Who Wants A Pedal Steel Synthesizer?

US Electro-acoustic synthesizer uses strings instead of oscillators 09/01/20

Sound Stone are developing a new type of electro-acoustic synthesizer that uses strings instead of oscillators. They say that it's a sort of hybrid pedal steel/synth, kind of based of an Ondes Martenot or slide theremin and would like to know what you think of it to determine whether it's something that they should produce commercially. This is what they have to say...

We have recently completed a prototype of our new Pedal Steel Synthesizer instrument. Inspired by the rare Ondes Martenot, our instrument uses the Sound Stone sustainer tech along with a slide bar, pitch bending pedal, delay, and a built-in analog filter. A typical synthesizer uses an oscillator for its source tone, but ours uses strings. This adds lush harmonics and a very human quality to the sound.

Our instrument uses a pitch bending pedal which allows both minor and major chords to be played. In addition to full chords, you can also play individual notes by muting strings. We are currently refining this prototype with the hope of manufacturing in the future.

We are hoping to produce the instrument for an affordable price, hopefully between $700-1200. Please subscribe to our mailing list if you are interested in purchasing - this will help us gauge demand and decide if we should produce it.

The video is of us playing a duet using one for chords and one for an improvised melody.

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