Hyper Guitar (with Special Deal for "instructablers")

Expand your guitar with MIDI controllers to tweak and warp your strums and slaps. Learn from Silvain Pohu how he used I-CubeX and other technology to enhance his guitar playing.

Step 1: Get the Gear

You will need the following items to complete this instructable:

1. Finger pressure sensor
2. Rotation sensor
3. Distance sensor
4. Sensor to MIDI interface (with configuration and mapping software)
5. Sound to computer interface
6. MIDI to computer interface
7. Sound processing software
8. Computer
9. Electric guitar

For item 1-4, use eg. the I-CubeX StarterPack
For item 5-6, use eg. PreSonus or M-Audio
For item 7, use eg. Guitar Rig

Step 2: Install Touch Sensor

Attach the finger pressure sensor (eg. I-CubeX Touch sensor) near the bridge.

Step 3: Replace Knob

Remove one of the knobs and its potentiometer on the base of the guitar and install the rotation sensor (eg. I-CubeX Turn sensor) in its place.

Step 4: Install Distance Sensor

Place the distance sensor (eg. I-CubeX ReachClose sensor) on the head of the guitar such that it detects the position of your hand on the neck of the guitar.

Step 5: Install Sensor Interface

Attach the sensor interface (eg. I-CubeX microDig) to the side of the guitar using eg. velcro. Connect the sensors to the sensor interface.

Step 6: MIDI and Sound Connections

Connect the sensor to MIDI interface to the MIDI interface.
Connect the guitar sound output to the sound interface.
Power up !

Step 7: Sensor Configuration

Configure the sensor to MIDI interface using its editor software, and map each sensor signal to a separate MIDI message. If using the I-CubeX StarterPack, see its get started video for a detailed explanation on how to do that.

Step 8: Configure the Sound Software

Configure the sound software (eg. Guitar Rig) such that it receives the MIDI messages you configured the sensor interface to send. Select the MIDI ports that you use to transmit the sensor messages then right-click the guitar sound effect you want to control and select "learn" to map the sensor messages to the guitar sound effect.

Step 9: Try It Out !

Try it out and see the video for a demonstration of the hyper guitar by Silvain Pohu. Also think about adding or using other MIDI controllers. Check the I-CubeX website for a wealth of controller ideas.

Comments

[The Jamalam]

No, people get studio-quality sounds out of £200-£300 strats and stuff. Anyway, a good guitarist doesn't need good tech to get a guitar to sound good.

[JuCo]

what do you mean by quality? because (too) often, the higher price is just so you could have a certain name on the headstock or a pretty quilted maple top... things that have nothing to do with quality of sound or playability. you can take a mexican fender, throw in some aftermarket pickups and you're doing as good or better than some of the stuff they sell for 3-4 times as much. i suppose you could even upgrade the pots and tuners while your at it, since you've already saved yourself 500 bucks. i guess what i'm saying is price doesn't equal quality.

[JuCo]

yes, because anything under a thousand is cheap...

[e4g1e]

nice...., leviman its just the camera and youtube quality

[LeviMan_2001]

ok, no offense but that program has a terrible tone, the sensors do cool stuff though, i like the gain control thing on the neck.

[abadfart]

For this id use my Les-Paul nock off its hollow and could easily have every thing inside plus I can put another knob on it

[rccote]

seems like a lot of work and money that can mostly be done on a regular effects pedal board.

[I-CubeX]

Many would argue it cannot be "mostly" done on a regular effects pedal board - you might be missing out some important gestural details. And the devil is always in the details, while music is all about the devil (according to some religions). Anyways, there's whole conferences devoted to researching the subject, if you're interested. see http://nime.org

[Ibanezfoo]

How does this compare to the Roland stuff. I have a GR20/GK2 setup that I can find no flaw with.

[Ibanezfoo]

I think I see, this isn't a pitch to MIDI device like the Roland, its just a parameter controller setup right? Similar to a programmable pitch wheel on a keyboard?

[I-CubeX]

Right, it's not pitch to MIDI, but a MIDI parameter controller similar to eg. a modulation wheel on a keyboard.

[mondaymonkey]

899, wow, no offense, but thats more than i paid for the guitars

[I-CubeX]

If you mean that a guitar MIDI interface is a device that translates the sounds from the guitar strings into MIDI messages, this is not what this instructable is about. Instead, the MIDI controllers (sensors) that are added as per the Instructable modify the sounds from the guitar strings.

[otakutheiii]

So its a guitar midi interface?

[I-CubeX]

We decided to lower the price of the StarterPack for the Instructables community to US$199 for a limited time period. Just mention "Instructabler" in the comments box of your order so that we know to give you this (huge !) discount.

[I-CubeX]

The StarterPack goes for US$299, add to that the audio/MIDI interface (the PreSonus may cost you US$299 but a cheaper method is just using an M-Audio 1x1 MIDI interface for US$49 and the computer's mic input) and software (Guitar Rig is about US$299). So the "pro" version is $899 but you can also do very well with the $649 version. Let me know how it goes !

[Danny]

cool, i might try this when i get some money. just curious, on average, how much would this cost excluding the computer cost?