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Glove Emulates Musical Instruments
Zothecula writes "Bridging the gap between computer generated music and real-world instruments, the 'Imaginary Marching Band' is a fledgling, open-source project that allows music to be created by imitating the actions of playing the real thing on a sensor-equipped glove. The work of Scott Peterman, a Masters student at Parsons New School Of Design in New York City, the prototype system uses MIDI data output from the gloves via USB to reproduce the full range of notes from instruments such as the trumpet and trombone."
I don't think the Kinect even approaches the resolution required to pick up the finger movement used to play musical instruments.
There used to be a system whereby instead of blowing into a plastic tube you blew into a coiled brass or chromed tube which was flared at one end and instead of glove sensors you pressed on metal valves to change the note being played. It was quite ingenious but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the dang thing.
GP reminds me of an interview I heard in the 80's with a synthesizer player.. I think it was Richard Wright from Pink Floyd. The interviewer made some comment about synthesizers being artificial and not legitimate instruments, and the keyboardist said something like "Why don't I give you the instruments and you make the music?"
Look at keyboards now.. They're practically indistinguishable from some the instruments they emulate. Anyway, it's about the music. I don't care how the sound is produced if it sounds good to me.
I think something like this could be good for parents that can't/don't want to spend the money on a real trumpet that their kid is going to give up on after a month. If the kid shows some proficiency with it and still wants a real trumpet after a while, then get a real one.
You and GP both sound like people who have never studied music seriously (hours a day), while GGP likely has. The level of tactile and other feedback from physical instruments affects performer behavior in ways you can't possibly imagine. The responsiveness of a reed on a mouthpiece, the delicate subtlety of hammer action on a piano while one tries to play legato chords with the pedal which changes the weight of the keys due to the dampers being lifted, the vibration of the low brasses and woodwinds which have an almost massaging effect on the player's facial muscles are all examples I've personally experienced. You may not care, but a musician knows that a digital piano is NOT a digital equivalent of a piano. It is a slightly different instrument which is not an acoustic piano. That doesn't mean it's not a great thing (I love having a digital to play on), but it is not, and will never be an acoustic instrument, and will not produce the same output. That you don't care for some value of "close enough" is a testament to the engineering, not proof of the perfect equivalence of the two.
Look at keyboards now.. They're practically indistinguishable from some the instruments they emulate.
That is pretty false. I've heard some pretty expensive keyboards as well as digital/electronic organs (the pipe-organ-reproducing kind). They are quite good, and perhaps when recorded, hard to distinguish. When played in a live room, it's a lot different. Even with great speakers, an acoustic piano sounds different. Better? Worse? Well, that's an aesthetic, and I'm not arguing about that. If you like keyboards better, that's totally fine with me. :)
I think something like this could be good for parents that can't/don't want to spend the money on a real trumpet that their kid is going to give up on after a month. If the kid shows some proficiency with it and still wants a real trumpet after a while, then get a real one.
You can get a student trumpet for ~$150 (super cheaply made, from China) and a decent student trumpet for ~$300. I doubt the glove will be much cheaper than that, probably has a lower resell value, and is probably a lot more easily broken. And you can't play it in a band. And it requires speakers. And midi cables. And electricity...