The Cosmic Guitar App
Make music, not sounds.
We invented a new kind of guitar made of electricity and light called a photonic guitar. The photonic guitar physically makes music, but not sounds. To make this new instrument accessible we created the Cosmic Guitar plug-in. The Cosmic Guitar plug-in turns your electric guitar into a photonic guitar by using the physics of light and measurements of a resonant photonic guitar body.
Cosmic Guitar Demos
Inspired by the End of Stars
We demonstrate a few of the included presets and musical effects available from the Cosmic Guitar plug-in. The presets and instrument tones were inspired by the heavy distortions caused by the extreme physics of stars.Â
Hear the Light
How we use light like sound
Our everyday experience with light and sound are of course very different. The difference in physics is primarily driven by the size of light waves vs sound waves. The light we see has wave sizes 100 – 200 times smaller than the width of a human hair. In contrast, sound waves can be as large as 50 ft. The photonic guitar uses light the same size, or wavelength, as sounds made by an acoustic guitar. In contrast, an electric guitar matches the same frequencies as an acoustic guitar.
Speed of Light
Why the Cosmic Guitar is an App
We can’t play photonic guitars without technology. The speed of light is roughly a million times faster than the speed of sound. This makes everything about photonic instruments a million times faster. Since we can’t play a million times faster, we need to translate the physical photonic guitar into something musicians can actually play.Â
The Cosmic Guitar is the easiest way to play with these new photonic guitars. Simply plug your guitar into your phone. We used our physics and software expertise to create an iOS plug-in that recreates the photonic guitar. The plug-in uses measurements of a photonic guitar, along with the physics of light, to apply the effect of a resonant photonic guitar body to your electric guitar. The Cosmic Guitar works with your existing setup and enhances and transforms your sound.Â
Physics of Light
There are No Rules
The physics of light is all about the boundary conditions. Change how light behaves at a boundary and the entire solution changes. The Cosmic Guitar plug-in uses a versatile and scientifically accurate formulation of boundary conditions, developed by Dr. Russell Stoneback, to reflect authentic photonic guitar tones. Then we added knobs to vary conditions so that we can also model photonic guitars that are only possible in other universes.
The App Interface
Toggle, swipe, and adjust to find your perfect tone. Go crazy with possibilities.
It’s an effects pedal for your electric guitar. Using the Cosmic Guitar plug-in you can vary the modeled photonic guitar to create new instrument tones and effects and apply them to your music. To connect your guitar to the Cosmic Guitar plug-in a USB iOS guitar interface is required.
REAL and IMAGINARY:
Vary the electrical impedance of the photonic guitar strings.Â
PLATE and BODY:
Vary the size and other properties of the photonic guitar top plate and guitar body.Â
OUTPUT:
Vary the strength of the guitar plate and body responses, plug-in output levels, chorus/delay section, and guitar string behavior selector.Â
MODE SELECTOR:
Load/store presets and guitar model options.
FREQUENCY SPECTRUM:
Select between different tabs to view different frequency spectrums of the guitar or strings.
Get ready to take your music to the next level. Try out the Cosmic Guitar plug-in free for 7 days!