BEND LIGHT, WARP SOUND. JOIN THE ANTI-MAGNOMUSH MOVEMENT

ᵗʰᵉ ᵏⁱᵗᵗᵉʳᶜʰᵒʳᵈ ʰᵉˣ ⁱˢ ᵃ ʰᵉˣᵃᵖʰᵒᵗᵒⁿⁱᶜ ˢʰᵒᵉᵍᵃᶻᵉ ᵖⁱᶜᵏ⁻ᵘᵖ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵒᵖᵉⁿˢ ᵘᵖ ⁿᵉʷ ʷᵃʸˢ ᵗᵒ ᵐᵃⁿⁱᵖᵘˡᵃᵗᵉ ˢᵒᵘⁿᵈ ᵘˢⁱⁿᵍ ˡⁱᵍʰᵗ.

The claustrophobia, the clinical bulk.

“Premium audio solutions”. By squeezing all the strings into a flat homogenized signal, conventional guitar pickups limit possibilities for texture. I’m not trying to be cute when I say existing setups to fix this require a labyrinth of cables, it’s a pointlessly proprietary overpriced fever dream - not to mention the external interfaces, splitters, and complex MIDI or CV converters they expect of you. All the while traditional magnetic systems reject nylon or unconventional instruments entirely. Stalinist rigidity? Boo! What about those of us that want to play?

The prescription? Invite chaos!

Emergence! By untangling and picking up each string separately we can knit them into new warm blankets of noise with per-string FX processing – powered and contained neatly in DAWs or modular synths via a single USB, CV, or MIDI output. It’s literal laser precision allows you to pick at the sands and grit.

Huh? Lasers?

Picture this. A laser pointer shines a beam of light at your guitar string. Right below, there’s a light sensor. When you pluck the string, it vibrates—blocking some of the laser beam as it moves. The sensor sees these changes in brightness and turns those flickers into electrical signals… Data! Sound! Everything you’ve ever heard is a vibration. 1s and 0s fossilize it. Onses and offses. Flickering. The way that it works is almost indistinguishable from a microphone, but instead of picking up vibrations in the air, it sees them with light.

ʰᵉˣ ᵍˡⁱᵐᵐᵉʳ ᵖʳᵒᵗᵒᵗʸᵖᵉ ⁱⁿᵗᵒ ˢᵘᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍ ᵃᵐᵖˡⁱᶠⁱᵉʳ

Hexaphonics?

With this laser precision, a single guitar unfolds into 6 - an orchestra. String peaks themselves become living signals and knobs, allowing for vast unprecedented sonique-freedom

hexaphonic /ˌhɛksəˈfɒnɪk/ (adjective) (of sound reproduction) In six channels.

Impliques & possibilities

Artificial Resonance

Reconstruct strings together, for one to digitally ignite effects on another. Play god and wire your guitars sympathetic nervous system. Make it meow. :3

Landscape Architecture

Pan and explode the each string outwards to its own coordinates within stereo-space. Strategize constructed confields¹. Hyper-Spatialization.

Pseudo-12-Stringification

Pitch-bend per-string for instant microtonal detunings, or stacked octaves and harmonies for infinite-string density. Forge new instruments from light.

Emergent phenomena

Feeling restless? Experiment with the lasers to make the sensors misread the light flickers, creating glitches, distortion, or warbles, all with nothing but physics. Whimsy! Take me away! You open the door, to another door, to another door.² In this unexplored territory, machines are weaponized against familiarity.

emergence /ɪˈmɜː.dʒəns/ (noun)

the development of particular patterns, properties, or behaviours in parts of complex systems that happen only when the parts of the system interact, and that the parts do not have on their own.

Emergent distortion

• Total eclipse - Above :: With rays directly overhead, shadows harden and vibrations slam against sensor thresholds. The signal is clipped - decapitated into synthetic limit-cased square-wave screaming.
• Partial eclipse - Displacement :: Offset rays to graze the string-shadow from the Total to surgically target micro-variations.
• First contact - beyond the Periphery :: Stray far enough & rays shine unobstructed, skimming the string’s oscillating perimeter. Silence reigns, punctured only by violent strums breaching the sensor field.

Emergent phasing

• Full moon - Sub-String :: Light scatters from a second sun on the underside. String presence gates photon return, & so the string-shadow binary is flipped. Compared to the overexposed readings from the sun, a cleaner wave can be extracted from the secondary reflections of the moon.
• Moonlight Eclipse cancellation :: Binary opposition is hardwired. Signals are intrinsically phase-opposed by nature. Polarity itself becomes the signal, blending & folding themselves onto each other

above : blocked : zero.

below : reflected : one.

• Phase Diversity :: Dual-Point Capture :: One of these per side create a humbucker-like phase diversity, blending two tones together

Emergent compression

• Loudness -> Dimness - Preservation :: Amplitude spikes trigger systemic dampening modulated at its source. A new and completely unique method of downwards compression, not by algorithm, but by using analogue audio-visual feedback. Everything is a reference to itself.
• Breathing - Pulsation :: Flashy! –> the visuality of the system policing its own intensity levels allows the mechanism itself to be immediately understood. Seeing is believing.

Emergent Rhythm and Tremolo

• Injected Gating :: With external MIDI/CV clock signals, you can gate the laser to flash off when interrupted, creating inter-process sidechaining - imposed rhythm.
• Leslie Motor :: A motor shoves the lasers (and in extension, the waveform) back and forth, mimicking the physical chorale and tremolo effects of early hammond organs
• Whammy Morph :: Aside from physical manipulation, when pulsed/flashed at sub-audio rates (e.g., 1-20 Hz), it will create an intrinsic tremolo or rhythmic slicing effect

Emergent Synthesis

• Luminoscillator :: Pulse the lasers all the way to audio-rate frequencies and the Hex transcends its role as a pickup and becomes a raw synthesizer. Each laser/sensor pair transforms into an independent oscillator, its rapid on/off cycle interpreted by the sensor as a fundamental frequency.

Emergent Ring Modulator

• Sideband Spectres :: As the emergent synth plays, the vibrating string then acts as a modulator, its signal imprinting itself onto this light-born frequency. This is Amplitude Modulation (AM) synthesis realized through physical interaction. This adds a host of sideband frequencies to the already layered signal – new spectral artifacts born from the sum and difference of the string and laser frequencies. This process forges intensely rich, often metallic, bell-like, or uniquely non-harmonic timbres.

ʰᵉˣ ᵍˡⁱᵐᵐᵉʳ ᵏⁿᵒᵇ ᶜᵒⁿᵗʳᵒˡˡᵉᵈ ᵃᵐᵖˡⁱᵗᵘᵈᵉ ᵐᵒᵈᵘˡᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ˡᵃˢᵉʳ ᵈⁱᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍ

What if we formed a Body without Organs? (˶•˶˶•˶)

Everything is a reference to itself. All these emergent phenomena interact with each other creating something completely new all together in unpredictable ways, even just among ones I have discovered and described here. Just to bring up one example, between emergent phasing and ring modulation, while the phased reflected laser can be used to effectively to bring back the dry signal into the chaos of the ring modulation, when it does, the out-of-phase components of the signals effectively subtract when summed at the sensor, leading to complex phase interactions between the sidebands of the ring modulation and the harmonics of the clean string signal. In emergent synth terms, this can be understood as another layer of subtractive synthesis on top of the AM synthesis. Oroboros will be released… into the atmosphere.. ensuring… complete…. global… SATURATION.

When you will have made him a body without organs, then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions and restored him to his true freedom.³

This timbral universe packed in a single compact package. No split boxes. No 16 channel XLR audio interfaces. No propritary trip hazards. No compromise. Just one wire out USB, with switchable traditional analog output configurations if you change your mind.

Modularity and configurability

The Hex will be sold in attachable parts, the Hex Heart (the processer board) can be equipped with either the Hex Glimmer or the Hex Dustling, which have variations for 6 stringed or 4 stringed instruments.

Hex Dustling

Dirty, more experimental, unrestrained and distinct “almost electric keyboard-like”⁴ sound. Using a flat lens, emergent distortion is more easily controlled and manipulated.

Hex Glimmer

Cleaner, more dynamic, reliable and predictable sound using a curved lens that captures a wider window of light. Great if you’re overwhelmed by the sensitivity of emergent distortion and phasing, and you’d like a simpler setup without the reflected lasers.

Pocketability for gigs and nomads

• Built in audio interface provides unmatched 6-channel hexaphonic versatility out a single USB, or switchable traditional audio output configurations (traditional mono all signals go into one, all strings into one stereo jack with 3 strings on left and right, fully hexaphonic through 3 stereo jacks)
• Option for pedalboard-less and DAW-focused effect chains

Compatibility for catguts

• One for all the experimental string materials and niche instruments
• Modular and secure attachment-style

What do these cool people think?

Wow I wish I had thought of that, it sounds so much better than I would have expected I’m a believer - Lottie Canto

I want one!

Join the waiting list:

Music to listen to while waiting for your Hex