Re: WOT RE: Re: Guitar synth guys (no loop stuff)

[Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>]

> I just bought a mini-Z fro Ztar systems. It's a mid controller set up 
>like a
> touch style instrument. It has six, two-octave 'strings' (rows of
> buttons/keys) and you can set the tuning and splits any way you want. One
> very interesting 'tuning' that I have seen mentioned is setting up the
> strings in straight octaves (each string corresponds to one octave 
>higher.
> This makes for an intuitive, symmetrical finger patterns and lightning 
>fast
> scales and arpeggios. Of course, harmony, chords and polyphonic playing 
>is
> more difficult, since you need both hands to play a melody line (to span 
>a
> whole octave of button/keys), and chords become very wide stretchs.

You can still play chords on a single "string" (row of keys), which leads
to many chord voicings impossible to play on an instrument with real 
strings.

> talked to a number of satisified customers. If anyone is interested, I'll
> dig up the web address. Their site has lots of pretty pictures for the
> curious.

It's http://catalog.com/starrlab/

For the truly sick, Starrlabs also offers a MIDI controller that has
hexagon keys laid out in a honeycomb-like configuration.  It's based on a 
design submitted by a customer who wanted a controller for microtonal 
applications.

All Starrlabs instruments offer deep programming options.  For example,
one could assign a chord to one drumpad in real-time, record and playback
MIDI LOOPS, and all kinds of other crazy stuff.  Well, I had to work this
to an on-topic zone somehow. :) 

Cheers,

Paolo Valladolid
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