K-Bow

Keith McMillen Instruments recently impressed all of us at NAMM with demonstrations of a new pair of string performance devices, the K-Bow and StringPort, both of which include some very rich software applications written in MaxMSP. The K-Bow, a bluetooth-based wireless gestural controller integrated into a violin bow, has just started shipping so we thought it would be a good time to catch up with Keith and find out more about the project. I met Keith at his studio in Berkeley, CA, home base for Keith McMillen Instruments and the BEAM Foundation. When I arrived, Keith was looking over prototype boards for a new violin pickup with Joel Davel, who also designed the boards for the K-Bow. Once they wrapped up their discussion, Keith sat down and gave me a thorough tour through the technology and ideas behind K-Bow, with Max programmers Barry Threw and Nick Bonardi contributing details about their involvement in the project.