Pictured here is a pile of the various bowing surfaces we have designed and built for use on our Violin Synthesizer in development. I am not going to say much about them, as there is at least a little bit of technology in each that we might use for something in the future. NONE of these bowing surfaces have passed my test for acceptability, the most important criterion being that an expert string player be able to use their bowing expression skills unencumbered by the technology. All are based on technologies to accurately sense bowing pressure and speed (i.e. attack) with physical sensors.
Adding up the development hours, this is at least a $50,000 pile of junk. Natural inventors take this in stride, often with the motto, "fail early and fail often."
Anyway, we have given up on vibration and pressure-sensing sensors for the time being for the bowing surface. What could be next? The knowledgeable among you will be able to tell in the series of photos in the next posting that we are using something else altogether to sense which string or strings are being bowed and the "dynamics" of this bowing.
Don Rickert
attack, bowing, bowing expression, dynamics, physical, pressure, sensors, surface, synthesizer, technologies, technology, vibration, violin
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