Central to the control section is a four character LED display this leads to some rather cryptic abbreviations while editing, but is bright and clear. For right‑handed people, the control panel is to the right of the bridge - string orientation can be reversed for left‑handed operation. The 'bridge' also houses a large switch which functions as a parameter selector and increment/decrement button. The Digitar's 'strings' are suspended between the bridge and the optical sensor housing. String movement, detected by fast optical sensors, produces no audible delays or glitches.

Chords of up to four notes are played on a MIDI keyboard, the connected Digitar interprets these into a six‑note guitar chord, you strum the strings and the result is sent to the MIDI Out to play the guitar sound of your choice - all of this, of course, happens simultaneously. Power and MIDI connections are provided by an external box which is connected to the Digitar by a lead. For a start, the Digitar isn't actually a guitar: it's a compact and sturdy belt‑mounted box, worn around the waist and equipped with six thick wires - 'strings' - which you play pretty much as you would the strings on a guitar. Italian company Charlie Lab's Digitar aims to provide a cheap and easy way to add guitar‑like textures to MIDI‑based music, without the need to buy an expensive and cumbersome dedicated MIDI guitar synth. How do you fancy a way of playing guitar patches, like a guitar, without the expense of a guitar synth system? Impossible? Derek Johnson finds out.

Do re mi di gitar