A Tangible Virtual Vibrating String: A Physically Motivated Virtual Musical Instrument Interface

We introduce physically motivated interfaces for playing virtual musical instruments, and we suggest that they lie somewhere in between commonplace interfaces and haptic interfaces in terms of their complexity. Next, we review guitarlike interfaces, and we design an interface to a virtual string. The excitation signal and pitch are sensed separately using two independent string segments. These parameters control a two-axis digital waveguide virtual string, which models vibrations in the horizontal and vertical transverse axes as well as the coupling between them. Finally, we consider the advantages of using a multi-axis pickup for measuring the excitation signal.