electrodes that sit on the surface of the skin as you can see you can rotate the hand a full 360 and it's kind of okay and easy to work a record player with that to DJ with records and so forth but a while ago I started into music production and I'm using modular synthesizers to do music and devices that look like this and these devices you know they have so many knobs and buttons it's really difficult to operate them or where the hand proceses like this but as you can see there is like a little Jack next to each button that way you can plug in a cable to remote control every button and I always thought it's kind of stupid that my arm picks up electricity from my body which is then transformed into a movement here and then I turn a knob there which is transformed back into electricity it's kind of a stupid detour so you know why not take the more direct way and find a way to plug a cable like this into my arm and send a signal directly into the synthesizer thanks to some 3d printing soldering and parts from an older non functioning prosthesis we're told and friends were able to make that dream into a real prototype device called sin limb I can pop this off I know it looks weird like don't be afraid you have to spin it a couple of times and then it'll just pop off like this and then we've developed this device here right and you can pop it on here like this switch it on right that's what looks like and now you can plug a cable in here and take the other end of the cable and plug it somewhere like in here right and then you can transform the signals from the proceses into the synthesizer so that's how it works you don't think about the melody and it comes out of these cables that's not how this works you can really use these two cables to modify different parameters and it really depends on where you plug them in so the way what I normally do is I program a little melody and then I I change the parameters of that melody with the signals coming from here so you change the pitch for example or you change the groove or you change the length and then you plug it into something else and then you can use it to cut the bass and then you can plug it into something else and then the same signal that just a second ago would cut the bass now opens and closes the filter that's the great thing about these modular synthesizers they're so versatile and you can you can basically control any parameter that's musical with a plug like this so the pitch will go up so I can now over the filter change the pitch it's difficult to describe how it feels how do you move your finger right you just think about it and then it and then it happens and so I think the thing that I would normally think to move the proceses you know it's something that I've learned to do for the past 20 years it's second nature for me to produce these signals so you just think about them and it happens and to experience that this thing that you do with your head does something completely different than you're normally loose used to like normally yours do you like your hand is moving and then suddenly if something musical happens and it's still a mixture of surprise and joy I've spent the past 20 years to learn to train my body to produce a specific muscle signal so I've kind of learned to use my body as an interface to produce specific signals that technology will understand and for everybody else it would be an extremely steep learning curve and that's why this kind of interface I think it's not that suitable for the mass market we need something that interfaces more dialect directly with the brain without the detour of brain to muscle to signal right but that will still need a lot of research you can find Bert alts full video on the cynllun prototype over on his youtube channel I'm still very very much overwhelmed by the kind of attention it has generated I mean just the fact that we're too talking right now kind of weird so but yeah have a look at the YouTube channel check out my soundcloud it'll be great\n"