Ed Perkins - The Stick

Ed Perkins' (b. 1982) 'Stick' is another excellent example of a hybrid instrument and is one that has also undergone significant changes and modifications over the course of the last ten years. The basic building blocks of the instrument are a pair of Doepfer ribbon controllers paired with a Nintendo Wii Remote to provide motion sensitivity. Perkins has built multiple iterations of a software instrument within Max/MSP that the Stick controls, creating something extremely performative which gives both visual and audio clues to audiences that the sounds he is producing and manipulating are occurring live. There have been 7 major overhalls of the instrument, each with five or six increments, and Perkins has so far used it for between 60 and 70 performances with different groups and for solo pieces.
Per Perkins:
“The software behind The Stick analyses live data from the physical movement of the performer in real time, allowing immediate and nuanced control over the resulting equivalent to that of an acoustic instrument. In simple terms, the stick can be turned on the Z axis for timbral variation and the Y axis provides dynamic control. Later versions of the stick feature ultrasonic sensors for further modulation control through proximity of the perfomer's hands to the instrument body. The sound is created from a mix of synthesis techniques including sample based granular and wavetable engines combined with simple FM, AM, additive and subtractive modules.”