The guitar thing is a midi controller using a guitar form factor as a base. The neck buttons trigger the notes and are arranged like the top three strings of a guitar with an additional button on the top end for the open note. The throttle on the neck controls mod wheel, and whatever else. It works on two axes, the vertical movement controls filter and mod wheel or whatever else. The horizontal throttle bar (like on a motorcycle) rotates and control other effects as needed. Volume, sweep eq and mute are located in the same place and using the same controls as on a guitar. Other controls are located in different places on the guitar. For instance there are two pots on the head where the tuning pegs are located that control pitch shift for noise based sounds. So when I pitch them down the visual effect is of tuning down a string. There are also buttons for presets.
This is also an attempt to make the performance more engaging for the audience since its difficult to tell what someone is playing with an electronic instrument. On the neck is a bank of 3×6 LEDs each lights up when a note is played. On the body is a matrix of 5×5 leds a horizontal line moves up and down following the throttle. There is also a button under my thumb that moves the midi note data up an octave, (particularly effective with arpeggiations) when that is engaged the matrix overlays an up arrow.
The whole thing is built using https://shanteacontrols.com/ opendeck platform and Ableton Live. I am looking into making it stand alone using a setup in Ios but this is currently the most practical setup.
Please note that the photo attached is the most recent iteration where as the video is from a few months ago. I have used it live and since adjusted the layout based on that experience. There is no difference in function.
Is it attractive? If you’re into cyberpunk probably but otherwise not really.
Does it do exactly what it needs to do? Yes.
It’s also built like a tank for touring.
How is it innovative? As far as I know no one has made anything similar. From a tech standpoint it’s not doing anything that couldn’t be done a million other ways. From a playing and telegraphing that performance to the audience I think it accomplishes it’s goal.
It’s also modular so each subsystem can be swapped out and replaced as needed.
