Musiq Electroniq

Rickert Violin Synthesizer Prototype 3 Almost Ready for Demonstration

After spending a week on an electro-mechanical bowing surface contraption, we decided to go back to using the strings themselves as a bowing surface. This might seem like the obvious thing to do, but it is actually much more complicated technically to use regular violin strings as a bowing surface, at least with our technical design, because with a true violin synthesizer (not merely a MIDI-compatible electric violin), the strings are simply sensors...actual part of a multi-part sensor. Transforming the output of any new kind of sensor to something that can be understood by the MIDI processor part of the synthesizer is always easier imagined than done.

Anyway, we are still using sound synthesis system on Ableton Live as the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation software) also running Tension, which is an Ableton Live add-on. We will have demo videos of the next prototype pretty soon.

Abelton, DAW, demo, Live, prototype, Rickert, synthesizer, Tension, videos, violin

Why Are We Doing This? Doesn't Zeta, Roland and Others Already Have a Violin Synth?

Good question and the answer to the second part is that the big names do have products that will convert audio signals from an electric violin that has the right kind of (expensive) pickup and then do the audio to MIDI conversion. Well, yes they certainly do (but have you ever seen anybody use one?). That audio analysis takes the latency (milliseconds) from the time a player's bow touches the string to a level that is quite noticeable to the player.

There you have it...from a Human Factors/Ergonomics perspective, their systems don't work. Once your latency reaches anything over 10 or so milliseconds, it's not a usable system.

What we are building uses sensors on the instrument itself to generate the necessary MIDI codes. We are working towards 5 second or less TOTAL latency. Once our system is functional, we shall know whether we have achieved that goal (but we have some really good Ph.D. level Electrical Engineers on this issue and believe that we will meet our goal), we will be able to say that ours works and theirs doesn't. We'll see how it turns out.

Differences Between an Electric Violin, a "MIDI Capable" Violin and a True Violin Synthesizer

A number of questions are often asked about the difference between an electric violin, a so-called "MIDI capable" electric violin and a Violin Synthesizer. While the question is a good one, the differences between the three are significant.

Electric Violins

Electric violin is a large category that includes at least three major sub-categories:

1. solid body instruments
2. chambered (semi-hollow)
3. acoustic violins with the right pickups installed

Each of the three types of electric violin are, of course, played through an amplifier and have their own kind of distinctive sound, which is a player preference matter. Each of the three types rely on some type of transducer to convert vibrations from either the bridge or the top of the instrument (or both) to an audio signal, which is sent to an amplifier, either via a cable or some type of wireless transmission technology. The signal may, and usually does, go through a pre-amp first, either built into the instrument, or in the form of an effects box on the floor. The purpose of the pre-amp is to boost the signal and/or match it optimally with the amplifier. An electric violin without pre-amping usually sounds thin and weak...in fact, horrible at best!

The type of pickup used is amazingly similar on all three types of electric violin...a piezo electric element that responds to bridge movements is by far the most common type of pickup used. These are placed somewhere on the bridge. There are pickups that respond to movement of the top of the instrument. These are generally placed under the bridge feet. Such a pickup is generally used for acoustic violins; however, I have have seen them on chambered-body and even solid-bodied instruments.

There are other kinds of pickups that rely on things like magnetic resonance, but their use is not common and they are very expensive.

With the right kind of equalization controls (yet another piece of equipment) and other types of "exciter" boxes, one can get something like a natural, but louder sound out of an acoustic violin. Chambered and solid body violins generally sound like, well, electric violins, with some exceptions...very expensive solid or chambered instruments specifically designed to give a pretty natural-sounding acoustic sound are made.

There is much more that could be said about electric violins, but the bottom line is that they are in no way synthesizers, unless, of course, they are special electric violins referred to often as "MIDI capable." Then, there is an argument to be had about whether or not they are synthesizers.

"MIDI-Capable" Electric Violins:

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and is the standard system of codes used for making one piece of synthesizer equipment communicate and send control messages (i.e. play this note) to another piece of synthesizer equipment. The big name in MIDI-capable bowed instruments is Zeta, who also makes the necessary electronic equipment for converting audio signals from a violin pickup to a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), generally special software running on a computer.

At the risk of over-simplifying, MIDI-Capable means that the instrument (an electric violin) is designed in such a way that there is absolute acoustic separation between each string. A MIDI-capable violin might have 10 separate transducers installed on a very special bridge. The problem with MIDI-capable instruments is the considerable lag time (enough milliseconds that it is noticed by the player) involved in converting the violin's audio signals to MIDI commands, which are then further processed by the DAW software on the computer, one type of which is illustrated in the photo of Ableton Live with the Tension instrument acoustics modeling system add-on shown (click on the image for a larger view.).

• True Violin Synthesizer/MIDI Control Surface: There are none on the market yet; however, Don Rickert Research & Design and a firm called Visual Strings are both independently working on such an instrument. There will be more on the Violin Synth in other postings and demonstrations of prototypes can be seen and heard in videos on this site. For now, you can view the posting entitled:

control surface, Don Rickert, electric violin, Fiddarci Lutherie, fiddle, Maggini, MIDI, octave, purpose-built, violin

Video Demos of Rickert Violin Synthesizer Prototype 2

Note: This second prototype demo, a combination of stuff that really works and simulation just like the first, uses a really nice sound synthesis system on the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation software), Tension, which is an Ableton Live add-on. We will have videos of the next prototype in several weeks.

Video Demos of Rickert Violin Synthesizer 1

Note: This first prototype demo, a combination of stuff that really works and simulation, uses enhanced standard MIDI sounds, which are not that great, especially on the higher pitched stuff. Native MIDI does great with organ and piano, however. The sound synthesis is MUCH better in the demos of the second prototype.

demos, MIDI, prototype, Rickert, simulation, synthesizer, violin