Electronic music still hasn't found anything near an ideal mode of performance -- this guy's guitar may provide a glimpse into how that can be achieved. Imagine a dionysian Jimmy Page up on stage, orchestrating a wall full of synth processors on this light-saber of an instrument. Much more compelling than the DJ-style performer stuck behind a control console.
This is far from state of the art for electronic music controllers; really it looks like a toy. Synthesizer controllers / triggers that look like normal instruments have been around (and used in performance) for 50+ years. And then there are things like the theramin, which came out in 1928, which is a physical synth controller.
What's great about his axe isn't that it looks like a normal instrument -- it's the way it maps touchscreen interfacing to the guitar form. I'm an electronic musician too and have seen plenty of history and modern experimentation; something that takes his touchscreen-guitar idea to the next level (full touchscreen neck?) has much more expressive potential than a normal guitar with a MIDI-transcribing pickup.
Plus it doesn't throw away one of the biggest lessons of rock: people will scream for a guy with a guitar in a way that they won't for someone behind a piano (or god forbid, a theremin).
The most common instance is of course in keyboards, which seems somewhat natural since it's an interface that was an abstraction far before the digital age -- having been used to such disparate instruments as pianos and pipe organs.
For stringed instruments, what's been common for some time is MIDI pickups on either guitars or (less frequently) on basses. Then they can either be used to drive a synth or you can take the normal analog out.
MIDI drum pads or MIDI triggers on acoustic drums are also common.
I think much of the appeal for musicians with many years of playing behind them is that they don't have to master a new interface for music input. I've played bass for 15 years; I can do a lot of phrasing intuitively that's much more tedious to enter by hand into a sequencer or to play on an electronic-specialized instrument that I don't have mastery of. Granted, I don't actually have a MIDI bass pickup, but I've been tempted.
In Squarepusher's music, for example, you can often hear in his synth lines that they were played on an electric bass (which he's exceptional at) because the phrasing is much more idiomatic to an electric bass than to a keyboard.
I don't actually have a MIDI bass pickup, but I've been tempted.
Do it. I'm a crap bassist but I run the audio output into a Nord Modular and use pitch analysis to generate MIDI that goes to the drum machine (or whatever), and it's great for coming up with things I wouldn't necessarily do on the keyboard. If you're good at bass you'll get that much more out of it with per-string control.
I'm very interested in the state of audio -> MIDI... right now I'm using Max/MSP (the fiddle~ object) for pitch analysis, but it leaves a lot to be desired.
Eventide makes some great pitch related tools and the PitchFactor stomp box seems to be much more quick and accurate than anything else out there... unfortunately it doesn't have MIDI out, AFAIK.
How quick and accurate is the Nord Modular for pitch analysis?
Well, it's pretty good, though as wheels says, no real time pitch-detection algorithm can do much of a job with chords. Since bass is most often played monophonically, it does OK; then again I'm not a fast player to begin with.
I use a configuration of modules that implements a (very crude) averaging algorithm to smooth away the tiny pitch quirks from the way I slide or hit the strings, and then a note selector module to confine the output to semitone intervals, for when I want to control a different module or produce a completely different sound.
On the other hand, if I want to play a melody and have it sound bassy to begin with (with the kind of pitch inconsistencies from slapping or pulling the strings) the sky's the limit. It's also fun to set the synth doing its own thing and then use the notes to modulate filters or suchlike.
But MIDI pickup is still the route to go if accuracy really matters to you. Everything I record is done with the assumption that I'm going to edit it later. The 'midi guitar' thing cited in OP would probably do a superior job, but I really don't like the ergonomics of it. Another option is to hit eBay in search of a Casio DG-20, an appallingly ugly MIDI guitar from the 1980s that nevertheless has an outstanding midi implementation, or a Yamaha EZ-AG, which sells for $2-300 and has buttons on the frets but real strings on the 'soundboard' and is designed for students. They also made a MIDI trumpet if you can find it.
The synth stomp boxes in general work pretty well so long as there's only a single fundamental (note) that has to be picked up, but they don't do well with chording.
The advantage of the on-board pickups is of course having one pickup per string, but also that they're designed with a specific signal profile in mind (i.e. how far those pickups will be from the strings) and with the dynamics of that instrument involved (i.e. the difference between picking up a signal in an electric bass vs. a flute).
Check out Squarepusher, who has been doing this for years, but using an actual bass guitar with MIDIfied pickups to drive the stack of synths (in addition to being a sound source in its own right). Or if you want total eye candy, Jean Michelle-Jarre likes to control a wall of synths with a laser harp.
That said, I have no problem with keyboardists or knob-twiddling...perhaps because I'm not especially moved by stage theatrics or arena-size performance.
Interesting historical note: it was someone much further from electronica that originally popularized MIDI bass: Phil Lesh, of The Grateful Dead, while Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) was still a kid.
Some say that Tom learned his trade from Richard and then became the true electronic music master. I love how he incorporates bass into electronic music. Just excellent.
You'll be interested in the JazzMutant Lemur - a touchscreen MIDI controller for live DJ performances. Some well known DJ's like Deadmau5 use it - that's how I first heard about it. Check it out at http://www.jazzmutant.com
It reminds me of a dirty hack I made with a gtk guitar tuner.
It's called fretboard and it's supposed to let you use your guitar as an input device under linux.
They are clearly in the same genre of "MIDI controller in a guitar body". But I wouldn't call it a rip off. The MISA is touch-screen based while the Ztars include many different kinds of controllers.
From the looks of it, I think the MISA would make quite an interesting addition to a stage show.
But, then again I suppose this is the same problem we have always had, and always will have- computers vs. art and creativity.
This is a false dilemma; computers and technology enable true producers and artists to do more amazing things. The poseurs will get wrapped up the technology and try to use it to paper over their lack of creativity, but the real artists will find a way to harness it. Look at Pixar.
I agree with you but I do sympathise with one creative dilemma I've run into over and over again with digital music.
The number of options you have is overwhelming. On a certain level I appreciate the number of options I'm afforded. On the other hand I feel like 'tweaking this' and 'changing that' takes a front seat, and the actual production of something worthwhile gets left behind.
Take a look at all of the overproduced albums you hear these days. It's not digital music's fault-- but it's a common problem.
> It'd be SO easy to fake even ridiculously complex performances
Given the number of full playback performances that are already happening, I don't suppose the faking could get any worse. "Real" musicians will never fake a performance others in the industry will use all means available to them to fake their way to fame and fortune. Both ends of this spectrum are targeting different audiences though.
I recall seeing Jethro Tull back on their Under Wraps tour. I don't recall which song, but one of the tracks from that record features a repeating synth riff. The keyboardist (a hired gun) actually made a bit of a show with this, if you had your eye on him. He recorded the riff into his sequencer in realtime (which I guess should count as "real" rather than "fake") and then stood back and held up his hands as if to say "Look, Ma, no hands".
