Instruments
Capacitive Touch Guitar
This is a hybrid electronic guitar that was created to experiment with the instrument's cultural familiarity through digital means. It retains the design of an electro-classical guitar but replaces all the traditional strings with a high-resolution and low-latency capacitive-touch system, significantly reducing the hand strength and dexterity required to play it. The project was a collaboration with Victor Chiruta, aiming to address his specific access needs and simultaneously attempting to resemble the guitar's iconic identity.
How it Works
The fretboard is made up of 60 discrete, quantized sensor pads using custom Trill technology. The sound hole has conductive brass bars that affect the dynamics of the physical modelling engine based on how much contact surface they make with your hands. A pair of transducers attached to the body of the instrument project its sound, while utilising the wooden chamber for resonance. Although there is less dynamic range than afforded by a traditional guitar; this type of digital conversion creates new sonic possibilities and allows for a unique, very low force gestural language.
The instrument is powered by a Bela board, utilising its low-latency processing to handle the capacitive sensing and audio synthesis simultaneously. The neck sensors are custom-fabricated Trill strips that detect precise finger placement, while the brass bars over the sound hole act as the excitation source for the physical modelling engine.
Unlike purely digital controllers, this instrument is self-contained and acoustically active. The synthesized signal is driven through surface transducers mounted to the guitar's body. This excites the wood, providing haptic feedback to the player and allowing the instrument to resonate naturally in the room. Side-mounted controls allow for immediate EQ and volume adjustments.
The instrument was showcased in the “What is guitar” performance-based evaluation at Queen Mary University of London, where it was used to explore the boundaries between traditional folk aesthetics and digital performance.
