The Misa Digital Guitar is a digital music controller like we haven’t seen before. The body, machined out of ABS, looks like a guitar. The player puts theirs hands in the same places you would on a guitar but the lack of strings make it something different.
The left had manipulates inputs in the form of 144 sensors, six in each of the twenty-four fret positions. The right hand doesn’t strum, but uses a multitouch screen to control the inputs. The UI looks solid, something you’ll have to see for yourself after the break. Tieing this all together is an AMD Geode processor running Gentoo Linux. That means this is open source and begging you to make it do your bidding.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2eiP12hQQY]
[Thanks Zerowizard]
Oh my god… That is AWESOME! I want one :D
Looks like it has a lot of modding potential. Mad props to anyone who can build a FLStudio-like program that runs locally on it.
Awesome.
This is pretty cool, I’d certainly like to play with one. Pet peeve though: it’s over-engineered. Could probably be done with one microcontroller (take the AVR32 for example, which has an LCD controller).
That aside, this thing rocks… literally and figuratively!
Anyone have any idea on what he’s using for the touchscreen? I want one :)
Wow, the guitar of the future is here.
Bad Ass
From their site: “The screen is an 8.4″ LCD 800×600 resolution. The CPU is a 500MHz x86 compatible AMD Geode which makes life easier, I guess. The operating system is Gentoo Linux which I’ve stripped down to be as lean as possible. Graphics (framebuffer access) is done with DirectFB which acts as a fast layer on top of the hardware”
Looks like the guts of a small laptop (netbook?) with touch screen embedded in the body of the guitar.
Nice build.
I do think that the midi protocol needs a heavy overhaul though, it’s slow and limited by today’s standards.
HOLY sexy batman! I want that. I hope the price isn’t too expensive, because it’ll be mine soon.
Holy F’ing cow. only the 20th and already a hack of the year quality project.
Thank you hack-a-day for delivering all the great tech directly to our desktops!
Seriously I only dabble in hacking and moding but something like this would be a damn good reason to get more educated.
@Agent420,
Yeah the number one option I’d like to see added to version 2 would be improved communications with a PC. Maybe over USB(not equipped) as well as OSC (possible with existing hardware, but not implemented).
@eric
Over-engineered? I want MORE processing power on it. I’d like to see it become sort of an all-in-one device capable of doing nearly everything a traditional computer does for digital musicians now. Imagine recording and editing an album-length rock opera in a full blown-sequencer suite right on the same instrument you played it on!
Making it an all in one would be silly I think. It is much easier to edit with a large monitor. I see the advantage here is akin to moving guitar pedals to the body with near limitless customization.
I hope this thing is not ridiculously priced any guesses on price?
“The screen is an 8.4″ LCD 800×600 resolution.”
Does that mean the touch functionality is built into the screen, or is it some capacitive layer over the screen? How many blobs can it track at once?
Looks like a iphone
Wow… this is cool beyond measure… O_O
Not for fingerstyle I see O_o
O.O,that makes old Daft Punk
I’d like to see them just do away with the screen part and just make the whole body area of the guitar a touch surface… would make for a sleeker looking design imo.
Sounds like they took the guts out of one of the older fit-pcs.
actually, you’re wrong. The device does not support multitouch at this time. Wish it did, but it doesn’t
That REALLY rocks.
actually, you’re wrong. The device does not support multitouch at this time. Wish it did, but it doesn’t. Sorry guys.
They’ll have a new demo video available this weekend. I can’t wait.
Most cool, Most cool indeed.
That is sweet.
Want. One.
looks very like the starr labs ztar there are several different types of them but the closest i can find is http://www.starrlabs.com/products/ztars/z6-series/z6
Please don’t kill the sound of a distorted guitar by passing it through a decimator, it’s the worst effect ever invented that ruins every sound you feed into it. I wouldn’t give a half buck for a real or electronic guitar that sounded like that. Use a virtual fuzz effect instead.
Other than that, this guitar is just… wow!
I hope to have enough money the day he makes a black one with multicolor leds under the frets, lol!:)
An Arduino is missing on this guitar.
I’m awaiting his answer.. the website says it won’t give out prices, but I asked if maybe he could estimate. We just got our tax return so I have some cash. I asked him if he could at least me know under $499 and under, $500 – $999 or $1000+.
Those Starr guitars are ugly.
The response I got:
“Not sure yet as to the price or availability. I don’t want to promise a price I can’t deliver on… Hope you understand :)”
I guess that’s reasonable.. but I’m sure someone can guesstimate within even $250? Sure mass production would bring costs down.
Eitherway I’m interested.. I think these would sell like hotcakes if a music store carried them.
The thingy could be nice but look twice: the controllers on the fretboard do not support bending or hammer-on and are not even touch-sensitive: only on/off per note so far.
The touch-pad is on/off either.
So it is a nice toy, if it comes at a toy-price…
Omg !
nice !!
cool !!
The new video is up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Zad5_eWVA
This might not be as nice, maybe it is.. I’m not sure.. eitherway I think I’m getting one:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/musical-instruments/d37d/?cpg=134T