Poor Man's Harp Guitar - Because It's There

[wood nacho]

Maybe one day I'll be able to play this tune on an actual harp guitar. Let me know what you think! Also, any ideas on where I can find more realistic sounding harp string samples?

http://youtu.be/Mw9sRPqWoZA

[Bob1131]

Cool! Very resourceful and creative, and well played. Thanks for sharing that!

[wood nacho]

Thanks Bob! I've been thinking about a way to use actual strings on the top of the guitar to trigger the MIDI notes but its just an idea as of now.

[Fran Guidry]

This video showed up in my YouTube subscription sampler and I was so impressed I started a new thread about it http://69.41.173.82/forums/showthread.php?p=3426511 in which I was told about this one!

The MIDI tool for generating the bass notes is really cute, but the real reason for highlighting the clip is the playing. I'm not much of a fan of postmodern guitar techniques, the tapping and slapping stuff, as a rule but this one really worked for me. Clearly a masterful bit of composition but it wouldn't come across if it weren't being delivered with some masterful playing.

Fran

[el_kabong]

Hey Curtis:

That's pretty cool. I've been working a bit with an acoustic set-up with an RMC hexaphonic pickup running into a Roland GR-20 and loving it. Barring the occasional tracking issue, the only real complaint I've had is coming up with ways to customize the patches on each string....I'm not yet very MIDI saavy, but I'm sure I need a different (or additional) synth module. One of the reasons, of course, is to be able to better/uniquely control separate bass and/or drum parts. Your solution here is giving me some interesting ideas

For those of us who are curious, can you describe the way you put this together and tell us a bit more about your interface?

Thanks for sharing.

[Dru Edwards]

Curtis - fantastic! When I was researching my Russel Crosby build last year I came across some of your videos. Very unorthodox song, and I mean that in a complimentary, refreshing way. You've got some great talent. Do you play out much? Are you in Nova Scotia?

[wood nacho]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

This video showed up in my YouTube subscription sampler and I was so impressed I started a new thread about it http://69.41.173.82/forums/showthread.php?p=3426511 in which I was told about this one!

The MIDI tool for generating the bass notes is really cute, but the real reason for highlighting the clip is the playing. I'm not much of a fan of postmodern guitar techniques, the tapping and slapping stuff, as a rule but this one really worked for me. Clearly a masterful bit of composition but it wouldn't come across if it weren't being delivered with some masterful playing.

Fran

Thanks Fran! Glad you liked the video.

Originally Posted by el_kabong

Hey Curtis:

That's pretty cool. I've been working a bit with an acoustic set-up with an RMC hexaphonic pickup running into a Roland GR-20 and loving it. Barring the occasional tracking issue, the only real complaint I've had is coming up with ways to customize the patches on each string....I'm not yet very MIDI saavy, but I'm sure I need a different (or additional) synth module. One of the reasons, of course, is to be able to better/uniquely control separate bass and/or drum parts. Your solution here is giving me some interesting ideas

For those of us who are curious, can you describe the way you put this together and tell us a bit more about your interface?

Thanks for sharing.

Those Roland systems are pretty nifty! You might want to check out the new Fishman Tripleplay MIDI pickup if you're interested in assigning different patches to different strings and frets. The tracking is extremely good too. Here is a link if you're interested - http://www.fishman.com/tripleplay

Here is a better explanation of how I had the MIDI harp setup...

The MakeyMakey is really the key component of the whole setup. It works by giving you a ground wire and and a bunch of lead wires. I was stepping on the ground wire (making me the ground) and I had 5 leads going to each of the quarters on the controller I made. When I touched the quarters, the completed circuit would type out a keyboard character (a-z 0-9) on my laptop. For each of the 5 quarters, I assigned a different character. (It doesn't matter what the characters are, as long as they are different from on another)

From here, I used a free program called VMPK (Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard) to translate the keyboard characters into MIDI notes. You can assign any MIDI note (0-127) to any character on your keyboard. So whenever you type a letter (or when one is received from the MakeyMakey) it sends out the MIDI note you assigned to that character. I figured out which notes I needed to play the Hedges song (G A A# C D) and assigned those MIDI values to the keyboard characters that were being sent from the Makey.

Finally, I used Logic 8 and a virtual acoustic/electric bass to get the sounds of a harp guitar. Logic picks up the MIDI notes sent by VMPK and triggers the sounds of the virtual instrument.

I hope that makes sense! It sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. Feel free to PM me any more questions you might have.

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Curtis - fantastic! When I was researching my Russel Crosby build last year I came across some of your videos. Very unorthodox song, and I mean that in a complimentary, refreshing way. You've got some great talent. Do you play out much? Are you in Nova Scotia?

Thanks Dru!

Yup, I'm in the Annapolis Valley, close to Wolfville. Haven't been playing out too much lately, might do some busking around town now that it is warming up though!

Russel makes some great guitars! Do you have any pics of your Crosby?

[Sidheguitarist]

That is a very cool solution!

I tip my hat to your creativity; well done!!
-MM

[outsidenote]

That was great! Very inventive and excellent playing.

Nice buck too BTW.

[el_kabong]

Originally Posted by wood nacho

Those Roland systems are pretty nifty! You might want to check out the new Fishman Tripleplay MIDI pickup if you're interested in assigning different patches to different strings and frets. The tracking is extremely good too. Here is a link if you're interested - http://www.fishman.com/tripleplay

Here is a better explanation of how I had the MIDI harp setup...

The MakeyMakey is really the key component of the whole setup. It works by giving you a ground wire and and a bunch of lead wires. I was stepping on the ground wire (making me the ground) and I had 5 leads going to each of the quarters on the controller I made. When I touched the quarters, the completed circuit would type out a keyboard character (a-z 0-9) on my laptop. For each of the 5 quarters, I assigned a different character. (It doesn't matter what the characters are, as long as they are different from on another)

Curtis - thanks for the explanation and the tip on the Fishman...I'll definitely look into it. Also, I'll look in to finding you some harp samples...I know a guy who might be able to help. Cheers