Simply draw and morph paths to precisely describe any imaginably intricate pitch, volume and modulation.
Expressive notes — notes with fluid pitch, evolving volume and continuous modulation — have always demanded years of physical technique. Gimbal removes that barrier by replacing the keyboard with a purely mathematical, vector based note input: the musician simply draws a note’s path across pitch, volume and modulation grids, and Gimbal describes it precisely, at any resolution, as vector math rather than as a recorded gesture.
So anyone can articulate a complex note on the first try!
Gimbal is now moving from standalone prototype to a plug-in that runs inside a DAW, where musicians already work and where thousands of instruments are already installed. The current build runs on the iPad inside Logic Pro with the Pitch, Volume and Modulation grids in place. Two milestones are done: synchronizing Gimbal’s grids to the host timeline, and — the harder problem — getting Gimbal’s mathematical notes to drive the host’s own instruments rather than a handful of samples inside a prototype. As a plug-in Gimbal is unusual on three counts: it is a note input rather than an instrument or an effect, it carries its own timeline, and its notes are resolution-independent mathematical descriptions.
MIDI 2.0 is what makes the approach fully realizable. Upcoming support in DAWs for Per Not Controllers will soon let synth parameters map themselves onto Gimbal’s grids, so a player draws and tweaks without hunting through menus. And importantly: MIDI 2.0 raises controller resolution from 128 steps to over four billion, and Gimbal’s notes — being resolution independent vectors — can use that full range end to end, letting a musician shape a note to the limits of what the human ear can hear.
The ecosystem’s timing matters: processing power has now moved past sample playback to fully physically modeled instruments, which are themselves mathematical and can express that whole range smoothly. What has been missing is an easy to use controller able to drive them. Gimbal is built to be that front end — MIDI 2.0 is a vast new palette of expressivity, and Gimbal is its paintbrush.
