Cool new idea with conductive strips!

[Rodgre]

I have recently been doing some experiments with ribbon voltage controllers for analog synthesizers. I had to do a gig where I would play "Good Vibrations" and needed to do the Tannerin line. I have a Moog Etherwave Theremin, but I just can't be consistent with pitch on it, so I built a ribbon controller to take care of the pitch.

I used a sample of material that I got from a local manufacturer and now I'm debating on buying a full sheet of the material (which isn't really cheap...) to make a clean and reliable controller (without the gaffers tape and thumb-tacks that my chunk-of-two-by-four prototype has). I also realized that I could control anything with this device - anything that could be affected by a potentiometer. The beauty of my design is that the resistence can be changed very suddenly and randomly...sort of like a "step" or "sample and hold" effect.

So I thought about analog delay time and feedback control, filter cutoff frequency, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

I'm considering attaching the material to a pickguard so I can control things while I play. I'm getting giddy thinking of it!

Does anyone here have experience with this? Any other cool ideas?

Roger

[Pushtone]

Sounds very cool. You have me interested.

How about a link to your supplier?

[mountainking]

Have you guys checked this out: http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folkurban/synthstick/synthstick.html

[orgaqualia]

Sounds very cool. You have me interested.

How about a link to your supplier?

+1

[funkbass187]

Have you guys checked this out: http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folkurban/synthstick/synthstick.html

i have a quick question about the synth stick. Would it be possible to use a ldr in place of the synth stick layout for some sort of pseudo theremin?

[Cliff Schecht]

There's a soundclip of my synthstick here (called the Guitarimin):
http://www.purevolume.com/cliffsjams

You should be able to tell where it is in the mix.

And of course, here's a pic of my synthstick: