Using a saber as a musical instrument?

[Felinus]

Most of the videos I've seen of people's routines are various forms/spins set to music. These are all pretty cool, but I'm wondering if anyone has been using their saber as a type of music+light performance art piece. That is, programming with a sound font that's either a musical scale, or a variety of samples that work well together (but not necessarily sounding like a traditional saber). The idle hum could work as the background groove... so, a video shot of this wouldn't have any overdubbed music, just use the actual sound coming from the saber, and various gestures could play a tune of sorts.

Maybe this is already "a thing", and I'm just clueless? (I'm pretty new to all this) If so, can anyone recommend some videos? 

When I got my saber, my first reaction was that it felt more like a musical instrument than a weapon. Once you get a sense for how to activate the gestures reliably, I could see using this to actually play some music. With the Diamond controller (which I have), you can take it to another level with gestures, and light color changes. My issue is that I'm pretty amateur when it comes to music. But, I think in the hands of a decent musician, there could be some interesting possibilities.

[skribs]

To be honest, I think even if you do a font like this, on a video it would be better to have the music dubbed over, simply for the fact that you can edit different shots together and have control over the audio.

However, this would be cool for a live performance, where you can use the lightsaber to control the audio.

[Felinus]

However, this would be cool for a live performance, where you can use the lightsaber to control the audio.

Yes, that's what I was thinking - more of a live performance thing. If you do record such a performance, the audio would likely not be very good, since you'd be getting all sorts of background noise . I've been working on a font to experiment with this - just a few synthesized notes that play well together. It helps to have all the audio clips timed as well, so they end on a predictable beat. But... boy, it's difficult. You need to both keep a beat, and successfully & reliably perform gestures. But, most instruments worth playing are difficult to learn!

[Darth Cephalus]

There were a couple fonts way back when that did this sort of thing. The one I tried out was called dubstep of the fates. Basically it was a repeating beat with different melodic interuptions for swings, clashes, and lockup. There was a metal version of the emperial march too. The problem was had was how little control you have over which of the 8 sounds was keyed by motions. The limited control and limited number of different riffs made the font get repetitive. At least that was what I found to be the case. To be fair, I didn't play with it for that long.

[Felinus]

There were a couple fonts way back when that did this sort of thing. The one I tried out was called dubstep of the fates. Basically it was a repeating beat with different melodic interuptions for swings, clashes, and lockup. There was a metal version of the emperial march too. The problem was had was how little control you have over which of the 8 sounds was keyed by motions. The limited control and limited number of different riffs made the font get repetitive. At least that was what I found to be the case. To be fair, I didn't play with it for that long.

Thanks... I'll have to search for those. It's a bit tedious to make fonts :-)

I wish there was an option to make multiple sounds on an effect go in sequence, so it'd be predictable which came up next. Default is they come out random. I did try making a font with a tonal scale - 8 notes - for the swing, so it didn't matter exactly which came out when - the result is a bit of a randomized musical ditty. In addition, it helps to carry the idle hum through the swing sounds, so it's always present.

I was playing with this some more last night... One challenge is that you can quickly get hung-up on making sounds, and the saber artistry falls to the background, so I'm just standing there barely moving the saber enough to make the sounds I want, when I want them. I guess it'd take a lot of practice.

Also, I think this may work better with a more airy style of music. Think more like Enya than Death Metal. I was trying more like a buzzsaw synth style, but may need to tone it down a notch.

[scraver]

Certainly an interesting idea. I can see that it would be tricky with the Obsidian board and I can't comment on the Diamond because I don't own one.
I have some boards from other manufacturers but I can see similar issues in getting specific sounds to trigger in a specific order, even with those - and I have to admit I haven't really looked into it.

I imagine there might be a way to do it but the ways I am thinking of would more involve the saber as a trigger for other electronics, such as a looper.

[DarthMirage]

When I read the title I took it more like "Has anyone incorporated a lightsaber into an instrument". As I read on, I was really wrong But cool would it be to have a flute-saber or a guitar that hid a lightsaber in the neck and came out near the tuning keys?!