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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Cross-harp Bending Tests on MIDI Harmonica
Cross-harp Bending Tests on MIDI Harmonica
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Brendan Power
604 posts
May 09, 2017
5:09 AM
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I'm enjoying playing the Lekholm DM48 MIDI harmonica. It can be tuned in any scale, and Richter Tuning is one that is already inputted when you get the DM48.
It's a very expressive instrument, but controllable note-bending is not possible on the stock item. So I decided to try and make a little mini-pitchbend controller that can be fitted to allow diatonic-type bends. It would be fantastic if you could do all this in your mouth as we do on acoustic harps, but despite rackng my brains on how to do it, no easy answer appeared.
So I've gone for a small finger controller. It works, but the tricky part is getting your finger to co-ordinate with hole moves and breath changes - not so easy, as these things happen unconsciously and very fast. But with practice I think it's possible.
What I do is keep making the bend shapes in my mouth, even though they physically do nothing at alll to the notes. But it helps me time the finger moves to get approximately the same feeling as I'd get if I were playing a normal harp. I haven't had long to work at it, but below is a sample of some tests I did on the prototype mini pitchbender.
With Richter Tuning selected, these licks are played on the equivalent of a Richter tuned harp in C, in Second Position.
Richter Bending Tests on MIDI Harmonica
Last Edited by Brendan Power on May 10, 2017 6:17 PM
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JohnSzzz
14 posts
May 11, 2017
3:46 PM
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Very cool, Brendan!
I was thinking about doing something similar to get more expressive analog controls, but I'm still exploring what I can do with the bend sensing that's built in.
It also takes some programming of the bend range, and both curve and sensitivity, of the synth or sampler to get the "feel" right.
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- John S
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