Playing a musical instrument combines haptic feedback and user input in the generation of sound. Before electronics were involved, all sorts of physical and mechanical means of creating and modifying sound were used. With the advent of the electric guitar things became more interesting. Over the decades, various new switches and knobs were added. Electric guitars evolved to include new user inputs to change up your sound. Pickup selectors, volume and tone controls, and of course the whammy bar define many modern guitars. We went from bending a string with one’s finger, to doing so with a whammy bar for more leverage, then finally using a digitally whammy effect.

Since then a new generation of tools are being tested. Matt Bellamy of Muse famously added a touchpad to his guitar to modulate effects via midi. Buckethead, Tom Morello and Charles Caswell of Berried Alive are known for their use of momentary kill switches. Wayne Sermon from Imagine Dragons builds custom effects circuitry into his guitars.

Airpatch by Aviate Audio is designed to test the concept by enabling control of any effect from your instrument. Airpatch is doing this by connecting an on board control to an effects loop switcher that can control effects pedals through three switching modes. Matt Bradford creates slide guitar tremolo tones on the fly using Airpatch. Jack Weingartner uses Airpatch on Bass to sprinkle in octaves on a sonic journey. Both players use the unique momentary switching on Airpatch in their styles. We are excited to be a part of the future for how musicians will interact with their sound and it's amazing to see the possibilities being created by great musical minds.