BUCHLA LIGHTNING I MIDI MOVEMENT CONTROLLER w/four wands

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"This unit was produced in 1993 and was only used for 2 - 3 years. It is in excellent condition and all the NiCad rechargeable batteries in the four wands have just been replaced. (Charging is done via the unit itself by plugging the wands into the two charging jacks on the back of the unit, all cables are included for this). Original manual also included.

LIGHTNING I is aspecialized MIDI controller that senses the position and movement of handheldwands and transforms this information to MIDI signals for expressive control ofelectronic musical instrumentation. Incredibly versatile in it’s MIDI programming, you can control sound onmultiple channels simultaneously and achieve remarkable triggering andcontinuous control of MIDI sounds using only the two wireless wands.

The bulk ofLIGHTNING’s electronics is housed in a half rack cabinet that can be mounted ona mic stand (comes with the fitting on the bottom). NOTE: this is a Lightning 1 and does not comewith any built in sounds. Lightingtriggers via MIDI sounds resident in your computer or external MIDI soundmodules. It also uses rechargeablebatteries and the battery charger is built into the unit (unlike Lightning II& III).

Very deep MIDIimplementation and user programmability to easily achieve complex triggeringand continuous control of ANY MIDI controller parameter in any dimension of thethe X/Y spatial axis. MIDI back-up andrestore via reliable MIDI SYS EX to any computer or MIDI storage device.


Based on principles ofoptical triangulation, LIGHTNING gathers its information by tracking tinyinfrared transmitters that are built into baton-like wands. Unencumbered bywires, these wands provide complete freedom of movement within a performancespace that can be as large as 10 feet high by 16 feet wide.

Basically, LIGHTNINGsenses the horizontal and vertical position of each hand, for a total of fourindependent coordinates. From this information, LIGHTNING's digital signalprocessor computes instantaneous velocity and acceleration, and performsdetailed analysis of gesture. An easily mastered, musically oriented interfacelanguage allows the user to define relationships between various gestures andpotential musical responses.

In one sort ofimplementation, LIGHTNING's coordinates might be mapped to various MIDIcontrollers on multiple channels. Spatial pitch wheels, pan pots, level slidersand modulation wheels are easily defined and great fun to play. Performancegestures can be analyzed for direction and velocity and can be used to generatea variety of notes as well as other musical events. Multi-dimensional zoningcapability can be used to create different musical responses in differentregions. Everything you need to create the conceptual ensemble (an invisible,acoustic virtual reality).

User definable scaleand tuning tables allow one to determine the range and selection of notesoccurring along a horizontal or vertical axis. Pitches can be in any order, andthe boundaries can be set where ever desired, facilitating the creation ofspatial instruments and imaginary orchestras.

To facilitate its usein conjunction with other controllers, LIGHTNING possesses intelligent MIDImerging capability. A complete system exclusive implementation enablesLIGHTNING presets to be stored and edited via external computers andsequencers.
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