Thomas Edison said invention is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. I have all these cool ideas for harmonicas. I need to win the lottery so I can hire a shop full of people build them. Someone built a iPhone app harmonica.
If you could combine separate sensors for each hole and make it entirely electronic, no reeds at all, eliminating the vibrations of the reeds altogether but letting you manipulate virtual reeds, then you could do something pretty cool... you could make a harmonica that you could load customization profiles into, a harmonica that could change keys with the touch of a button, that could become a tremolo, a octave, that you could change hole by hole.
Interesting. I just wonder how accurate the tracking or whatever is on that thing. Cool that they are trying something innovative. Something i LOVE to do Especially when recording is play through my LINE 6 POD using a Shure 57. Sounds freaking awesome. Try that sometime, if you like FX (or just good tone) peace out, ---------- $Daddy Rich$ "The Blues is Ok!"
Nacoran, Apparently he had thought of making it completely electronic, but he said "The reason we did it this way, rather than, say using air sensors, is to give the player the? normal "touch and feel" of the harp. It also allows you to bend notes like you normally do. You can think of it like an acoustic guitar with built in pickup." So if you got rid of the reeds and just had electronic sensors you wouldn't be able to bend notes, which is the coolest part of the diatonic harp. Personally I'd be more interested in the Bahnson Overblow Harp he worked on. If you could make the slide valve mechanism work smoothly, I think the Bahnson Harp would be a significant developement in harp technology. Not only would it make overbends much easier to play, but it would also greatly improve the tone of overbends. On top of that you would no longer need to gap the reeds extremely closely, so you would no longer need to deal with the difficulties that can arise from small gaps. Compared to Suzuki's Overdrive the Bahnson Harp is a far better solution (assuming it can be made well).
Im a bit old fashioned but i can see the sense in all of this a.you set up a computer to give you the harp you want then you make the right adjustments on your marine band to replicate it.ha ha
call me a dinosaur. guess my question is, can you put that thing in your pocket and say hike out to the wilderness and play it? or on a cruise say?
part of the charm of a harp is its portability and the fact you can play it virtually anyplace there's atmosphere. no gadgets needed. just a harp.
the simplicity of a harp is one thing that drew me in initially. amps and mics etc etc came later. and i STILL don't use effects although i admit to trying some things out many years ago and deciding on either total acoustic or good tube driven amplification 99% of the time.
i suppose these same arguments were used when guitars began getting pickups and amps. still, you'll find me sticking to the basics harp-wise.
One of the reasons harp players prefer tube amps and vintage mic elements is for the warmth, solid state amps seem cold and sterile in comparison. You can add pedals but most players prefer the natural tone of the tube amp. I think this harp might sound sterile, in need of pedals to taylor the sound. Interesting development, I wish them well, but I don't think it will revolutionize the industry.
Last Edited by on Nov 08, 2009 6:29 AM
@ nacoran..."Thomas Edison said invention is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration"-that's why some engineers smell really bad. Sign in my office say so. ;-)
@ jbone-I like the simplicity of the harp as well, and this electric jobbie would never replace the acoustic-but that doesn't mean it's not cool technology. I won't be dragging a generator along on camping trips so i can play my electric harmonica! But the very thought of the optical pickups is really cool technology. ---------- GO SAINTS! crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
A pure sensor harmonica wouldn't HAVE to give you no response. A monitor or even full blown speaker built into the harp could take care of that. You could still bend etc, as long as the sensors were set up right, and you could probably even figure out a way to use your breath to power it. The problem is, you are probably already talking about a device that would cost as much to engineer as an iPhone and there is a smaller market. Of course, electronics always get cheaper and harp guys love to tinker. Heck, you can already pitch shift something, if only you could add a Bose noise cancellation system right after the reeds to this thing you could keep the reeds, cancel their noise right as it's leaving the harp and replace it with a monitor you might be able to have a harp that could switch keys without throwing off the pitch. Or maybe you need to change how you blow into it to get bends. There are already different tunings, chromatics, etc, that take some relearning.
This harp has one fundamental flaw. It measures the vibration of the reed. However, the vibration of the reed isn't what creates the sound (try plinking the reed, that's the sound of a vibrating reed). The sound of the harp is created by the air streaming though the reed slot being CHOPPED UP by the reed (creating pressure differences). Thus, once you stop breathing through an acoustic harp the sound stops right away also if the reed keeps on vibrating. Thats also the reason he only uses higher harps (and distortion). The shorter reeds stop vibrating very soon after you stop breathing. However, try the same with your low harps (LF, LE, LD,...). You'll notice, that the reed keeps on vibrating quite a while after the air stream is cut off.
Thus, there is a weird distortion added to the harp, simply by it's pick-up technology.
The reason this (somehow) similar development worked with guitars, is because it actually picked up the correct vibration.
I'd say, this is a fun toy, but there's no way it could replace the acoustic harp, and no way it could revolutionize the harp industry...
---------- germanharpist on YT.
Last Edited by on Nov 08, 2009 12:12 PM
I would like to see someone who could play the harp well do this demo. He didn't cup well. He never bent a note. Plus it sounded like crap.
I agree it would be fun to play with. There might be some possibilities there. However, the only thing brought to the table was the optical pickups. He may be adding one more variable to color the possibilities, but a revolution he certainly doesn't have.
I like the idea of optical sensors, now if they could add an analogue to midi interface they would have something really interesting. The current midi "harmonica" the millioniser is a long way from a true harmonica, but something akin to the Korg guitar synth (a real guitar, which can trigger synth patches and digitally modelled amp/guitar sounds) would be awesome.
I know the traditionalists balk at the idea of a harp that could sound like a piano or tubular bells or an oboe, but I fail to see a reason to get excited about a harp that sounds like a harp! If conquering feedback is the biggest achievement of this system, then they've wasted a lot of energy on a problem that already has plenty of solutions.
*edit* I suspect there may be a reason why we never heard a bent note in the demo. Tracking issues perhaps?
Last Edited by on Nov 08, 2009 12:53 PM
