SEX AND VIOLINS, new violin technology

As a musician I find my self looking at new inspiration in the form of music but nowadays those music sub genres are either mix of this and that. One genre  mixed with another makes a new piece of music, which for some reason makes it fresh.

Time goes on and the humble musician has to compete with past successful songs, as well as the current songs. I try not to think of it that way as I get a headache with all the competition. I just make a little niche for my self and that is little folk like songs with electro beats because I don't have a backing band.
My formula is simple. Say what I am thinking of, a little self deprecating thoughts about the situation that I am in. But I think it kind of works when you compare those auto-tune songs on you tube, which sings about all sorts of things. The main thing is to include a hook and some form of music to go with it.

For me I love strings and cool drum beats, a simple orchestra sound organised in a cool riff or something with a nice groove pattern usually turns my ear.
But now I am turning towards technology to get new sound of string, ever sings the midi violin I thought that would take off and make a cool range of sounds and the expression from these sounds would be excellent.
I think my first hero at the time was Jimi Hendrix with his ability to create feedback sounds that would extend the guitars expression. Laurie Anderson was another hero because of the electro sounds she would employ.And that she would experiment lots of sounds that would make her tune stand out.

My humble music started off with a home built valve amp and a dodgy electric guitar, I managed to get some kind of feed back when I boosted the gain, but got a lot of mains hum. plus I had to box the collection of dangerous electronics to protect me from dying.
Now I turn my turned my attention to violins because you can group the sounds to a orchestra like effect.

Its also a challenge to make them sound musical with out making them go out of tune.
When I first heard about Zeta violins I thought they were the best thing since slice bread, I managed to buy a special pick up which was to be used on the bridge of the violin and would actually help reduce the feedback.
Its kind of sounded less of a violin but more of a electric instrument, but was better then a piezo pickup I used to have. This was musical birthday card speaker ripped out and glued and electrically joined to a amplifier.
 The zeta range would have these picks up in their beautifully designed violins, but also a midi pick up to go to

a controller which can convert the notes to midi information. More or less in the designs gets kind weird and crazy, but the technology hasn't really change for the electrifying the sound. It was expensive to buy £2000 worth of midi equipment for the midi violin. But now with a bit of luck you can find one at half the price.
And then recently I heard about the K Bow which is something similar to the Zeta midi violin. It uses a special attachment to the bow and the receiver to the fingerboard. It somehow uses the violins box as a way to express the output. Its hard to describe but when I first saw this thing I fell in love with it but then again I saw the price tag and thought hmmm I can always dream. $3,800 for a violin expression tool is a bit too much I can always hope this technology might go down in price so people like me can have a go. Either way I'll just keep watching the videos and drool over the sounds

Popeye week end volume 2

ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT EXPO, next week filled with gaming hype

E3 or ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT EXPO is almost among us and it means putting together the all the games you want to play or heard about into a farmers market -like display situation.
Personally its a way to hype up the excitement and I suppose it gives some sort of idea on the release date on these so called video games.

The hardware aspect isn't going to be that interesting as PlayStation and XBox will most likely not be showcasing anything new. Though its a perfect opportunity for Nintendo to go ahead and release the wii u.

The tablet sized controller with its screen and control keys either side, gives it a unique experience. Though how unique is with two screens anyway?. It might be a good way to have a threesome, though not the sexual kind but really a way to split the tv screen and  have the tablet as the third player. Or indeed maybe allow each player to bring his wii u controller for a add on multi play.

Most of the games seem like they are ages away with Tomb raider being the furthest away to the first quarter of 2013. The trailer looks pretty good with a Young 20 something Lara croft freaking vocalising out on the situations that she has in front of her. This is a reboot and the new new Lady croft, like any noob would be a little on edge. I can imagine that the whole game play will be her moaning and groaning the whole way through it. A situation which might get a little tiresome and probably will adjust the volume to avoid embarrassing noises or complex explanations to anyone outside the room. (your mother or girlfriend)

Dead space 3 may have have an update on E3 despite all the cryptic graphic trailer released some time earlier.



Resident evil 6
continues to carry one with the news that the president is to reveal the goings on with Raccoon city in 1998. Hopefully that should curb the actions of the bio hazard terrorists.



E3 will promise to be a candy-land full of news updates and hardware reveals. I suspect there might be new game trailers or more of the same concept ideas for hardware. Its hard to predict while you are in another country looking at the news on the internet. All I can say is that I'll be envious on the action and would probably find the truth about how good the game play when I cough up the money to play, months after the release date.