The InfiniSphere: Expanding existing electroacoustic sound principles by means of an original design application specifically for trombone
Justin Palmer McAdara · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · 2020
Electroacoustic devices for expanding the sonic palette of the trombone are few in number, and all of these devices exhibit certain problems or drawbacks. While successful examples of valve and keyed instruments exist, such as the Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI) and the Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI), creating a trombone specifically to be used with electronics has proven to be more difficult. One reason is, when changing the slide position into data that could be effectively used for electronics, the slide on the trombone created a problem. This is not to say that attempts have not been made. For example, magnets and lasers have been attached to the trombone slide to create data that a computer could convert to sounds; however, that equipment was heavy and a trombone slide needs to be light and agile to be effective. To address these issues, players have adopted workarounds such a microphones and powered practice mutes plugged into guitar or bass pedals that seem to be effective on the surface but problems exist related to the natural loudness of the instrument, microphone bleed, and adverse effects on intonation. These drawbacks highlighted a gap between the acoustic and electronic trombone worlds that needed to be addressed. In this paper, I discuss the conception, development, and planned future developments of the electroacoustic trombone, The InfiniSphere.