The Misa Guitar
For the very beginning of the second rendition of this blog (I wonder how many of you actually have known the first version of this place) I'm bringing a very unique and insightful approach on the core and purpose of a string-based instrument - and very likely the most played instrument of all - the guitar.
A software engineer called Michael decided to reinvent the guitar, with the sole purpose of achieving true note-by-note control. In fact, he is right: there were no practical solutions to allow players to assign specific effects to one, and just one, of the strings on the instrument, and the workarounds were less than good. Quoting the developer of such mythological beast:
If you strum hard on guitar with strings, you play a loud note. If you strum softly, you play a soft note. Whereas on the digital guitar, if you tap on the left side of the screen you play a note with an effect parameter knob turned more to the left and if you tap to the right side of the screen the note is played with the knob turned to the right. Similarly with the top and bottom of the screen. Since there are two axis' (X/Y) you can actually control two parameters at once.
Sure, you have to be a bit open-minded to swallow a concept that deviates so much from the real analog wisdom, but still, the Misa Digital Guitar is very interesting. And did I mention its design is sleek as hell? And also, just for the geek object-savvy people lurking around the web, the controlling software is open source, which means you are free to change it and devise your own wickedness for free.
Retail prices are yet to be known, but I'm not expecting something very cheap: remember we're talking about a futuristic, Gentoo Linux driven digital sound maker with a design that easily pops I, Robot into our heads. Still, it's worth keeping an eye, not just on the Misa itself, but in the overall view through the heart of sounds.