Next-gen music

Shah,a sound engineer,an avid musical instrument collector and player,has developed the laser musical equipment on the lines of the Laser Harp,which was developed in the West in 1981 by Bernard Szajner and later popularised by pop artiste Jean-Michel Jarre. Shah has gone a step ahead and not restricted himself to Harp,but various other instruments through a software he developed.

“The instrument is created with a combination of technologies like lasers,computer programming and sensors. It’s the instrument of the new generation. It can play the flute or violin,piano or sitar,drums or tabla,” he says.

The 12 laser beams of the instrument do not produce any sound by itself,but create MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data that are converted by any modern synthesizer or even a laptop that has a software developed by Shah.

He says the idea of Musikalisch struck him while playing on his Nintendo Wii,which uses a remote on a similar model. “Playing on Wii started my entire thought process. Using the same infrared technology,first I developed interactive screens; later used the laser and sensor to develop the instrument.”

Shah,who has done his music major course from Trinity College of Music,UK,feels the laser musical instrument takes digital music to a different stage. “It definitely takes digital music to the next level.”

It took him almost a year to put this instrument together. He is now rearing to go out on stage and make a debut. In the meantime,he is getting accustomed to playing it.

He maintains a balance between acoustic instruments and electronic ones. After learning to play various wind and string instruments,he is now learning to play the accordion,an instrument,which he says,is never picked up by people who want to learn an instrument. “I organise a lot of shows,of which some live concerts have only acoustic instruments. Acoustic would never die as they are the roots.”