Musical Instruments of the 21st Century

Musical revolutions have always been directly linked to technological advancements: new directions are born with the discovery of new instruments or new ways of recording/reproducing sound. Especially in the last century - the century of industrialization and scientific and technological progress. It all started even earlier - let's assume that in 1889, when Claude Debussy heard the Javanese gamelan at the Paris World Exhibition, was inspired and led modernism to exotic scales and sonoristics. Further - more: the electric guitar gave birth to rock, cheap mass synthesizers - new wave and synth-pop, vinyl players and records, the grandchildren of Edison's phonograph, - hip-hop, the bass synthesizer TB-303 - acid house, home computers - a myriad of directions in electronic music, etc. Perhaps the music of the future is already being recorded on one of these instruments or interfaces that appeared in the new century.

In this article, we decided to talk about musical instruments and, where would we be without them, MIDI controllers, invented in the 21st century and making us take a fresh look at the methods of creating music.

Yaybahar

Musician Görkem Şen from Istanbul created an acoustic musical instrument capable of producing sounds that previously could only be obtained with the help of synthesizers or electronic effects. "The yaybahar" is a combination of strings, springs and drums. Vibrations from the strings are transmitted through cylindrical springs to a frame with drums. These vibrations, with the help of membranes, are converted into sound, and then returned back to the cylindrical springs. This is how, according to the author, it is possible to achieve a hypnotic-voluminous sound that fascinates listeners.

Harpejji

A hybrid of guitar and keyboard, similar to a large zither. The sound is extracted by pressing the strings to the panel - that is, tapping. There are 16- and 24-string harpejjis for four and five octaves. An example of an instrument that is not the most difficult to learn and elegant, which not only became a unique toy, like many of its counterparts, but took root in some musical groups as a permanent member.

Eigenharp

A hybrid of a digital guitar, bassoon, synthesizer and drum machine. It has keys-joysticks (each note can be pulled), a wind synthesizer, a ribbon controller, buttons for percussion, a built-in sequencer. A great solution for electronic musicians who want to look like space rockers on stage. Musician of the trance-ambient group Shen John Lambert developed the eigenharp for 8 years and presented it to the public in 2009.

Hang

Hang is already familiar to all percussion lovers, although it appeared only in the 21st century. The brainchild of Swiss experimenters from Bern consists of two parts. The upper one includes the notes of one octave, and the lower one allows you to change the timbre of the sound as a whole or is used as a separate bass note. An excellent example of when simplicity can bring a new instrument to the market and bring commercial success.

Tenori-on

Yamaha Tenori-on is an innovative synthesizer, a musical instrument of the 21st century. The square display, consisting of 256 buttons-sensors with LEDs inside, conveniently fits in the hands and weighs only 650g. Pressing the buttons forms a glowing signal, which can take different forms. Many glowing buttons make up an "audio picture" corresponding to the image on the display.

Marble Machine

Swedish musician, member of the Wintergatan group Martin Molin built a musical instrument that uses about 2000 metal balls in its work. Molin called his creation "Marble Machine". The invention of the Swede combines a bass drum, vibraphone, bass guitar and other instruments. "Marble Machine" works with the help of a flywheel, which sets thousands of balls in motion. Work on the instrument began in the fall of 2014. At first, Molin hoped to complete the "Marble Machine" in two months, but the creation dragged on for 14 months. The musician noted that during the creation of the "Marble Machine" he was inspired by the toy of the same name. Molin explained that his instrument is programmed for 32 bars. Its peculiarity is that you can change the harmony of the song on the go. In the video, the song begins in E major, later moving to C minor. Note that the Wintergatan music group often uses many unusual musical instruments at their concerts, including the theremin, a modular synthesizer of its own design Modulin, etc.

AlphaSphere

This original controller in such a nostalgic 2007 was invented by a student from Britain. We do not see any technical know-how in the instrument, rather, it is a stylish design solution - a spherical sampler with a program that allows you to "hang" sounds on numerous pads. It is ideal for those who want to look spectacular on stage. And let the musicians judge the effectiveness.

Continuum

Haken Continuum is a MIDI/Firewire controller that has truly unlimited possibilities for working with sound. On the one hand, the instrument looks like a traditional polyphonic MIDI keyboard with 88 keys. On the other hand, Continuum allows you to control sound parameters in three dimensions not discretely. Moreover, this can be done with all ten fingers. Continuum is compatible with any MIDI synthesizers, sound modules and sequencers.

Reactable

An amazing instrument was presented to the world by Spanish inventors. Reactable is a table with a multi-touch panel, on which special sound generators are installed. The melody being performed depends both on the choice of the generator and on its position relative to others. The volume and principles of interaction are determined in real time. However, this is exactly the instrument that needs to be seen - it is almost impossible to describe science-fiction magic in words.

Hydraulophone

Professor of the University of Toronto Steve Mann in 2006 presented not another development in the field of computational photography, as his colleagues are already used to, but a new instrument. In essence, it works like a flute - only, by closing the holes, you block the path not to air, but to a stream of water. In one version called balnaphone, the performer sits in a bath.

Misa Kitara

Last year's development from Misa Digital Instruments, whose main office is located in Hong Kong. This digital guitar has no strings at all, instead - an image on a touch screen. Each fret is divided into six buttons. As a result, you can, as it were, extract synthetic sounds from a guitar (a synth block with timbres and effects is the third component of the instrument), assigning your own sound to each string. The project works on the open source principle.

Tongue Drum

Tongue drum is a wooden drum consisting of 14, 12 or 6 percussion zones. Each of them is assembled manually from special types of wood. It is thanks to the material and precisely selected parameters of the structure that the zones have unique resonating properties and give this drum such an amazing sound. For many, it will be a surprise that wood can generally produce such a deep and long-lasting sound.

Floppotron

Pole Pavel Zadrozniak assembled a computer orchestra of 64 floppy drives, eight hard drives and two scanners. The programmer called his development "Floppotron". As Zadrozniak explains, each electrical device is capable of generating sound and this sound can be controlled. The programmer controlled "Floppotron" with the help of a program that he wrote in Python.

Laser harp

Laser harp is an electronic musical instrument consisting of several laser beams, which must be blocked, similar to the plucking of strings of a regular harp. The two-color laser harp was invented and manufactured in 2008 by Maurizio Carelli. The Italian software and electronics engineer created a portable two-color laser harp called "KromaLASER KL-250".