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  • Palin Against Abortion even if Rape or Incest October 7, 2008
    Palin debating the abortion issue in 2006. She's against abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Would approve of legislation outlawing all abortions except for health of the mother only.
  • Keating Economics: Brought to you by John McCain October 6, 2008
    New Barack Obama ad about how John "the maverick" McCain still hasn't learned his since 1989.
  • Bank Loans Have Not 'Dried Up' - Forbes.com October 2, 2008
    A view you won't hear on TV.
  • George Lakoff: A Brief Guide to the Debates October 2, 2008
    In the first debate, Obama did what he needed to do: convince a majority that he has what it takes. But there is room for improvement... The reason the list is short is that Obama did so well. Biden doesn't have to prove himself in this debate. Palin does have to prove herself. That means Biden can hold back, give short but powerful responses, and
  • Sam Stein: McCain Gets Testy With Des Moines Register October 1, 2008
    ...McCain got near anger when it was suggested that the Straight Talk Express had taken a detour, challenging the questioner to provide examples. Asked specifically about the kindergarten sex-ed ad, McCain defended it wholeheartedly....
  • Daily Kos: Seize the Day September 30, 2008
    The temptation now is going to be to coddle the poor right. Give them some minor tweak in the bill to salve their fragile egos and gain the dozen votes that are needed to pass yesterday's bill. Don't. Don't do it, damn it.
  • Economist: Why Bankruptcy is Better than Wall Street Bailout September 30, 2008
    Congress has balked at the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Under this plan, the Treasury would have bought the "troubled assets" of financial institutions in an attempt to avoid economic meltdown. This bailout was a terrible idea. Here's why.
  • Humiliated September 28, 2008
    Jonathan Weisman has a fascinating, even riveting narrative of what went down in Washington on Thursday as John McCain made his play to commandeer the high-level negotiations over the bailout bill. And TPM Reader TW called my attention to a...
  • America’s bail-out plan [Economist] September 26, 2008
    A good article detailing out the happenings of the last year with a focus on the last couple of weeks. Not the Huffington Post.
  • Art Of Time Ensemble with Steven Page · CBC Radio 2 - Concer September 24, 2008
    Internationally renowned Steven Page, lead singer of the band Barenaked Ladies, performing his favourite songs live at the Enwave Theatre, at the Harbourfront Centre. He teams up with members of the Art Of Time Ensemble, led by pianist Andrew Burashko.
  • Jun
    19

    Do Robotic Guitars Dream in Open Tunings?

    Apparently, they do. This seems too good to be true, but Gibson claims their new “Robot Guitar” can switch between different tunings (standard, drop D, open G, etc.) at the push of a button.

    I remain skeptical. For one thing, when you lower a string’s pitch, you have to drop it lower than the intended note, so that you can tune up to it. Otherwise, the slack in the string will cause it to go out of tune in no time (the horn players in my high school jazz orchestra never understood this). I’m wondering if a machine would do this. Worse, in my experience, automated functions always bite you in the ass. If the guitar has a computerized sensor that adjust the strings as you play, what’s to stop it from making unwanted adjustments?

    Still, if this thing really does work, it’s pretty fucking awesome. It would change the way a lot of people play guitar.

5 Responses to “Do Robotic Guitars Dream in Open Tunings?”

  1. josh said on June 19th, 2008 at 9:26 am

    yeah — and can a robot guitar change its own strings? it will probably need to, with all that robo-tuning.

    plus, what happens when they inevitably turn on their masters?

  2. charlie said on June 19th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    http://www.moogmusic.com/moogguitar/

    I’m in for the Moog guitar. It offers “infinite sustain!”

  3. gray said on June 20th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    Interesting. In the string instrument classes I took as an undergrad, the reason they gave for tuning string instruments from below wasn’t because the strings would go out of tune if you tuned from above, but because it’s much easier to hear tuning as it rises. But the slack business makes sense too.

    The percussion class I took offered a lesson that comes much closer: besides it being easier to hear from below (side note: when tuning an instrument to a piano, it’s easier to hear the correct frequency if the pianist plays it as the root of a minor triad), thumping the drum head while tuning down puts the head in danger of rupturing. Thumping while tuning up, apparently, is much safer. It stands to reason that what’s true for tension on a drum head would also be true for tension on a string, so maybe yet another reason to tune from below on a string instrument is to lessen the chance that you’ll break a string.

    I wish I knew more about this sort of thing. Thanks for the lesson, Mark!

  4. charlie said on June 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 am

    In orchestra we were always told to tune from below as well. Back the peg off and then keep a sustained note going while tuning up to the frequency.

  5. mark said on June 23rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Josh: How about Cylon guitars? You can smash ‘em up on stage. And when you come home, there will be a newly regenerated one waiting for you.

    Charlie: I want me some of those! Seriously, I wish they had a demo on the Moog site. I’d love to hear how one of those things sound.

    Gray: I always thought I couldn’t hear the pitch going down because I was accustomed to turning up. Now I know better.

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