As an addendum to yesterday’s teaser of the Evolution multi-touch keyboard, readers send along a couple of other examples. Andrew McPherson has a terrific example of an add-on, multi-touch, capacitive surface that can go on any keyboard (so, basically the same idea).

Description:

This video demonstrates a set of capacitive touch sensing piano key tops which mount on top of any existing piano or MIDI keyboard. The key tops sense up to three touches each by position and contact area, letting the performer continuously and polyphonically shape every note in multiple dimensions. The system connects to a computer by USB and uses OSC for flexible communication with a wide variety of synthesis software.

See also the paper published on the design, and of course, the video. (Thanks, Andrew! Nice work – will we see more?)

From Vol 14, No. 2 Summer 1990 issue of Computer Music Journal, none other than Bob Moog joins Berklee’s Thomas L. Rhea to evaluate keyboard instrument design, and specifically refers to touch overlays on the keys (via resistive, not capacitive sensing).
“Evolution of the Keyboard lnterface: The Bøsendorfer 290 SE Recording Piano and The Moog Multiply-Touch-Sensitive Keyboards.” (A PDF is available, albeit not a … legal one. Thanks for the tip, Dan!)

And as for the Evolution, the release date will be Wednesday, November 23. Simon Kemper explains, “In just 2 days we will answer all your questions. Also there will be some more videos and tutorials. We also offer a software to control and individualize the evo. It is called “COMM” and makes everything between MIDI and OSC possible. So mapping the evos touch sensors to poly-AT, and so on, is also no problem.”

There are definitely some skills to pick up here, but that’s true with any alternative instrument. I’m eager to try one of these out.

Amidst the general-purpose computing platforms (laptop, iPad), and latest iterations of the conventional synthesizer (keyboard, knobs), the quest to build something genuinely specific, self-contained, and unique drives on. These creations are strange breeds, evolutionary singularities that aim to embody something the more generic instruments of our age lack: personality and soul. They’re the kind of object you might want to practice for years, to treat in their digital, “post-mechanical” form the way you would a violin or piano. They have a feel, more than the smooth surface of a trackpad or plane of multitouch glass, something that pushes back when you push it.

And while many such creations have shown up in proof-of-concept demos and academic conferences, the Eigenharp is an instrument a small but growing community of players are embracing in the long haul.

Musician and Eigen advocate Geert Bevin is back with the latest round of updates as those players hone their chops and try to really master their Eigen playing. And if you want to get involved yourself, there’s even a regular, Web-based clubhouse, thanks to Google’s fledgling “Hangout” technology on Google+. Geert tells us:

Independently from Eigenlabs, Eigenharp players are now organizing a clubhouse, twice a week, on opposite times to allow everyone to join at one point or another. This happens on Monday at 4PM CEST (Europe) and Wednesday 4PM CDT (US), using Google+ Hangouts. I’m hosting the European one and it’s streamed and recorded on Livestream
People that interested in the Eigenharp are invited to join one of the hangouts and circle me or Larry Heilman on Google+ to get access.

Now, some of the artists videos, in a wide survey Geert has put together that spans genres.

António Machado (Portugal) used his Eigenharp Alpha during the INCastelo open-air show with dancers in a medieval castle.

Here is what António has to say about this performance: “I compose music and take care of sound design for most of the dance shows from DançArte and we were in the two final shows of the cycle ‘In/Out’ focusing on local architecture and their surroundings. The ‘In’ part in August, outdoors and the ‘Out’ part inside a traditional theatre. Planning ten months ahead, August 2011 would bring us to Palmela´s medieval Castle built in the year 1150, to get inspired by and ultimately create “In Castelo”. Again the choice of performing with the Alpha suited me perfectly. It is visually stunning, so I was able to connect with the audience through the lights, using the “Arranger” and was free to interact with the surroundings, the dancers and their choreography. I have a very high degree of control over each sound/sample/AU or iVST and effects used, right from the instrument, so I don’t need to look at the computer screen while performing”

http://www.youtube.com/user/palaires

BangStrokeBlow (UK) live with an original instrumental:

BangStrokeBlow is a London-based duo of Eigenharpists; they make infectious, dance floor-oriented, experimental music. They retain many of the sensibilities of modern electronica but through the Eigenharp, have developed a much more expressive and human way of performing this music live. Expect anything from Hip Hop to Breakbeat to Trance; every single note will eat away at your internal organs, in a fuzzy, buzzy, rapturous way.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BangStrokeBlow
http://www.myspace.com/bangstrokeblow
https://www.facebook.com/bangstrokeblow
http://soundcloud.com/bangstrokeblow

Dino Soldo (UK) has used the Eigenharp for the 2010 world tour of Leonard Cohen:

Here’s what he had to say during an interview: “I can be onstage just with this, the computer on the side and my horns. That’s my fantasy. The visual is everything… Being on stage is a fantasy and this contributes to that fantasy. I wanna get rid of my keyboards. I wanna have a whole side of my stage disappear. Make the stage a little cleaner. There’s enough buttons for me to get everything I wanna have happen, happen. Really all you have to do is get your brain situated around the Eigenharp, then the Eigenharp is ready to go… The possibilities are truly endless. It really allows me to do things that I wouldn’t normally do with a solo instrument.”

http://www.dinosoldo.com
http://twitter.com/dinosoldo
http://www.myspace.com/dinosoldo
http://www.facebook.com/DinoSoldo

Flytecase (Belgium) live with an original song, “Same Place Again”:

Flytecase is a Belgian alternative pop-rock band, they used the Eigenharp Alpha for most synth arrangements on their debut album ‘Speaker Mind’ and are now preparing a new live show that uses the Eigenharp on stage. This is one of the finished songs, written on the Eigenharp and performed live in Charleroi, Belgium during the Fêtes de Wallonie Festival.

http://www.flytecase.be
http://www.facebook.com/flytecase
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B56CEC9C692B36B2
http://twitter.com/flytecase

Ian and Paul Harriman (UK) using AudioCubes and Eigenharp at Electro-Music 2011 festival:

Ian and Paul Harriman using AudioCubes and Eigenharp at Electro-Music 2011 festival [Percussa (AudioCubes) blog]

Paul Harriman has played the Eigenharp Alpha for two years in a row at the Electro-Music festival and performed a piece together with his son on Audiocubes this year. As well as playing leads and pads live on the Alpha, all the backing tracks are also triggered and controlled by the Eigenharp.

http://www.harriman4.com

Kayla Kavanagh (UK) live with an original song, “Take me home”:

Kayla is a Yorkshire-based singer-songwriter who plays nine instruments. She started a year and a half ago with the Eigenharp Pico and has since then moved on to the Eigenharp Alpha. Her last album is one of the world’s first to feature the Eigenharp. Kayla played at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival with her first original song on the Eigenharp Alpha.

http://www.kaylakavanagh.com
http://www.youtube.com/kaylakavanagh
http://twitter.com/KaylaKavanagh
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kayla-Kavanagh/22032129016

Thanks for this, Geert! This covers quite a range; it seems that you’re bound to find something that sparks interest. If others would like to do a similar round-up for an alternative instrument/controller, I’m all ears.

Touch on devices like the iPad is functional, but limited in its expression – there’s no pressure or tactile feedback. That’s why we’ve enthusiastically followed Randy Jones’ “continuous capacitive sensing” technology on the Soundplane for some time. Sensing pressure, it behaves more like an acoustic instrument might – that is, if such an acoustic instrument were possible beyond the imagination of the digital realm.

As advertised, it “transmits x, y and pressure data for every key continuously at 12 bits of resolution and about 1000 samples per second, letting players move beyond the ADSR envelope model of synthesis and articulate each note individually, as on an acoustic instrument.”

While Randy has a patent pending, he still encourages people to follow his documentation of the technology to build their own. But if you’d like one nicely built for you, the Soundplane is now available as a US$1695. There’s even a bundled version of Madrona Labs’ wonderful Aalto patchable modular software synthesizer for your computer, especially customized to work with the Soundplane. (And dig those nice three-dimensional visualizations of pressure in the video.)

There won’t be many of these first units out in the world: the first run is limited to just 30 units. Of course, if it’s successful, I’d expect to see more. And you could have something special in the first-available hardware (I’d jump if I weren’t saving my pennies!)

Our own Matt Earp is working on an interview with Randy, so here’s your opportunity – what would you like to ask Randy about his creation?

If you happen to be in California, Randy is putting together a West Coast US tour. Dates and description below.

And for more pictures, see below.

Robotspeak, San Francisco, Saturday Nov 5, 4pm
CNMAT, Berkeley, Monday Nov 7 (unconfirmed — check back to madronalabs.com for info)
UCSB, Media Arts and Technology Seminar, Tue Nov 8, 5:30 pm
Calarts Seminar, Thur Nov 10, 6:30pm

Some of the events may differ slightly from this Robotspeak description, says Randy, but this gives you an idea – I love the thesis here.

Multitouch interfaces: beyond the tablet.

Madrona Labs and Robotspeak are happy to present this seminar on music and multitouch interface. Thanks to smartphones and tablet computing, multitouch interfaces have been a common topic of discussion over the past few years. Phones and tablets are general-purpose tools that have their pros and cons for music making. As multitouch technology becomes specialized for music performance, what will future hardware and software look like?

Madrona Labs has one answer in the form of the Soundplane, a new instrument designed specifically for computer music performance, shipping in limited quantities this Fall. Randy Jones, the Soundplane’s inventor, will present a prototype, demonstrate some of what it offers to musicians, and make it available for hands-on time by attendees.

Other visions of multitouch will spring from DIY efforts and maker culture. Capacitive sensing is a simple technology that makers can easily integrate into new designs. Randy will show how to make touch sensors with little more than some foam, tinfoil and an audio interface, and discuss the benefits as well as the limitations of these devices. More hands-on play and quite possbily a cacophony of bleeps will result.

http://madronalabs.com

Cyril Stoller shares this project, for a variety of multitouch devices (Mac / Windows / Linux / Android, screens and projection) through the also-free-and-open-source Kivy framework. It’s inspired by the brilliant Haken Continuum fingerboard, but whereas that more tactile controller is hard to get, this runs cheaply all over the place. (It could also be a way to practice and save up for a Haken, it occurs to me.)

Thanks to Graham Comerford for the tip. I wonder what other ideas might apply to playing multitouch as an instrument.

More discussion on the excellent NUI forum – a great spot for alternative and gestural interaction chatter and resources:
http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/13227/

This weekend in North Adams, Massachusetts at MASS MoCA, the band Wilco is gathering their very own music and arts festival, Solid Sound. It’s become a real oasis of unique programming, musical and otherwise, and I’m pleased to be a part of it. Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen and I put together a showcase of some of the best musical builders and DIYers. We’ll be gathering this weekend and talking to all the artists, so any questions you have, we’ll have answers, wherever you are in the world, from Massachusetts to Moscow to Madeira to Macau.

Handmade Music Lounge is presented by Moog Music, who themselves build their instruments by hand in North Carolina, carrying on the legacy of Bob Moog. Dr. Moog, of course, got his start building Theremins while still a student, so we believe that the lifeblood of electronic musical invention – and a great gateway into understanding electronics, physics, math, and culture – is DIY.

Here’s the lineup — and plenty of video inspiration to get you familiar with the broad spectrum of what people are doing in electronic instrument making and invention today! Queue it up and watch…

Latest tracks by casperelectronics

Peter Edwards, casperelectronic
A brand new analog sound and light super synth from a master of circuit building and bending.

casperelectronics.com
http://soundcloud.com/casperelectronics

Todd Bailey, Where’s the Party At 2
The debut of a new open source, 8-bit sampler, in the spirit of lo-fi samplers employed in early hip hop.
http://blog.narrat1ve.com/

Peter Kirn, MeeBlip and createdigitalmusic.com
A hackable, affordable, open source synthesizer with MIDI anyone can use, backed by a growing community of hundreds of synthesists, new and expert.
meeblip.com

Jeff Snyder, Snyderphonics
Sophisticated multi-touch homebrewed instruments for futuristic Bluegrass music and alternative tunings.
snyderphonics.com

Brian and Leon Dewan, Dewanatron
Part sculpture, part solid-state instruments, original analog creations. Recently featured by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in the Social Network soundtrack.

dewanatron.com

See also:
DIY Wizards Build Otherworldly Synths for Trent Reznor: Video [Motherboard; video, top]
The New Yorker
hereandnow.wbur.org
Autocratic.com interview

Travis Thatcher, Voice of Saturn
Original synthesizers and sound and performance control creations, as produced for a variety of music including Animal Collective.
recompas.com
voiceofsaturn.blogspot.com

Christopher Kucinski and Owen Osborn, Critter and Guitari
From pocket pianos to video synthesizers, new electronic designs are portable works of art.

Ranjit Bhatnagar
Among other creations — the 8-bit violin is an acoustic violin for a digital age, cut from plywood by a laser-cutter but playable as a conventional violin.

And now we hear Ranjit is bringing an instrument packed by JELL-O

Lara Grant, Felted Signal Processing
Felted Signal Processing is an arts and research project focused on soft interface design and sensor development (fsp.fm)

fsp.fm
lara-grant.com

Josh Silverman, Synplode
Synplode is an interactive, rhythmic dance floor pulsing with light and sound.
prettyextreme.com

Brendan Gaffney, Burnheart Synthesizers
Crafted in wood and electronics, Casper Electronics collaborator Brendan makes wonderful synths, modulars, and effects.

burnheartsynth.com

…and our hosts, Moog Music, are showing off a prototype

The Handmade Music Lounge is made possible with support from Moog.

Chief Engineer Cyril Lance is coming to the Handmade Music Lounge to talk with our other makers about the craft of designing musical instruments. And he’s bringing along the latest Moogerfooger, the Cluster Flux. That means CDM will also get a unique first hands-on with the instrument’s prototype during its first venture out into the wild. Previously:
Moogerfooger Cluster Flux: Flanger + Chorus + Vibrato + LFO; Pricing and Availability Details

I’m actually really pleased that readers did ask some tough questions about the new Moogerfooger in comments on that story, and I’ll make sure we get those questions addressed directly to the engineer. Talking to the actual engineer and not just going through the filter of marketing is really important to me.

If you’ve got more – particularly those from an engineering perspective – let us know.

I’m also excited to mix and mingle someone working with a major-name maker and some of the folks on the DIY side of things.

You know where to find them:
moogmusic.com

Alternative key layouts have popped up in commercial hardware and now iPad apps and such, but there’s nothing like trying to build something to grasp how it works. An intrepid group of makers who call themselves Louisville Soundbuilders are working now to clone the C-Thru Music AXiS-64. The goal: their own, original instrument that uses the isomorphic array of keys the AXiS does, which by organizing notes by harmonic interval makes complex melodies and harmonies much simpler than on traditional fretted instruments and keyboards.

You can see results in the video. (It doesn’t make sound until the very end. This is how instrument building goes — dedicate months to build, then months more to practice!) The discussion of how it’s made is especially interesting, and offers some tips to people who are building entirely different devices – check out what they learned about switches and velocity sensing. See the forum:
Soundbuilders Discussion

Thanks, Nick Sturtzel, for sharing your work.

And that really brings us to the value of cloning.

To me, the presence of these DIY boards shouldn’t detract from the value of C-Thru’s product. C-Thru’s gear is superb, and clearly, a lot of their market wants a pre-built project and not a few months in a local hacklab. In fact, clones could add value rather than subtract: by putting these instruments in the hands of people who can’t afford the C-Thru, the project helps evangelize isomorphic layouts. The real challenge for clever key layouts has been that their use is so limited, which means you never get a chance to build a scene and a practice around their musical application. Lastly, as the exploration of switches and velocity shows, building a clone of something else and getting involved in how something is made can yield entirely new designs – especially since this is a group of hacker musicians, not a factory making knock-offs.

I’ll be interested to see how this goes … and now I’m curious to build something like this.

Bonus points to this group for being from my hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. (I was born and raised, before moving to New York. If I ever move to Baltimore, I’ll have the Triple Crown.) For the correct pronunciation, think not how the French who settled it would speak, but instead imagine stuffing a pile of these keys in your mouth, and try to say “Louisville.”

In fact, that “lvl1.org” domain isn’t really even some hacker thing. “lvl” is probably the proper way to spell what people in Kentuckiana actually say. Hope I get to come visit folks in Louisville soon; it’s always good to come home.

Moving beyond touching a screen as two-dimensional plane, Roger Linn’s concept music controller, the Linnstrument, adds tactile response and expression. Roger calls it “3D Note Expression,” but in lay terms, it means pushing harder on the controller makes it respond differently, as you’d expect from a physical instrument.

Roger this week posts an update on how his development is going and what he imagines – good timing, as this week we also saw another design on the same lines, the Soundplane. The sensing methods are different, enough so that I can easily see room for both, but the upshot is the same. Randy Jones in that story also reflects that, once these things are invented, what will really be essential is musicians to play the things and develop lots of interesting software that can use the controllers. See, previously:

A Glimpse of the Soundplane Controller, Innovative Tactile Multi-Touch, in the Lab; Call to Action

The major change in Roger’s latest update, apart from adjusting the form factor to something longer and more spacious, is the addition of different overlays, including traditional keyboard “manuals,” fret-style grids, and honeycomb-patterns hexagonal grids like the one at top.

It isn’t just a blank slate any more – certainly not in Roger’s mind, at least. Linn, a guitarist by training, has an extensive schema worked out for a grid that would function like the frets on a guitar neck. Movements in any direction can make an adjustment, impacting timbre (perpendicular to the front edge), pitch bends (parallel to that edge), and loudness (pressure).

It’s still all concept, with one working prototype; Roger’s professed style is to work in big-picture concepts. But I’d love to see some of these ideas reach fruition.

I’m still hopeful that a simple, inexpensive, open source option could evolve from this landscape. I hope for that not necessarily even because of a philosophical belief in open source so much as the sense that such an open field could lend itself to experimentation by, say, the people who read this site, not only in creating software but building the instruments. In the case of Roger’s design, unlike the more novel approach used by Randy, patent questions are less of an issue. And a community of people experimenting in such a way could simultaneously yield software that could be compatible with the proprietary and commercial projects.

Lots more ideas and reflections – including detailed notions of how you’d play this thing – on Roger’s site:
Preview: LinnStrument – A New Musical Instrument with 3D Note Expression

And here’s a new video, entitled, cheerily, “Gloomy Sunday” (the music of Rezső Seress):

For review, Roger’s original demo video:

Is there anything genuinely new in digital instruments? Isn’t it just a load of repeated novelty, without the ability to actually make useful musical noises? Hasn’t the technology just gotten in the way of the music? Isn’t … (sigh) .. all you see … all you get … (repeat ad infinitum)

Even among technologist futurists, skepticism about the iterative process of new digital design runs rampant. But if you yearn for a bit more optimism, here are four strong counter-examples, projects that, building upon previous research, begin to reach a level of maturity and expressivity that could inspire. They’re inventions that you might want to pick up and spend time learning, play into late evenings for the joy of the challenge of them, creations with which you’d build a relationship. They’re not alone, but you can catch all four in the Bay Area starting today through this weekend, and I hope that they help kick-start a new conversation about what instruments can be. In place of the novelty of new invention, they might just start to raise questions about what could really last.

None other than our friend Roger Linn, creator of the LinnDrum, MPC, and new designs, is hosting the event. Geert Bevin of Eigenlabs fills CDM in on the details, and has some reflections on what’s special about these four examples:

One thing that makes these instruments so uniquely expressive is their ability to sense the precise movements of each finger in 3-dimensional space (for example, pressure for note expression, left/right for pitch, and forward/backward for timbre), and to do that for all fingers simultaneously. But each instrument also presents many other innovative ideas and improvements over the limitations of traditional mechanical-age instruments.

The instruments:

The Eigenharp, demonstrated by Geert Bevin, Senior Software Developer from UK-based Eigenlabs.
http://www.eigenlabs.com

The Continuum from Haken Audio, demonstrated by Bay Area pianist Ed Goldfarb.
http://www.hakenaudio.com

SLABS, a new instrument designed by David Wessel, director of Cal Berkeley’s CNMAT computer music department.

SLABS: Arrays of Pressure Sensitive Touch Pads

The LinnStrument prototype by Roger Linn.

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/linnstrument

If You’re Going to (Be Near) San Francisco…

Live event details, from Geert – if you make it and can help document for CDM, we’d be hugely grateful (hello from, for the moment, Montreal)

Here are the events:

Thursday, May 5 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Audio (CCRMA)
660 Lomita Dr. Stanford, CA 94305
Directions: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions
At this event, the Eigenharp, Continuum and LinnStrument will be demonstrated and discussed.

Friday, May 6 from 7 to 9 p.m.
University of California Berkeley’s Center For New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
1750 Arch Street, Berkeley, CA 94709

http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/

At this event, the Eigenharp. SLABS and LinnStrument will be demonstrated and discussed.

Saturday, May 7 from 2 to 4 p.m.
Guitar Center San Francisco, Pro Audio Department
1645 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109
At this event, the Eigenharp and LinnStrument will be demonstrated and discussed.

Monday, May 9 from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m.
SF Music Tech Conference
Hotel Kabuki, 1625 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
At this event, the Eigenharp, Continuum and LinnStrument will be demonstrated and discussed.
Note: Conference entry fee is required–see www.sfmusictech.com

Please join us to see, learn about ~ and even try out for yourself ~ these radical new instruments that are changing the way music is made.

Please note that these instruments are not otherwise available in the bay area to see or try out.

Additional events might still be added, keep an eye on http://eigenzone.org/events

Enjoy if you make it. Aside from these four, what new instruments would make your short list?

Nearly as long as we’ve had electronics, musical inventors have tried to imagine new electronic instruments. In the crowded world of new instrument design, the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition has emerged as a key prize for the best work, with creations battling fiercely for attention.

But in the oddball world of sound and music, how do you judge a winner? As a starting point, organizers this year asked the judges what they personally found important. With an expert panel including synth pioneer Tom Oberheim and reacTable creator Sergi Jorda, those answers are themselves revealing.

As for the competitors themselves, even with eclectic entrants, one theme stands out. Human gesture and performance presence is a strong dimension of the winners. And in perhaps the most promising first-prize winner yet, research begins to crack the code of how to make real gestural analysis work, even allowing everyday objects to become musical instruments.

To help us learn more, Competition founder and Georgia Tech Music Technology director Gil Weinberg grants CDM a window into the philosophy of some of these leading technologists, and introduces us to this year’s winners.

The Winners

First Prize: MO, Interlude Consortium. Everyday objects become novel gestural interfaces.

From the project site:

The MO tangible interfaces are a series modules to capture various gestures, from motion to touch. The central module MO contains motion sensors (3D accelerometers and 3axis gyroscopes) and transmits the data wirelessly. Moreover, two accesorries, i.e. other sensors can be added to both side of MO.

Second Prize: MindBox Media Slot Machine, Humatic Berlin. A vintage slot machine is transformed into a compositional interface.

Personnel:

Christian Graupner , Humatic
….media artist, director, composer

Roberto Zappalà
… performer, choreographer

Norbert Schnell, IRCAM — Centre Pompidou
… interactive music & sound design

Nils Peters, Humatic
…system developer and software artist.

Third Prize: Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee, Leon Gruenbaum. It began as an ergonomic computer keyboard, but years of layered work on relative pitch makes it an instrument – a bit like a macro keyboard for composition.

Honorable Mention: Hexenkessel, Jacob Sello. A conventional acoustic timpani is both projection surface and multi-touch input.

From the creator’s description on the video:

The Hexenkessel is a modded 22″ timpani using LLP multitouch technology for control of live-electronics & dmx-light. the realisation of the instrument involves a modified led-projector, webcam and IR-Lasers. the programming is done entirely using max/MSP/Jitter + CCV. The instrument-hack is non-destructive and costs less than 300$.The instrument is intended for the use in multimedial stage performances and innovative concepts of new music.

Pioneering Judges Offer Their Philosophies

A musical instrument design may seem like subjectivity atop more subjectivity, a meeting of the aesthetic of the object with personal musical expression. Judges were asked, therefore, to describe the philosophy they brought to the contest. The reason, explains organizer Weinberg: “To steer it away from general statements – this is the better instrument than this – to make it more personal, about the judge’s opinion and artistic manifesto and instrumental manifesto.”

Tom Oberheim, the man who created the first polyphonic synth product, responded:

The first thing that I look for in a new musical instrument is its musicality. This means where appropriate: does is sound good, is it playable, does it add to the music making language. Then I consider if the device has some sort of universality; in other words, can it be used by a variety of musicians from different backgrounds. Finally, I consider the ease with which the device can be learned.

Sergi Jorda, creator of the reacTable tangible interface:

The ultimate goal for any new instrument could arguably be the potential to create a new kind of music. In that sense, baroque music cannot be imagined without the advances of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century luthiers, rock could not exist without the electric guitar, and jazz or hip-hop, without the redefinitions of the saxophone and the turntable. Yet, this extremely ambitious objective is often beyond the reach of its creator (eighty years separate Adolphe Sax from Coleman Hawkins, and no less than thirty go by between Les Paul and Jimi Hendrix). Being a bit more pragmatic, as a performer, my goal when constructing the instruments I will play is clear. I need instruments that are enjoyable to play and that mutually enhance the experience when playing with other musicians. Thereby allowing me to create or co-create music that will surprise me as much as possible, that will keep revealing little hidden secrets at every new performance. Music not necessarily better, nor worse, than a piece that I could compose in a studio, but music, in essence, that could not have been created in any other possible way. As a ‘professional’ luthier, I need to take some additional considerations into account, but the overall goals do not change: my aim is to create instruments which people can enjoy playing; instruments that will be able to enrich and mature the performers’ experiences in any imaginable way; instruments that allow scope for the performer (particularly in the case of a non-expert user) to be proud of the music created. In order to survive in the extremely demanding instrumental ecosystem, any new instrument should clearly excel in something. It should either be able to do one thing that no other instrument could or, at least it should do it better (whatever this can be and whatever “better” may mean). My last advice would be that when envisaging new instruments one should not only concentrate on the instruments’ sonic capabilities, on their algorithmic power or on the amount of sensors used. One should also be especially careful about the instruments’ conceptual capabilities, and consider how new instruments impose or suggest new ways of thinking to the player, as well as new ways of establishing relationships, new ways of interacting, new ways of organizing time and textures; new ways of playing, in short.

Jason Freeman, a composer, technologist, and Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech:

For me, new musical instruments are significant for their potential to transform our experiences with music. They may enable us to create new acoustic or electronic sounds not previously possible. They may encourage us to think about musical content, structure, and hierarchy in unusual ways. They may suggest new methods of musical collaboration, performance, or education. And they may make musical creativity more accessible to everyone. I am interested in instrument makers who have thought deeply about their work from technical, musical, and design perspectives to create musical instruments that transcend novelty to suggest new paradigms for musical creativity.

A Chat with the Organizer

Now in its third year, the Guthman competition has become a coveted award. As a result, says organizer Weinberg, who is director of the hosting Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, quality and quantity were up in entrants. And, he says, he feels that entrants have transcended some of the typical designs in the field.

“New interfaces for many [means], let’s think about an object that we didn’t use before, and some kind of gesture, stick on some sensors, make some music … But I think the winners of our competition were outside of this realm, really innovative, completely new approaches for playing music,” he says.

On the prize-winning MO tangible interface:

In a section of the performance, they took a ball – a soccer ball – and did some [musical] gestures with it, threw it … moved it … on the hands, on the floor. Each one of these gestures was recorded with the gesture recognition. And then they actually threw the ball to the audience. The audience members started to throw the ball back and forth. If you threw it in a particular way, it made a particular sound — and everything’s wireless, completely — if you threw it back and forth in a different way, it made a different sound. It was really fun; people threw the ball at each other, threw the ball back at the stage. And all made music that was pretty cool to listen to.

Basically, the instrument becomes an intelligent entity. It can sense similar but different gestures and create something smart and relevant musically.

On the slot machine:

The gesture is mostly visual — the intelligence here is of the human performer. He makes his own gestures, accompanied by sounds. And it allows you to manipulate and change [the sound] — and get some surprises, because it is a slot machine, after all.

You can play, explore it. He was able to very expressively pet and touch and click and manipulate the slot machine to create some very nice — not only musical outcomes, but visual outcomes. In some cases, this guy is lying in the sea and making gestures in the sea. Sometimes he’s hanging stuff on the walls, and making sounds with his mouth. Sometimes it’s basic stuff that you can manipulate in real time, with a pretty unique interface — it’s not a monome, it’s a slot machine. It surprises you.

On the Samchillian:

Some instruments – controllers – have this short or sometimes long learning curve, but once you get to a certain point, you know it, and that’s what it can do. And you cannot get better at it. I think the Samchillian is really an instrument with a learning curve that’s very long, and just like other acoustic instruments, violin, piano, there’s a wide range of [technique]. And this guy was really a virtuoso with this instrument. He was able to play chords, all kinds of arpeggiators.

What I liked about it is it’s an instrument more than a controller. There’s always more to learn about how to become better with it. And I think that’s valuable.

Notably, Weinberg has no illusions about the challenge of making new instruments. It’s no accident that the winners were typically the result of years of development and evolution. “I don’t think any of the great instruments were invented in months,” says Weinberg. “It’s a lot of iteration, a lot of building… only a few are good enough to stick.”

And perhaps the great electronic instrument, while getting nearer, hasn’t yet been created. Weinberg says one example of a new instrument design that doesn’t work particularly well is the legendary Theremin – it’s beautiful in the hands of only a couple of artists, but generally a design that stumps musicians and is hard to play.

Looking at the winners this year, though, there are ideas on which new work can be built, not just impressive one-off instruments but real research into handling pitch and gesture. That, at least, should present a bright future. But with the competition heating up, aspiring engineers may want to get started on those designs now.

Thoughts? Questions about the work? Let us know.

More on the MO tangible interfaces from the IRCAM-based Interlude:
MO Interfaces

That work isn’t yet available for download, but an “augmented score viewer” is.

When it comes to playing a hand-built Fence Bass and recording it live, there aren’t hard and fast rules or techniques you have to follow. But musician, composer, and sound designer Diego Stocco can certainly make the mysterious timbres of his exotic instruments into evocative atmospheres. In “Dustland,” the performance and effects are all recorded live – no edits after the fact, no layering — and the results could take you to another world, planetary or psychological.

To make all the real-time performance work, Diego combined his Fence Bass with a Keith McMillen SoftStep for expressive live foot control and Ableton Live. I asked for a bit more detail.

First, I definitely want to hear about the Fence Bass. How did you build this thing? Given that it’s your own invention, did it require any special practice or technique?

I built the Fence Bass when the guys from the show Sound Builders came to visit me. They asked me if I could build something brand new on the spot, and I thought, “why not?”
After that occasion, I didn’t have a chance to continue exploring what I could do with the Fence Bass, but just a few days ago, I asked myself, “is there a way I can create a cinematic piece with one instrument in real-time?” So I started working on “Dustland” to figure out how to do it!

Below: the instrument’s creation, as featured on Motherboard.tv:

I didn’t really take the time to practice anything in particular with the Fence Bass. Actually, I think that was a good approach, anyway, because the nature of this instrument is to produce edgy and aggressive sounds and effects, not clearly-defined bass lines. I like exploring an instrument with a naive approach, without thinking too much if there’s an appropriate technique or not.

Finding the right foot controller has long been a challenge for artists. What was the experience like working with the SoftStep? I like the idea of having something that can also provide expression, not just stomp switches, but I’m curious to know if it held up in use.

I had a carpet under my feet, so it was stable even when I was stomping on it. You can tell from the video that I wasn’t going easy with it!

I found it a very interesting piece of gear, I liked the fact that for each Key I could program details like vertical range, sensitivity to pressure and response speed.

Also, I needed to set a certain range for each key. For example, one of the tonal feedback needed to stay around -23 dB in order to sound good in the mix, and the cutoff of the filter needed to move from 1KHz to 9KHz maximum (the one on the distorted channel). I could easily do that by limiting the min and max MIDI value expressed by the key.

The little display on the SoftStep is very useful, too, because I could watch the value without having to check the laptop screen. That, along with the programmable LED colors, helped me remember what I was controlling.

How did you prepare your Ableton Live set so that this did all work live and real-time?

To start with, I split the input signal into two tracks — one dedicated for the processing of low frequencies and the other for the highs.

For this project, I used only one microphone through the Apogee One [audio interface]. The idea was to have more distortion when I was playing the first and second strings, and more tonal feedback and delays on the third and fourth strings. Then I created eight Return tracks, each one processing the sound in a specific way. For example, I had four different Beat Repeat [Ableton effect Devices] that feed into each other to create this sequences of beats that could continue as long as I wanted, activated independently from different keys of the SoftStep.

One channel was the [Ableton Device] Saturator, where I was controlling the input signal and the cutoff, so I could go from a fat, filtered sound to a growling, distorted one.

The SoftStep was the right tool for this project because I couldn’t use my hands to control a fader. But because the SoftStep recognizes vertical, horizontal, and pressure movements, I was pushing the tip of my feet down to open the filter and increase the input signal.

Thanks, Diego. You can hear the results – conceived as if for an imagined “modern Western film” and purchase them or see more images and description of the process:

Listen or name your price on Basecamp

Listen to this and other tracks on SoundCloud

Gallery, description on Diego’s Behance portfolio