Jody Kruskal Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Michinobu Uda shows off his invention the UDAR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpUKgRI3knw It's not a concertina but... hey, it's pretty cool. More info here: http://tokyotek.com/udar-amazing-musical-invention/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelly0312 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 ....that is coolest ever. And I could see you fitting that right into some of your musical montages! Fingering??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Looks like it can be played with all 10 digits too !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Musical nuts and bolts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Jowaisas Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 It has some of that Jeffries duet/calliope sound! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Taylor Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 There is more to this than Jody's post reveals which makes it even more interesting. It can be played in any temperament with an 8 octave range. Volume dynamics are controlled by how hard you press and I am pretty sure that you can easily bend notes simply by sliding your finger. I think that each successive facet is a semitone apart in the centre, but you can press off centre to achieve any micro-tone you want. Here is a video with English sub-titles that explains how it works and how to play it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaAqoHia2M Michinobu Uda has been working on this for 10 years or so. Jody's link is to an older version that he built just for himself. He originally did not intend to make any more. But now he now has a more polished/commercial version which you can see in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ti2GZM7zcA#t=12 This video also explains how to play chords on the Udar. And yes, he will sell you one for 400,000 yen which is about $3,500. You might have to go to Japan to get it ... Finally, here is a nice video of him playing something familiar to folks here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tKQ6Iz4AuY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linrose Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Carpal tunnel syndrome in 30 days or a full refund (minus shipping, of course). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Anyone found a video of a few Reels with 'regulator' accompaniment ?.... just asking..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) Well at first glance, it looks like a midi concertina that you can't squeeze. Still, it sounds interesting. Midi is crude but powerful and with the right programing can sound great. So, I'm listening to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_hawtMiODA ...and thinking... my! For a midi instrument, Michinobu Uda's devise almost has enough control to make it sound somewhat human-ish. Like an Anglo or duet he can play right hand melody and left hand accompaniment. Wow! That's what I do. Hmmmm. Does each finger/note have it's own independent volume control? That would make it potentially much more expressive than a squeezebox. More like a piano than a machine where a single bellows drives all notes equally, ie all concertinas. Oh, I see, each of the two bands, left and right have their own volume control. That's not like a piano, but oh so handy to be able to balance the melody with the harmony... nice and simple! This link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ti2GZM7zcA shows the fingering and pitch sliding in a delightfully musical and graphic mode. No talking, and still, you get the whole system. Ingenious! Uda moves the two dimensional button box systems of rectangles and hexagons into a three dimensional cylinder arrangement. That is an amazing achievement of concept for small hand-held harmonic instruments. But... how would it work camping or on the boat or the beach...? Where would you plug it in? Edited February 27, 2015 by Jody Kruskal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglo-Irishman Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Truly the concertina of the electronic age! Lovely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartEstell Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Carpal tunnel syndrome in 30 days or a full refund (minus shipping, of course). Absolutely. It's a lovely idea but I'd imagine it causing a fair few injuries... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Franch Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) But... how would it work camping or on the boat or the beach...? Where would you plug it in? I wonder how big a battery back you'd need. A battery and headphones or tiny speakers, you'd be all set! Edited: Ah, I see by the second video link that it comes in a small package, with speakers and, presumably, a battery, as he doesn't plug it in. I wouldn't want to take it to a beach, but one wouldn't want to take a good concertina to the beach. Camping? Sure! Not that I go camping. Not that I'd ever master this thing. But I could probably learn to wrap it in a cloth, Japanese style. Edited February 25, 2015 by Mike Franch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 It looks to be a perfect instrument for living in a really tiny appartment, as many Japanese people do, as it takes no more space than a Teapot and its sound output can be contained in one's headphones... so no angry neighbours living the other side of a paper thin wall. One Japanese player of the Anglo that I know says finding somewhere to practice with a Sutner is nearly impossible in Toyko. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chas Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 It looks to be a perfect instrument for living in a really tiny appartment, as many Japanese people do, as it takes no more space than a Teapot and its sound output can be contained in one's headphones... so no angry neighbours living the other side of a paper thin wall. One Japanese player of the Anglo that I know says finding somewhere to practice with a Sutner is nearly impossible in Toyko. Off topic, I know, but have you come across the electronic uilleann pipes, Geoff? Or is that sacrilege? I knew a German piper who had a wee electronic chanter - standard fingering - which played into headphones so he could practise anywhere, on the train, in church... in a tiny apartment. He reckoned at home he could only practise his real set under a nearby autobahn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 It looks to be a perfect instrument for living in a really tiny appartment, as many Japanese people do, as it takes no more space than a Teapot and its sound output can be contained in one's headphones... so no angry neighbours living the other side of a paper thin wall. One Japanese player of the Anglo that I know says finding somewhere to practice with a Sutner is nearly impossible in Toyko. Off topic, I know, but have you come across the electronic uilleann pipes, Geoff? Or is that sacrilege? I knew a German piper who had a wee electronic chanter - standard fingering - which played into headphones so he could practise anywhere, on the train, in church... in a tiny apartment. He reckoned at home he could only practise his real set under a nearby autobahn. I have seen electronic Bagpipes and recently I saw one which could be programmed to suit the fingerings of several different types of pipes... but a full set of Uilleann Pipes with sound sampled or midi capabilities I have not heard of... yet ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatthewVanitas Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 For a couple years I've been vaguely meaning to get a Fagerstrom "Technopipes" electronic bagpipe, in the sackpipa (Swedish bagpipe) settup. The Fagerstrom is totally self-contained, just one chanter-sized baton with contact points on it, with the battery, processor, etc inside. Plug in earphones (or into a speaker), hit a switch and your drones kick in and you start producing melody from the fingerings.Th Though I still would like on, with smartphones becomeing omnipresent I'm leaning more and more to finding something similar that is nothing but a body and contact points, and just plugging it into my phone for power, processor, etc. That way I can make any changes to sound/pitch/temperament, etc right there on my screen, don't need any separate charging settup, and can use different programs or whatnot rather than be stuck with whatever is stock inside the body. Come to think of it, I should drop the maker a line in Sweden, ask him if he's considering making a variant that is just the minimal hardware to jack into a phone, to save the expense and obsolesence of the other parts currently built in to the mechanism. http://www.fagerstrom.com/technopipes/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now