Jiffer Harriman
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Feedback Lap Steel
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The feedback-lap-steel is an actuated musical instrument. The bridge of the instrument is mounted on top of a voice coil which is sold off the shelf as a tactile transducer for home theater or car audio systems. This enables another way of exciting the strings. By shaking the bridge at frequencies tuned to the natural resonance of the strings those frequencies are reinforced and the strings vibrate indefinitely after being plucked or without being plucked at all.
Any audio signal can be driven into the bridge. In fact one of my favorite uses is to drive it with audio unrelated to feedback from the instrument (percussive sounds are particularly fun). The sounds are filtered through the strings and can be manipulated and tuned with the steel bar.
CCRMA Spring Concert 2012:
Here's another perormance from the same night, I'm hiding in the shadows. In this performance I use more subtle effects to fit with Cecelia's piece.
wiki project blog
Construction images