The Electrosteel: An Electronic Instrument Inspired by the Pedal Steel Guitar

Jeffrey Snyder, Davis Polito, and Matthew Wang

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

The Electrosteel is a new electronic instrument inspired by the user interface of the pedal steel guitar (PSG). The Electrosteel uses the interface concepts of the PSG (a bar in the left hand, plucked strings for the right hand, foot pedals, knee levers, etc) as a control paradigm for digital synthesis. The instrument allows performers with skill on the PSG to expand their sonic range, and creates a powerful new multi-dimensional way to control synthesis. This paper describes the development of the instrument and its custom embedded synthesis engine, with a focus on the design challenges posed by mapping an existing performer interface to a new instrument.

Citation:

Jeffrey Snyder, Davis Polito, and Matthew Wang. 2023. The Electrosteel: An Electronic Instrument Inspired by the Pedal Steel Guitar. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11189228

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime2023_57,
 abstract = {The Electrosteel is a new electronic instrument inspired by the user interface of the pedal steel guitar (PSG). The Electrosteel uses the interface concepts of the PSG (a bar in the left hand, plucked strings for the right hand, foot pedals, knee levers, etc) as a control paradigm for digital synthesis. The instrument allows performers with skill on the PSG to expand their sonic range, and creates a powerful new multi-dimensional way to control synthesis. This paper describes the development of the instrument and its custom embedded synthesis engine, with a focus on the design challenges posed by mapping an existing performer interface to a new instrument.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {57},
 author = {Jeffrey Snyder and Davis Polito and Matthew Wang},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11189228},
 editor = {Miguel Ortiz and Adnan Marquez-Borbon},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {May},
 numpages = {8},
 pages = {409--416},
 title = {The Electrosteel: An Electronic Instrument Inspired by the Pedal Steel Guitar},
 track = {Papers},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_57.pdf},
 urlsuppl1 = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_57_video.mp4},
 year = {2023}
}