Les Fradkin is a fascinating personality and an excellent musician, composer, producer, guitarist and Ztarist. In my recent article on electronics for music I referred to him and his Ztar as part of my own story. What's it like to play that instrument? Is it something for rookies and geeks, or is this instrument in better hands with a true professional?
Les Fradkin knows the tricks of his trade! He already scored an international hit during the 1970's with a song a.o. performed by Mireille Matthieu and Roberto Jordan. His StarrLabs 'Ztar' now has become part of a new peak in Les' personal history. At the same time a culmination of musical innovation. How do you achieve that Top? I asked Les and got to hear a fascinating story...

"I've always been fascinated with MIDI programming. When I first saw the Ztar, I noticed however that a tapping technique was necessary to get the most out of this instrument", Les told me, "Many of the players played it like a piano, including Harvey Starr, the inventor of the Ztar. He kept insisting to me that this technique was the "best" way to learn the Ztar, but I realized fairly quickly, that that particular approach did not fit my musical vision. As a result, I had to "invent" a completely new method to get the best out of the Ztar. Let me share a couple of insights into my Ztar technique which may be of interest. It's just a glimpse of my personal MIDI world. "

"Reading the Ztar manual many times didn't hurt me. It helped me to quickly achieve what you can hear and see on my website. The Ztar is not limited to sounding one note per "string" as a regular guitar. Every note is fully polyphonic and any key or note can be sounded simultaneously with any and all other keys/notes. Because any button on the Ztar's neck can be "tuned" to any pitch, regardless of chromatic scale, can be placed in any order, regardless of traditional neck position, I can group events into various divided and overlapped zones, based on comfort and convenience, rather than using traditional fingering techniques. This allows me, for example, to play well beyond the reach of the physical neck, to place low pitched events on top rather than on the bottom, to trigger a clip with any silent note, regardless of what pitch lies under my hands... This list is endless. One of my tunings has a range of 7 octaves (C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6) which gives me classical arpeggios and the 88 note range of a Grand Piano. Since the neck can be zoned up to 32 times, I've also developed a chord stacking technique which permits any left and right hand chord inversions (à la piano) to appear under a single neck button. That button, can be sending data on up to 8 MIDI channels, if need be. Thus one can send up to 6 different chords across a single fret or "hide" other chords under those chords on top which don't sound unless a controller is pressed or moved which cross fades it. While this may seem complicated, it explains what you see and hear in my videos. One particularly interesting tuning is the so-called "Unison" mode. This is seen in my video "Everything Is Wrong". All notes in a zone are identical. This is great for firing effects, drum flams, press rolls, etc."

My current music draws from many musical signposts: Rock, Shred, Classical, Baroque, Space Rock, Ambient and guitar instrumental. Since the Ztar makes no sound of it's own (it's a controller for sounds), many pathways are open to me as I continue this musical journey. Because of the depth of the Ztar, one thing that I continually find, is that there is always a solution to any performance predicament. There are usually many ways to solve things. So it becomes a matter of making selections, rather than "settling" for less due to lack of features. As a result I can perform music that can't be played by conventional keyboard controllers, or, indeed, from other MIDI guitar controllers of the past."

Les Fradkin uses advanced electronics and computers to produce and post-process his digital Ztar music. "Mr. Ztar" in fact is the man of a 'thousand voices'. A real understatement, then his instrument offers nearly endless possibilities with multitudes of sounds. I guess he hasn't discovered them all yet. Recently appeared his latest album "Hyper Midi Guitar" that features a.o. an incredible 'Saber Dance'.
Have a good weekend, and enjoy this fine music!

John

PS.: "Hyper Midi Guitar" also appeared here. Very recommended contemporary music.