new instruments in the 21st century
alieNDN
2,181 Posts
so the serato thread got me thinking...something that's really not discussed that often with serato/cdjs is the interface...meaning the way they're designed the way they are is to mimic/emulate/simulate the standard of two turntables (in serato's case it is exactly what it is, minus the input method)..but they go way beyond that, like say George Bush made a big idiotic speech the day before a gig, and u get that sound file and incorporate it, that would be cool...so it got me thinking like what if there was no such thing as two turntables and a mic and then one day out of nowhere aliens dropped cdjs out of the sky and you saw it for the first time...it would be beyond odd (imagining hypothetically that hip hop never existed)...so we shouldnt be weary of newer interfaces being invented/adapted...so im thinking, since we are at the point where practically anything is technologically possible, why don't we create/evolve some more digital instruments? not stuff for the sake of innovation, but for the sake of practicality. i mean to me its the same thing with sports...most of the sports played today have been around for hundreds of years, are u telling me humans can't think of something new and challenging minus the gimmicks like trampoline basketball?so what am i getting at then...well, one thing i want is something like a minature piano (remember those ones kids used to bring to school? the size of a calculator) well something like that, except it actually records what you play, so wherever you are if you have a melody in your head and have some music theory in you, you can play that riff and you got it. or something like the thumb piano but digital so its recorded.or how about this 
with embeded turntable dials. you could play live, strut side to side with the fastest fingers in town, and sample your loops while you play while reaching down and doing the orgasm face while you scratch solo, and then throw it on the ground and burn it and smash it against your marshal stax...or a guitar that has opera vocals synched to every fret note...actually i wouldnt really want to hear those things...but u see what im getting at..but in all seriousness can you think of any necessary instruments or stuff that would just be fun.. or are the basics fine as is and anything more is just bad (in a negative sense) like 4 neck guitars? one thing that i've yet to see implemented is the pioneer dvdj, where you can mix footage just like music. it sounds to good to be true, but imagine seeing the movie Juice scratched to Scratch scratched to Spinal Tap...or maybe not
with embeded turntable dials. you could play live, strut side to side with the fastest fingers in town, and sample your loops while you play while reaching down and doing the orgasm face while you scratch solo, and then throw it on the ground and burn it and smash it against your marshal stax...or a guitar that has opera vocals synched to every fret note...actually i wouldnt really want to hear those things...but u see what im getting at..but in all seriousness can you think of any necessary instruments or stuff that would just be fun.. or are the basics fine as is and anything more is just bad (in a negative sense) like 4 neck guitars? one thing that i've yet to see implemented is the pioneer dvdj, where you can mix footage just like music. it sounds to good to be true, but imagine seeing the movie Juice scratched to Scratch scratched to Spinal Tap...or maybe not
Comments
LOL
"Gimme that IPOD"
PLEASE!
who is that? she looks tappable. She looks like a 7 but the Keytar makes her at least a 9.
i believe she's the ywingie mamsteen of keytar...check the "this #$#$% chick" thread
I found it beautiful.
Are there records?
One of them is a MIDI turntable that you hook up to a synth.
The one is a sample editor that lets you chop up shit in real time
http://www.wendymae.com/carhornorgan.html
Note that there is even a raer 45:
"Artmusic, Inc. released a Car Horn Organ 45rpm in 1983"
Some of you funky percussion cats need to get on this.
from http://pencilina.com/insts.html
The pencilina is an electric board zither played primarily by striking the strings with sticks; also by plucking and bowing. Bradford first created it around 1985, and has continued to refine it. (???It just keeps developing," he says.) The basic form is of two boards mounted parallel to each other on a stand, like extended guitar necks with no bodies. Each has a bridge at either end, and tuning machines at one end. One of the necks has six guitar strings stretched across it; the other has four bass strings. Wedged over and under the strings in each neck is a stick ??? an old drum stick for the guitar strings and a metal rod for the bass strings. The sticks divide each string into two segments, one on each side, which vibrate quasi-independently and so can be played separately. The sticks can also be moved to alter the effective string lengths on either side.
There are four built-in pickups: two are contact mics mounted in the bridges at one end of each neck, and two are guitar-style electromagnetic pickups which are placed under the strings toward the opposite end. In addition, there are four bells ??? a fire bell, a door bell, and two brass telephone ringer bells ??? mounted at the end of one of the necks. The contact mics pick up the ring-ing of the bells through the wood of the instrument. They also pick up percussion anywhere else on the wooden necks, so any spot that happens to produce a nice sound is available for drumming.
The slidable stick arrangement, it turns out, is laden with odd sound possibilities. Typically the wedged stick divides each string into two separate string segments with different pitches depending on their relative lengths. But for many stick locations, there is communication across the stick, so that when one side is struck the segments on both sides contribute to the sound. The quality of this effect depends on the pitch relationship between the two strings segments and whether they share any overtones frequencies in common. All manner of strange gong-tones can arise, infinite in their variability. Other special effects occur when the player pivots or flexes the wedged sticks to change the tension on the strings as they sound. The fact that the electromagnetic pickups are movable adds yet another parameter.
The instrument, as you may guess, is completely idiosyncratic ??? and yet within its idiosyncrasy lies a world of possibilities. Bradford???s phrase is ???I haven???t hit a wall with it yet??? ??? meaning that in all the years he???s been playing, he hasn???t exhausted any facet of its potential. ???It's been my primary focus for a long time, and I???m still learning gnd trying to improve on it. I???ve grown to really like what the pencilina can do.???
Bradford currently uses a pair of shortened timbale sticks to strike the strings. But yes ??? when he first began to play the instrument, he used a pair of pencils as his strikers.
-Bart Hopkin, Orbitones, Spoon Harps and Bellowphones, Ellipsis Arts, 1998
i just remembered this site(maybe it was in my subconscious), i have no idea how these things sound, but damn they look nice;
http://cpcarts.org/kitundu/instruments.html
a similar sound is made when you hit a gong and submerge it underwater.
Bazantar clip
So I can do an epic lord of the rings soundtrack in my house.
- spidey
NEXT LEVEL FACE METLING MUZIK FOR DAT AZZ
I heard there's newer one now that also allows for voice and instrument recording. I don't use it as often as I should, but it's nice to be able to get out of the house and still work on music.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/6242/QY70/