Folk meets modern
Another old project from Kickstarter is this oneString open source USB ribbon synth controller, which takes its inspiration from the one string Diddley Bow blues/folk instrument.
The diddley bow is a single-stringed homemade American instrument, typically a wooden board with wire, a bridge (often a glass bottle), and a slide, central to early blues music. Originating from West African traditions, it is played by plucking and using a slide to vary pitch, sometimes electrified or built on a resonator box.
oneString developer Wil Lindsay came across this traditional instrument and had the idea to build a high-tech but fundamentally simple ‘modern folk’ instrument based on a ribbon controller.
How it works
A ribbon controller is a long strip which can sense changes in resistance, say by the placement of fingers, as a potentiometer.
In the oneString, the sensor is read by a condensed USB-powered Arduino circuit, which then sends MIDI messages to a laptop for further processing by a DAW or other app.
It features a DIP-switch to allow for 16 present interface modes, such as pitch-bend continuous tone, individual note sending, multi-octave ranges, control of other MIDI “CC’s, and so on. A knob allows for direct, live tuning.
Demonstration
Availability
As with many older projects, this one seems to have disappeared. It was backed, though, so hopefully there are some oneString players out there.
Of course it’s possible to buy other ribbon controllers, but this one claimed uniqueness in its approach, and sometimes you can’t beat homegrown.
Do you have one?
