the botar: a new musical instrument

what is a botar?

• a new musical instrument
• an electronic musical instrument
• components:
  • neck: the part the player plays
  • brain: a computer

what does it look like?

exploded view of neck

the neck

looks like the neck of a guitar, except that

• it has no peghead
• instead of conventional strings it uses sensors

the brain

the prototype uses a development computer, but all the circuitry could be made to fit in a box no bigger than a videocassette

how do you play it?

Very much like you play a cello or a guitar, except that instead of bowing or plucking you press on a "string", which is a strip of rubber lying over a sensor.

• the harder you press the louder the instrument sounds
• no pressure, no sound

A short QuickTime movie of someone playing the botar.
The same movie in Windows AVI format.

what does it sound like?

• it can sound like a blown or bowed instrument or the human voice
  • because the player has continuous control of loudness over the whole length of every phrase
• I'm making some mp3 sound files to publish here

where does the development of the botar stand?

• I've built a working model
• I've decided to put the idea in the public domain, so others can work on it. I.e., this is an 'open source' project, like the linux project.
• the next version

write Tom