i know i haven’t been gigging very much this year. and i could forgive you for thinking i’ve not been doing much on the live music front but you’d be wrong. so very wrong. i don’t want to make you feel bad or anything, it’s just the truth. this is my new guitar hero to midi max app i’ve been working on. it turns the guitar into a playable instrument while keeping all the control functionality of my previous patch. here’s the hastily thrown together blurb i slapped up on my youtube.
An app i’m working on called AXIS. it enables an xbox usb guitar hero controller to output midi to control ableton or any other software or hardware that eats midi.
it has two modes – play and control.
in control mode the buttons, whammy and 3 tilt sensors send out midi messages. this is intended for interfacing with software.
in play mode any musical scale can be superimposed over a guitar hero scale built on the first four buttons. the up pick can be offset to allow rapid playing of fifths or whatnot. the orange button acts as a modifier key allowing change of key and offset on the fly. the D-pad changes scale and the back and start keys change volume (velocity). the three tilt sensors and whammy send out MIDI CCs to control what ever. the tilt sensors on this guitar are particularly awesome, they sit on three different axes and you can make the guitar really expressive.
there’s a little HUD you can sit on top of what ever you’re controlling to monitor mode, key, volume, offset and scale.
i’m sorting out some documentation and then i’ll release it as a stand alone mac app. if a max-head out there want’s to help me port it over to windows that’d be ace. mac and windows interpret the guitar controller differently. once finished, i’ll release the source so people can modify it for other system’s guitars too. I went for an xbox guitar because it’s usb and the tilt sensors and whammy work which is a problem for ps2 guitars/adapters.
at the moment i’m building up my new live show utilizing the guitar to simultaneously shred, trigger samples and effects, control the rest of the track and control the accompanying video. see, i have been busy! and not just on this. i’ve got a whole album of new material which i’ll be relentlessly plugging through out the near future.
this post is little a bit of a tease, now i think of it. perhaps this video might make it appear more substantial.
for the last few weeks i’ve been working on a clip for melbourne band cuba is japan. they make sorta soundtracky, interesting music. it’s really great stuff to work with visually… it’s great stuff in general. i’ll put a video sample up once my internet is dethrottled. it’s a fun project to have been working on too. broken into three sections, the clip starts with bugs coming out of cocoons, continues with bugs flying and ends with bugs dying. my job was the begining and end with the flying bit in the middle being animated by another robert elsewhere in australia. it’s all being pieced together by various animators, illustrators, director/producer/editors and new zealanders via the wonders of the internet… and snail mail. when i post a video about this i’ll put up a run down of everyone involved and their particular claims to awesomeness.
in other news: ZEAL RETURNS TO THE STAGE!
and this is going to be something special. why? because: ZEAL IS PLAYING WITH ALEKS AND THE RAMPS AT THE JADE MONKEY JULY 9TH!
it’s difficult to explain how exciting this is. i’ve wanted to play with aleks and the ramps for years. so come! it’s my first gig in 6 months! hear the new album! watch my new guitar hero max patch in action! see my audio/visual spectacular of which the visual component isn’t quite complete!
click here for the facebook event. invite your friends
my good friend subsketch and i have done something silly. we’ve agreed to play a big star instore (!) with a weeks notice. can we do it? come and see. we’ll be in the basement – truly underground.
perfectly sums up my waking hours over the last couple of days. i’m in phase-3 of a music video for faux pas and have only now discovered how much paper some of my ideas eat. entries for st kilda close in a week and i had plans to document completing the clip against a ticking clock. i quickly realized that finishing the clip in a week was impossible. i’m going to document it’s progress anyway!
a few upcoming gigs too -
bird lantern zeal friday feb 8th
8pm
10$
saso gallery
157 waymouth st
the big lovin’ thursday feb 14
8.30 PM
free
grace emily
waymouth st
and also, a compilation of adelaide bands has been released. it’s called ‘vision‘ and profits are for the royal society for the blind. my track ‘yumi and the sky’ is on there along with some new material from subsketch. for more information, or to buy it, head here.
Zeal is 25 year-old Adelaidien, Robert Jarvis. He makes down-beat experimentapop in his bedroom studio and animated music videos about cats in space on his bedroom floor.
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