K-Bow

[Mary Mungo]

Happiness can come with the invention of new midi controller and this one looks pretty cool.
The web site details start...

Keith McMillen Instruments introduces a complete series of bows for violin, viola, cello and bass. The bows capture gestures from real-time performance, and transmit the data to your computer where it can be used to process sound, control an electronic composition, manipulate video, or do anything else you can imagine.

The movement and acceleration parameters could be achieved with a wii controller at a possibly much cheaper price (don't know how much the K-Bow is) but the inclusion of distance, pressure and tension measuring parameters sets it apart.
Now all it needs is to somehow apply these type of controllers to a midi guitar! I suppose I could always bow the guitar

[Mr Arkadin]

Now all it needs is to somehow apply these type of controllers to a midi guitar! I suppose I could always bow the guitar

When you said bow for violin, viola, cello and bass the first thing i thought was, "Guitar!" Has to be done. i'm guessing this isn't cheap though.

[dawman]

Awesome find MM...thanks.
I also thought of Guitar, especially since I saw Jimmy Page do it live years ago on a couple of tunes.
Maybe I could hold my Ribbon Controller vertical like an Upright Bass, and go horizontal w/ the bow...??
I am interested to see if a talented script writer for Kontakt can apply his skill to such a device using some of these high spec.'d String instruments that are coming out.

Ankyuvarymush..

[braincell]

"Starting in January K-Bows will be available from our new online store and will cost $3995-$4995. "

[Zer]

that's a lot of money for some potentiometers covered by plastic box.

[Neutron]

come on its got:
The circuitry in the K-Bow includes 20 op-amps, two CPUs (an ARM7 and a Silicon Laboratories F411), the Bluetooth transceiver, accelerometer and extensive power management systems.

I mean 20 op amps..20 of them! thats worth at least $5 for good ones
bluetooth transceiver: maybe $5
ARM7 $3
Silicon lab F411 ? dont know as far as i can find that is not an actual CPU, but a USB MCU programmer tool (for the ARM7 lol)
accelerometer. must be cheap they use it in wii i can get one on a board ready to use for $16
"extensive power management systems" the ones that come with most chips these days.

does it really not even use OSC?.. for $4000?? its 2009!

[braincell]

We all know how much string players love technology. I am sure it will be a hit!

You could just tape a Wiimote to your bow.

[siriusbliss]

Fairly sophisticated since it has to capture direction, orientation (yaw), velocity, pitch, pressure, etc.

Too bad it's only relegated to driving MIDI

Greg

[Tau]

For what it's worth,

"All of the data from this array of sensors is sent over a standard Bluetooth wireless connection to your computer. This data can be used with the included software to process your instrument sound, or do live looping. The information can also be sent to control any standard music software using MIDI or OSC."

[garyb]

an amazing accomplishment, and certainly worth the price, but silly.

[ReD_MuZe]

nice concept but its just a sketch.
the bow looks way to heavy and chunky for normal use,
besides bows are very individual for each player, and such a device should be attached to a current bow (maybe just the frog) rather than to sell an entire bow.

another thing is that classical musicians will never conform to the idea of cables and bad sounding instruments. so for such a thing to work, it should be a full on pickup system and perhaps fingerboard sensors aswell, with some dsp and presets. working together in harmony. up until then i expect only tech fiddlers to buy this

and i say that as a cellist

[braincell]

I would love to see more classical composers involved with computers and electronic music but I don't think it's likely since the musicians and many listeners are not open minded. It would be quite easy to apply effects, advanced recording and editing to come up with unique sounds for traditional orchestral instruments. This would be a lot of fun and yield interesting results. With a small chamber orchestra, it would be quite feasible. The trick would be to convince a group and a label that classical music doesn't necessarily have to be live music. I have nothing against live music, and it has advantages but I don't see why it is looked down on especially since the overwhelming majority of people listen to recorded music most of the time anyway. Even a live recording is a recording and not the original sound. In the video, using the bow to control a looper seems like a very expensive way to do a very simple function. A loop pedal would do the same thing. I agree with Gary. It's stupid. The experimental classical musician should just get a bunch of stomp boxes. Eventide is making some beautiful ones.

[astroman]

...It would be quite easy to apply effects, advanced recording and editing to come up with unique sounds for traditional orchestral instruments. This would be a lot of fun and yield interesting results. ...

well, isn't there a Spectrasonics-I-dunno-crappo for that purpose yet ?
but afaik classical orchestras play whatever sheet you hand them, given it's paid for...

cheers, Tom

btw the coolest bow I ever saw was Laurie Anderson's tape-bow, a (recorded) reel-to-reel tape at the position of the hairs of the bow, played over a tape head mounted to a violin.

[siriusbliss]

Yeah, I love my Eventides.
Saw the Laurie Anderson tour where she played tape-bow.

Note - there ARE classical-oriented groups using loopers and effects, including some pretty cool custom software.
http://www.beamfoundation.org/
http://www.oregonband.com/oregonbio.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISsDhmxpf1M (I've met this duo - cool people)

Greg

p.s. ...and I actually like Omnisphere 'cause I don't always have to know crappo

[Mary Mungo]

Ah, Laurie Anderson - I've yet to see her, but her earlier performances and albums are my favourite (Big Science) great links

[borg]

I would love to see more classical composers involved with computers and electronic music but I don't think it's likely since the musicians and many listeners are not open minded.

http://www.champdaction.be/en/ I used to work for this ensemble, and boy, these guys know how to make the most complex max/msp patches. The artistic director/composer really loved Vocodizer and Modular and both were featured in one of his pieces. It's not really classical though, but all musicians and composers went through conservatory... and moved on.

[siriusbliss]

p.s. ...and I actually like Omnisphere 'cause I don't always have to know crappo

yeah, why not.

Hey if STS-5000 could do what Omnisphere does, I'd dump Omni in a heartbeat, but alas...

Greg

[siriusbliss]

I agree. But I think the Omnisphere value is the dedication of Eric Persing and team. Maybe we get this with SC again. Solaris is already John Bowen and team....

Yes, agreed, you can SEE and FEEL the commitment, yes indeed.

Greg

[braincell]

I am a big fan of samples and romplers and I wish that SC would do something like this. I bet it would sound better than Omnisphere but it takes a special talent. You need great engineers and a studio. The samples on the Pulsar 1 CD suck suck sucked. The STS series was intended to be just another module and nothing special like so many of the modules. Too many modules and too few engineers.

Hey if STS-5000 could do what Omnisphere does, I'd dump Omni in a heartbeat, but alas...

Greg

[siriusbliss]

Yeah, I was only half-serious, since Omni is largely a different paradigm than a 'normal' sampler like STS.

Greg