Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

"The first Guthman Musical Instrument Competition presented by GTCMT and Harmonix (makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band) will award $15,000 to the best novel musical instruments as judged by a panel of experts from Harmonix, Wired, and Georgia Tech. There will be a $5,000 grand prize — all participants eligible — given by Sharon Perry Galloway in honor of her husband, Dr. Thomas D. Galloway, Dean of the College of Architecture, 1992-2007. A copy of the Rock Band® video game, courtesy of Harmonix, will be awarded as a prize to places 4, 5 and 6." Submissions closed on Jan 15th. You can find a gallery of images, sound and video on Wired.

Pictured above:
"Jaime Oliver's Silent Drum uses a technique somewhat akin to shadow puppetry to create stunning and engaging music.

As his fingers press the flexible drum head, it forms black shapes in front of a white background. Those get picked up by a video camera and piped to a laptop where Max/MSP software turns the shapes into sound in real time.

The patches are pre-programmed, but Oliver's analog, light-based interface offers a surprisingly expressive range and precision. The judges were impressed; Silent Drum took home the $5,000 first prize."

Silent Drum Controller - Demo02

YouTube via jaiolix
"Demo02 - improvisations on 5 environments of the Silent Drum Controller.

for the latest piece visit: http://www.realidadvisual.org/jaimeol...

for more info on the controller visit: http://www.realidadvisual.org/jaimeol..."


"Jan Perschy's SGSX-H 750 is just what it looks like: a motorcycle engine with a keyboard attached.

As the teeth of the engine's gears travel at varying speeds past pick-ups that normally detect piston position, they generate tones that can be controlled with a keyboard. The third component, pictured to the left of the keyboard in the photo, is the voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) that makes up for relative discrepancies in volume.

Perschy said his goal was to play the gears in a motor the same way that a Hammond organ plays its spinning tone wheels. The VCA module wasn't working when we made the recording below, an apparent victim of rough travel, but this was still a fascinating display."



Craig Hanson and Mike Gao


Be sure to see the Wired gallery for more. via CDM who held a similar contest "judged by drum machine pioneer Roger Linn and the members of tech-loving band Freezepop" See the post for more.