The iTar Turns iPads Into Keytars

Starr Labs, a boutique MIDI controller maker that previously focused on creating custom ZTar MIDI guitar controllers, has announced a Kickstarter project to create the iTar, an iPad keytar.

The project pairs Starr Labs’ proven fingerboard controller, from the ZTar, with an iPad. According to the developers, by pairing their fingerboard with a mass-produced portable computer, like the iPad, they can cut their costs way down.

They’re running this project as a Kickstarter project. Basically, Starr Labs is trying to move from building one-off custom ZTars, which are pretty expensive, to creating iTars in volume, priced at $200. In order to make them in volume, though, they need to determine if there’s real interest to justify volume production.

Details at their Kickstarter site

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, they are two Web sites designed for fundraising for creative projects. We’re starting to see more and more synth-related projects developed using Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, because they let project developers take advantage of the networking possibilities of the Internet.

Note: VJFranzK made an interesting iPad keytar thing back in 2010, the Mantaray, which we dubbed an iTar. Unless there’s an earlier trademark on that term, we’d consider it a generic name for iPad keytar music controllers.

7 thoughts on “The iTar Turns iPads Into Keytars

  1. Uh… seems like an unfocused product to me. I’m ok with the idea of a guitar neck with midi input, but bottling on an iPad and then showing everyone else’s apps scrolling by was weird. Am I supposed to bang on the keys of those apps while then fretting something different on the neck? Or are they expecting people to write “strumming” apps with built in sound generators? All I would really want is the neck as a midi controller, with some way to strum/trigger. Not sure the iPad is really a well thought out addition here, since routing a midi signal from an iNeck to trigger a synth on the iPad is a way different prospect than having it bolted on in some as of yet unexplained configuration.

    I’m not saying no, I’m just asking, “what?”

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