Fascinating - here’s a demo video- completely different than guitar synths and other guitar-like triggering devices I have seen. Here’stheir website explanation:
It isn’t a guitar - but it could be its own category…
I’m curious how it would handle things like comping, palm muting, and bending.
I’d be interested to pick one up and give it a go since I should be able to play it right off the bat, but I’d likely find it a novelty since I can’t see where all of the subtle techniques of timing and finger placement and bending and such would come into play that make the difference between this and a real guitar. It looks like a Rock Band guitar on steroids.
There ya go - I guess that’s my point in stating that it is not a guitar, per se: none of that seems possible, or even the intent of the instrument. You appear to be able to do “non-traditional” triggering maneuvers on the touchpad where the strings would normally be - so, in addition to appear to pluck or strum strings, you can drag your fingertips like you are on a touchpad - but that’s not an attempt to mimic the touch dynamics of a real guitar…
After watching a video like this, where he hitting buttons in the string area that don’t actually correspond with stings, I’m tempted to call it a synth that just happens to be in the shape of a guitar. (Speaking as a non-musician in every sense of the word) ISTM if that was set up differently, say, flat like a keyboard (does that make sense), you probably wouldn’t think as much of it.
The one benefit that I could see from it though, if it allows it, would be immediate alternate tunings. People like Joni Mitchell or David Wilcox* could definitely benefit in concert with it.
*I mean, look at this tuning:
7) Top of the Roller Coaster (Eb-A-C#-E-A-B, capo 4th fret strings 1-5, 6 open)
OR worse:
- Someday Soon (G-C-G-A-C-G. Wilcox calls this “stage-two tuning,” where the tunings get so weird that you can’t use regular strings. The sixth string is a double- wound bass string that is so big he had to drill out the hole in the tuning peg and at the saddle. He tunes it to a low G, one octave lower than the lowest G on a standard-tuned guitar. He puts a regular sixth string in the fifth string slot to tune it down to C and replaces the regular first string with an electric guitar string in order to tune up to a high G.)
But for some reason I thought Joni Mitchell has a computer that can translate her fingerings magically into the other tunings.
I’m not a Luddite and I don’t have anything against it, but it really looks to me like (as Cluricaun mentioned) they just made a much more technically sophisticated and expensive Guitar Hero guitar. Art imitating Art imitating Life, or something like that… :).
I’d definitely like to take it for a test spin, though.
Seems you’d have to look at where your right hand was on the screen all the time. I wouldn’t like not being able to feel the strings with my right hand. If they put fake strings there that triggered the notes that might work.
It sounds nasty on the demo too.
Also, it looks like the back of your right hand would be very sore after not long. ISTM it would be a lot more comfortable if the touchpad was raised up about 3/8 of an inch and your thumb could rest on the body.
ETA I guess that would be kind of like a guitar come to think of it.
Well it would still be quite revolutionary to have keys all over the fretboard, but you triggered them with strings rather than a gimmicky screen. I’d quite like that - particularly if it helped with instant retuning, and despite the lack of being able to bend notes etc.
The problem with strings (or buttons) is that they are finite whereas a touchpad is more or less infinite.
Am I missing something? In the YouTube video it looked like there were fake strings projected onto the touchpad, and touching one triggers the note. Is there something else the touchpad can do?
There’s a bit where the player drags his finger around on the touchpad and no strings are represented…
Check out my link from post 5. Other then this instrument being in the general shape of a guitar, it bares little resemblance. As I said before, it’s a synth that looks like a guitar.
Here’s another example. Also, even if you wanted to relate that to ‘strumming’ there’s some are times where they are both ‘strumming’ as well as ‘picking’ in spots outside of where the strings are. I’m not sure how that would map back to a guitar or even the on board fretboard.
Isn’t it more like a MIDI controller shaped like a guitar?
I was going to bring up the Rock Band Fender Mustang, yeah. It’s not the same.
I should also point out that jamming chopsticks in this will not change your sound. Guitars are analog beasts.
It’s no replacement. But it is a potentially interesting tool. Not for me. I’m not sure who for, to be honest. One of the biggest problems with the mustang is all six strings are the same size. Playing with no strings? That’d be a bitch, not just a bear.
Sounds like dodgy metal bands would have a field day with it.
Well not quite, because someone who can play guitar (such as me) but who can’t play a keyboard (such as me) could use this instrument to play. It would appeal to me more than a regular synth would.
I don’t know what to think of it. I have my doubts about the touchscreen - the lack of tactile feedback you get from strings is a drawback. On the other hand, it opens up the door to a fair amount of interesting expressiveness. In the end though it’s just a synth/MIDI controller, right?
Guitars with buttons instead of strings have been around for a while. The Yamaha EZ-Guitar, for example.
Rock Band 3 has a ‘pro’ mode that uses a MIDI guitar. I’ve got one, and it’s pretty cool - 102 buttons (17 frets with six buttons per fret), and a six-string controller box with velocity sensitivity for each string. You play it like a regular guitar, and on expert you’re playing the exact guitar part - in pro mode, Rock Band is basicaly spitting out moving tablature. You can pick up a regular electric guitar, put the game in ‘no fail’ mode, and play along with the scrolling notes through your amp and it sounds like the song. You can also plug the button-guitar controller into a MIDI synth or a MIDI port on your computer and play it as a regular instrument outside of Rock Band.
Mustang MIDI Guitar for Rock Band
If you want to play around with MIDI and you’re a guitar player, this is the cheapest way to do it, and I’d recommend trying something like this before investing thousands in the Kitara.
Fender is also coming out with a MIDI guitar for Rock Band 3. It looks like a regular Squier Strat, only the fretboard has sensors in it for determining your finger position. It’s got a regular guitar pickup and MIDI out, so you can just amp it and play it, or you can connect it to a MIDI synth, or both (amp it and play it, and send the note stream out to your MIDI recorder so you can transcribe it or modify it using MIDI tools).
Fender Squier Strat Rock Band 3 Controller
Forgetting about Rock Band for a minute, the volume these are going to be produced in is driving the price point down. The Fender Squier MIDI Strat is $279. Sure, it’s only a Squier, and it gives up one pickup for the MIDI sensor, but as a tool for playing around with MIDI, or as an instrument that you can play through an amp but use the MIDI output to trigger loops or effects, it’s pretty cool and pretty cheap.