[atlantaprog] Re: Air guitar for real

I think it would be feasible to change the sound palette, but how do you get 
around the controller issue?  They have a device that can spit out a limited, 
predefined range of cool sounds based on simplistic inputs, enabling someone 
with no experience to make nice sounds.  If it's to be more than a toy though, 
it seems like you'd at least need the ability to play more than A, C, D, E & G; 
and if you allow all twelve notes then the finger positions to trigger notes 
that sound good together get so specific that a novice would be missing it 
constantly and sounding like crap... can you get more control of the output 
without skill from the user?  
   
  Still though, I guess you could reprogram it to different scales, write a 
song around its limitations, and within that context it would sound fine, 
especially with a group of them.  I'd like to play around with this for a few 
hours...
   
  Brian

cliff treend <kidamadeus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  I think, if developed correctly as a proper musical
instrument and not as a toy, this could have a ton of
potential...especially if there was a way to use
sounds other than what appear to be basic guitar wav
files. If a group of musicians could use a device
like this to control their own sounds, it could open
an entire realm of possibilities.

CT

--- Allen Welty-Green wrote:

> You guys have been quite lately - here's something
> to talk about:
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/info-tech/dn8383.html
> 
> Air guitarists rock dreams come true
> 18:02 28 November 2005
> NewScientist.com news service
> Will Knight
> 
> The Virtual Air Guitar project gives wannabe
> guitarists the chance to 
> rock out (Image: Helsinki University of Technology)
> Aspiring rock gods can at last create their own
> guitar solos - without 
> ever having to pick up a real instrument, thanks to
> a group of Finnish 
> computer science students.
> The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the
> Helsinki University of 
> Technology, adds genuine electric guitar sounds to
> the passionately 
> played air guitar.
> Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of a
> "player", the 
> system adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air
> finger work. By 
> responding instantly to a wide variety of gestures
> it promises to turn 
> even the least musically gifted air guitarist to a
> virtual fret board 
> virtuoso.
> Aki Kanerva, Juha Laitinen and Teemu Mäki-Patola
> came up with the idea 
> after being invited to develop a virtual instrument
> as part of their 
> coursework. "The first thing that came to mind was
> an air guitar," 
> Kanerva told New Scientist.
> The resulting system consists of a video camera and
> a computer hooked 
> up to an appropriately loud set of speakers.
> A player then needs only to don a pair of brightly
> coloured gloves in 
> order to rock out. Computer vision software
> automatically keeps track 
> of their hands and detects different gestures, as a
> video of the system 
> in action demonstrates (22MB, requires Windows Media
> Player and DivX 
> codec for the visual aspect of the footage).
> Frenetic strumming
> The Finnish team created a library of guitar sounds
> based around the 
> pentatonic minor scale â?? a progression commonly
> used for rock guitar 
> solos â?? in order to create the right sound for
> their virtual 
> instrument.
> As a player moves their left hand along the neck of
> their virtual 
> guitar, the computer will run through the scale.
> Holding it one place 
> while strumming frenetically produces fret board
> tricks such as 
> hammer-ons â?? where slapping a finger onto an
> already vibrating string 
> produces a higher note â?? and blues bends, which
> give a distinctive 
> rock twang. And a floor pedal can also be used to
> switch the system 
> into mode that plays several different chords.
> Kanerva says players can easily create unique air
> guitar style. "No two 
> playing experiences are quite the same," he says.
> "When you're playing 
> really hard you get a really nasty distortion sound
> which is great â?? 
> but you have to work for it."
> The project is currently being demonstrated at the
> Heureka Science 
> Centre in Finland where it has been played more than
> 5000 times over 
> the last month, Kanerva says. As a follow-up, the
> researchers are 
> working on a version that will be compatible with a
> normal webcam and 
> computer, thus giving wannabe rock stars the
> opportunity to practise 
> their art in the privacy of their bedroom.
> For Kanerva, who had to research different guitar
> playing tricks, the 
> project has had another benefit. "I wasn't a
> guitarist before I started 
> the project," he says. "But I am now."
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------
> "A mended sock is better than a torn sock; not so
> with 
> self-consciousness".
> Hegel
> 
> 
> 
>
________________________________________________________________________
> 
> _
> 
> 
> 





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