14 DAY TRIAL // It seems like the world of sound and music is going through quite serious changes; unfortunately, I personally guess that not all of them are towards the better... Some fields have been beautifully modeled by the human tech while others are rather starting to lose the charm they once exerted on the people.
It is the case of the MIDI guitar controllers, artificial pieces of tech that are beginning to replace the way guitars were supposed to be and be played. Now, don't get me wrong and think that I am opposing progress, but simply pretending won't ever replace the real thing. The Starr Labs are growing specialized in all sorts of MIDI controllers for more than one instrument like guitar was. But it just seems to me that promoting such a plastic piece (of s**t if compared to real guitars) as a worthy replacement for the endless hours guitar serious players spend rehearsing sounds like blasphemy.
Designing a toy or a game is one thing; trying to draw people from the true artistic work into the "somehow serious" toy-y, artsy team sucks. I mean, how could anyone compare (or attempt to replicate) what BB King or Satriani do with guitars in their hands with the silly-looking plastic and LED thingies? Well, I guess I'll rant about this issue some time later this week...
Coming back to the Starr Labs and their new controller, the Ztar Z7-S, is indeed one cool piece of technical engineering and I can't but appreciate the work they've put up. In their own description, the new-generation controller sports "24-fret fully polyphonic (more than one-note-per-string!) and programmable fingerboard, 6 fast and sensitive String Triggers, Position-sensing Ribbon controller, programmable Volume Pot and 2 line x 40 character programming display." Isn't that cute?
For a toy, it simply rocks far out but the moment you start loading and programming and attempting to become THE rockstar, things get really silly and compared to this, the air guitar a**holes would look like Rolling f***ing Stones! Have you noticed the Brackets? "More than one note!" Can you imagine such breakthrough? A guitar that actually emits more than one note! Unf***ingbelievable!
For a large soda can under $1,500 you get a piece of plastic which plays more than one note! Wow, that's one bargain! Loading this thing with the latest triggering tech was a real endeavor and it managed to succeed; yet its final purpose of (at least) trying to replace guitar is a hilarious one, at least from my point of view, after playing for more 14 years.
If you want to have fun and are willing to spend 1,500 bucks on this toy, it's OK; but if you plan to rock the world, you'll end to be the real guitarists' joke.
