11–20 of 49 posts
So it's a midi guitar with a breath controller and built in synth/drum machine?
I wonder how the notes are laid out on the board. It would be cool to play with one for a while.
However, the demonstration didn't exactly live up to the title. I was expecting music beyond Franz Liszt's transcendental etudes or something.
I'd be hugely embarrassed to be seen playing one of those things. It's like some kids' movie-tied toy gone huge and gone wrong. Especially with all those flashing lights wizzing up and down the fretboard. Ridiculous.
Some more info. Their website is rather low on content so you will have to sit through such a video if you want to know more.
What this is and what's exciting about it is that it's a new human-computer-inteface designed solely for producing synthesized music. Think about what we had before: Midi keyboards, Midi guitars, keyboards and mice, a few more interesting control surfaces and not much else. Sure the keyboards and guitars would be good for producing keyboard and guitar sounds, but what we needed was a way to control the gamut of sound…
One of the great advantages of computer music is the complete decoupling of sound generation from any particular human means of controlling it. Unfortunately, because they can be manufactured so cheaply, keyboards (in the piano or organ sense) dominate as a real-time control device. (A lot of them don't even have channel aftertouch, never mind polyphonic aftertouch!)
Not that there has been a shortage of activity in this area: there's a conference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Interfaces_for_Musical_Expr... and many niche companies making niche products, but nothing has ever really taken off.
But seriously, it's really cool, and I hope it sells well.
Someone call Rob Hubbard! Sounds like a Commodore 64 tune. But seriously, it's really cool, and I hope it sells well.
What this is and what's exciting about it is that it's a new human-computer-inteface designed solely for producing synthesized music. Think about what we had before: Midi keyboards, Midi guitars, keyboards and mice, a few more interesting control surfaces and not much else. Sure the keyboards and guitars would be good for producing keyboard and guitar sounds, but what we needed was a way to control the gamut of sound…
what we needed was a way to control the gamut of sounds that can be produced by a computer in a unified way
That's a bit like asking for a way to control the gamut of images that can be produced on a canvas in a unified way. There are 1445068800 possible 1-second-long CD quality recordings. Most sound like white noise. I think what they're going for is not to span the whole range of sounds, but the whole range of familiar music, plus-or-minus a little.
Neat. I'd buy one for a couple hundred dollars...3950GBP!!!
Also, while others on this thread seem to think it's very Star-Wars-y and ugly, I personally think it looks rather cool. Nothing wrong with the looks.
Wonder how hard it would be to learn though.
Someone call Rob Hubbard! Sounds like a Commodore 64 tune. But seriously, it's really cool, and I hope it sells well.