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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Bluesharp Mouthpiece & PitchBender for DM48
Bluesharp Mouthpiece & PitchBender for DM48
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Brendan Power
610 posts
Jun 14, 2017
10:54 AM
The Lekholm DM48 is a very impressive MIDI Harmonica with incredible functionality and expression, but two things about it make it less appealing to diatonic harp players: an inability to controllably bend notes, and a 12-hole chromatic-harmonica-size mouthpiece.

For my own playing and to help make the DM48 more user-friendly for all harp players, I decided to develop two add-on accessory parts to address these issues. Diatonic players are used to small 10-hole harps, so I designed a 10-hole mouthpiece with the same shape and close hole spacing as a blues harp - complete with real metal coverplates from the iconic Hohner 1896 Marine Band. It screws into the same sockets as the stock DM48 mouthpiece, and gives a familiar diatonic-size interface to the amazing world of MIDI harmonica.

The Mini PitchBender was something I could not develop on my own; it required a partner with sophisticated electrical and MIDI knowledge. After looking on YouTube I found the perfect person: London electronics guru Tim Jacobs. We struck up an online friendship and have been working hard together over several months to try various approaches to this gnarly issue. The first was based on a small pressure ribbon, and we also tried tiny pitch wheels. But the best approach turned out to be a mini joystick which allows a player to bend notes accurately to 4 different pitches with small finger movements.

After a little practice I was able to use it to mimic the kinds of bends I do on harmonica, and discover more cool bends that are not possible on any normal harp! This pitch-bending control adds so much soul to the DM48, which for me greatly increases the playing pleasure of this amazing instrument. Based on the success of the prototype, Tim and I have ordered the parts to make a smaller version on the Mini PitchBender for sale to DM48 and other MIDI instrument players. Hear them both in action in the video:



MORE INFO, PHOTOS, ORDERING HERE:
http://www.brendan-power.com/DM48.php
Komuso
693 posts
Jun 14, 2017
4:47 PM
Nice idea!
Any issues with finger fatigue/rsi when playing for extended periods?
Can you position it easily to use other fingers?
Which fingers work best for it?
What might be even better than a joytsick is the https://roli.com/ approach, but not sure how open that tech is.

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Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Komuso's Music Website
Mahcks
91 posts
Jun 14, 2017
5:08 PM
I feel like there would be a market for a joy stick bend on most midi controllers. It would be way more useful than those tricky wheels on keyboards.

Off topic: I was just thinking how this instrument would have some crazy expressions if each hole had a speaker to achieve a talkbox effect.
Brendan Power
611 posts
Jun 15, 2017
9:18 AM
@Komuso: the Mini Pitchbender is attached with foam tape, so it can be stuck anywhere you like and used with other fingers, or your thumb. I didn't get any RSI issues.
Brendan Power
612 posts
Jun 15, 2017
9:22 AM
@Mahcks: yes, we hope that it might get picked up by players of other MIDI instruments.
Harmonicatunes
216 posts
Jun 16, 2017
9:14 PM
Brendan. Even by your standards, this is extraordinary. Nicely done.

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Tony Eyers
Australia
www.HarmonicaAcademy.com
everyone plays...
Brendan Power
613 posts
Jun 17, 2017
5:17 AM
Thanks Tony. You'll have to try the DM48 in Major Cross tuning :-)


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