We love the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition!
Last year the three winners of the Guthman were all MIDI controllers and we interviewed them in one of our our May Is MIDI 2019 webinars.
May Is MIDI Month 2019 Webinar: Guthman Musical Instrument Design –
This year because of the CoVid situation the competition is being done remotely and you get to vote on who the winners are. There is still a panel of judges and one of them is the godfather of MIDI , Dave Smith.
There are also not only a number of MIDI controllers among the finalists, but even a number of MIDI Association corporate members.
Here is some information and links to the 2021 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Finalists page.
Orba by Artiphon
Orba is a $99 portable synth, looper, and wireless MPE MIDI controller. We designed it to be played with intuitive techniques that are inviting for kids, hobbyists, and pros alike. Orba has ten core gestures: Tap, Press, Spin, Radiate, Tilt, Shake, Slide, Vibrato, Move, and Bump. Orba builds on Artiphon’s framework of the multi-instrument: a single instrument that can be played as many.
The Sylphyo by Aodyo Instruments
The Sylphyo is an electronic wind instrument that reproduces the feeling of an acoustic wind instrument. Like them, it is played by blowing into a mouthpiece and selecting notes using keys on the front of the instrument. However, unlike other wind instruments, the Sylphyo is also sensitive to your movements, as well as the way you touch it, offering novel expressive possibilities.
du-touch-s by Dualo
The Sylphyo is an electronic wind instrument that reproduces the feeling of an acoustic wind instrument. Like them, it is played by blowing into a mouthpiece and selecting notes using keys on the front of the instrument. However, unlike other wind instruments, the Sylphyo is also sensitive to your movements, as well as the way you touch it, offering novel expressive possibilities.
ELECTROMAGNETIC PIANO by Monica Lim
This is an attachment to an acoustic piano that uses magnets to resonate the piano strings. It allows the strings to sustain indefinitely, providing an alternative to the way acoustic pianos have been played and sound for centuries. The piano can also be played in the normal manner, allowing a rich mixture of percussive and sustained texture. Each string has a corresponding magnet tuned to its specific frequency, giving an ethereal, organ-like sound. The midi-triggered magnets come in a portable, easy to set-up format that can be used on any grand piano.
MIDIS by OWOW
The MIDIS 2.0 is a product line of four different MIDI instruments. The MIDIS 2.0 are created to make digital music with human passion and intuition. It is our aim to bring that human touch back to digital music productions and give users the feeling that they are playing an instrument instead of a VST plugin with their mouse and keyboard.
The Striso board
The Striso board is an expressive instrument which combines multidimensionally sensitive buttons with an innovative note layout that helps understand the structures in music. The buttons capture each subtle finger movement, which allows for levels of musical expression previously only known to acoustic instruments. Additionally, accents and sound effects can be added by shaking and moving the instrument as a whole.
To see all the 2021 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Finalists and vote, click on the image below.
