Sample Tracer

Overview

Sample Tracer is an interactive installation that explores how music evolves across generations through the creative practice of sampling. While contemporary songs are deeply shaped by earlier musical traditions, these connections are often overlooked—contributing to generational divides in how music is valued, understood, and appreciated.

Using a hacked vinyl record player as its core interface, Sample Tracer invites participants to physically engage with music history. By selecting and playing records from a curated collection, users encounter original tracks alongside visualizations that trace how those sounds reappear in modern songs through sampling. Real-time data visualization and audio playback make the transformation process visible, audible, and tangible.

Through shared manipulation of a familiar physical artifact, Sample Tracer reframes sampling not as imitation, but as dialogue. The installation positions music as a living, collaborative form of artistic expression—one that connects past and present through touch, sound, and collective discovery. Exhibited at the 2025 Launchpad Design Showcase, the project demonstrates how tangible interfaces based on retro technologies and data-driven storytelling can foster intergenerational dialogue and shared appreciation through a common love of music.

Project Details

My Role: Technical Lead, UX and UI Designer, Interactive System Engineer
Technologies / Methods:  RFID Sensor, Arduino, Ableton, Unity, Figma, Procreate
Team: Thais Alvarenga, TeAiris Majors, Sally You, Sam Beagle
Timeline: Oct 2025 - Ongoing

Funded by Industrial Design Project Fund

The Problem

There is a growing disconnect between generations when it comes to music appreciation. While contemporary music is deeply shaped by older songs and artists, this lineage is often overlooked. Older generations may perceive newer music as lacking the elegance, emotional depth, or musicality of the music from their youth, while younger listeners may view older music as outdated or disconnected from contemporary culture. These perspectives obscure the ongoing dialogue between past and present that shapes how music evolves over time.

The Solution

To bridge this generational divide, we created Sample Tracer, an interactive installation that teaches music lovers of all ages how contemporary songs are built from earlier hits through the practice of musical sampling.

Music sampling is the practice of taking a portion of a sound recording and reusing it in a new piece of music. This can involve manipulating the sample in various ways, such as altering its pitch or tempo, to create new musical expressions.

Sample Tracer transforms a hacked vinyl player into an interactive table that invites participants to physically engage with music history. Participants choose a record from a curated selection and place it on the turntable to play the original track. While the song plays, the system displays information about the track and its sampling lineage, presenting digital vinyls of modern songs that draw from it.

When a contemporary track is selected, the system analyzes and extracts data from the original record—such as bass lines, drum patterns, and melodies—and dynamically adjusts their pitch and tempo to demonstrate how they were transformed in the newer song. The modern track then plays, accompanied by visualizations that explain how the sample was used and what additional samples were layered into the composition.

By revealing the creative mechanics of music sampling—such as re-layering, re-pitching, and re-imagining existing sounds—the experience invites participants to recognize music as an evolving, collaborative dialogue of artistic expression across generations.

Design Approach

For this project, I led the physical computing and network communication, primarily hacking a record player into an interface that allows people to collaboratively explore how a song has been sampled across generations. I designed and debugged the RFID-driven state machine and built multiple prototypes for custom vinyl records, including motorization and power systems. Ultimately, I hacked an actual turntable using Arduino to preserve the tactile, retro experience of a fully functional vinyl player.

I engineered the end-to-end system using a SparkFun Qwiic RFID reader to detect tags embedded in the vinyl records. Each tag is matched to a specific track and sent to Unity via OSC, where Unity communicates with Ableton to extract and transform audio data from the original recording into a sampled composition. In parallel, Unity visualizes track metadata and sampling relationships, triggering synchronized playback of the new song when selected.

In addition to system engineering, I designed and fabricated custom 3D-printed mounts for the vinyl records. I also led the UX and UI design, creating animated interface assets with a retro, DIY aesthetic inspired by cassette mixtapes. During exhibition, I troubleshot audio, hardware, and software synchronization in real time to ensure stability throughout a four-hour live showcase. To support reliability and future iteration, I documented all prototypes in GitHub and developed p5.js MIDI-based visualization mockups as backup systems.

Reflection and Futures

Following its exhibition at the Launchpad Design Showcase, Sample Tracer received invitations to be presented at the Trap Music Museum in Atlanta and Georgia Tech’s Interactive Media Zone. The team is currently expanding the design of the installation to support these upcoming venues

Sample Tracer explores how legacy analog technologies can be reimagined as tangible interfaces for shared discovery and music appreciation. By centering interaction around a familiar physical artifact—the vinyl record player—the installation supports co-presence, learning, and intergenerational dialogue through collaborative manipulation of a physical artifact and shared listening.

Future iterations of the project will extend the vinyl-based interface by leveraging additional system inputs and data streams, such as knobs, volume controls, and gesture-based interactions. These inputs will enable participants to create and manipulate their own samples in real time, contributing to a growing, collaborative archive of musical expression. Through this expansion, Sample Tracer aims to evolve from an exploratory learning tool into a participatory platform where users actively shape and preserve musical lineages across generations.