The song “Guitar Man” might just have a modern and upgraded version at the start of this decade. It’s too early for Valentine’s day, but I fell in love with a digital guitar man. Well, technically not the man, but the touch screen digital guitar held by him. Take a look at this real charmer:
If that does not really elicit some interest for gadget geek music lovers, then I don’t know what else will! It can be easily used; just plug and play to a nearby electricity source and it’s good to go.
One thing I find most impressive about this guitar is that it’s stringless, which means it’s “callousless,” with little work for the fingertips because the touch screen is ultra-sensitive to the touch. I have often found myself stumped because of the pain to the fingers. Also, strings often need to stay in tune. With this digital guitar, at least, tuning is much easier.
The guitar, through this digital version, joined the bandwagon of the digital instruments. Keyboards and drum sets had their digital version already; it’s a good thing that guitars started to follow suit. Pretty exciting what other technology twists we can expect after this pioneering work for digital guitars.
There are three key characteristics of this Kitara Touch Screen Digital Guitar: polyphonic synthesizer, fretboard and touch screen. The fretboard works in pretty much the same way the traditional fretboard works. The touch screen is 8 inches and the synthesizer provides limitless possibilities for sounds.
With finger dexterity not being a constraint or limitation, you may actually find unique vibrations and sounds coming out of this touch screen digital guitar. In fact, you can make a lot of literal mash-up sounds and even mix in your favorite MIDI files for effect. Most digital instruments can stand alone in lieu of the sound effects that it can convey. And so, the same can be done with Kitara.
Three chief digital effects govern the Kitara touch screen digital guitar: distortion, delay and modulation. There are so many possibilities when it comes to modifying your music or your groove. What’s more fascinating is that these effects can be mapped as an icon somewhere in your 8-inch touch screen, just like what some people do to customize their touch screen gadgets like the iPod Nano and iPod touch.
There are 24 frets like a traditional guitar, it operates on Linux (which is bummer for some people) and is both headphone and audio out capable. But if you really want that romantic hand strumming gig going, this is not something I can genuinely recommend.
Traditional guitar fans, however grand the technology used on this gizmo, may find it hard to use because of its ultra-sensitive nature, especially if one is used to strumming with force. Also, like many digital devices, you will be required to stay plugged in an electricity source. Traditional guitars are actually something of a gem in the sense that you can take them anywhere, even to places without cords and electric outlets in them.
But it does not make it any less attractive or interesting for a true blue music and gadget geek. If you want to see it being used and in music-making action, you can check out more details by clicking here. Making good music together just got better
January 3rd, 2011 at 5:06 pm
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