Starr Labs Ztar MIDI Guitar MIDI Controllers Professional MIDI

The Z5S Ztar w/ 'log' neck!!!

2011-08-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

The Z5S shown here, with added TCA and Ribbon control, is $2095. The base model Z5S in satin black and/or graphite is $1595. Hands down, the Starr Labs Ztar Z5S is the most affordable yet professional MIDI guitar on the market today. Ultra-fast and accurate string trigger technology allows for precision playing and ultimate control of your synthesizers and DAW's.

The Starr Labs Z5S with added TCA touch pads and Ribbon controller.

Ztars are the most accurate & fastest string trigger based MIDI guitars on the market.

Multiple user programmable controllers and triggers.

Starr Labs string triggers & TCA pads: fast, precise, accurate expressive!

The Z5S Ztar with logarithmic neck, TCA pads, and Ribbon controller. For the professional MIDI guitarists in all of us!

A great site for Ztarists!

2011-08-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a fantastic site geared directly towards 'Ztarists': More Ztar. Enter and you will find a plethora of playing tips and tricks, concepts for composition, and a jukebox full of songs made with Ztars! Thanks a ton to Tapper Mike for this great resource!

Ztar Z6S-XP's in Black & White...

2011-07-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

The Starr Labs Ztar Z6S-XPA is the most professional MIDI Guitar controller/instrument in the world.

Today's Ztar has fastest, most accurate and precise string trigger system available on the market.

6 programmable pots, 6 touch sensitive programmable pads, Ribbon, Joystick, Ableton Live fingerboard layouts and sysex templates, gives you ROBUST control over all aspects of your synthesizer, sampler, DAW!

Starr Labs Ztar Z7S MIDI Guitar controller! NEW! SALE!!

2011-07-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

ZTAR Z7S SUMMER SALE! NEW Z7S NOW ONLY $1745!!

(This is for NEW Z7S Ztars only. Lead time is 8-10 weeks from time of order to shipping.)

Starr Labs Ztar Z7S-XPA in Sound On Sound Magazine!

2011-07-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Below you can read a great critical review of our Ztar Z7S-XPA from the wizards over at SoS. (All copy, text, photos, copyrights belong to SoS.)

Fed up with the vagaries of pitch‑to‑MIDI guitar, but don’t have time to learn to play a keyboard? The Ztar offers clean, keyboard‑like MIDI from an instrument that guitar players can relate to instantly. Could be just what you need...

Dave Lockwood

San Diego‑based Starr Labs (originally the Starr Switch Company, until 1996) have been making guitar‑like MIDI‑controller instruments since 1992, but somehow it has taken us until now to get our hands on one at Sound On Sound. Taking a radically different approach to the pitch‑to‑MIDI strategy adopted by most of the other pioneers in this field, founder Harvey Starr reasoned that, as MIDI is a key‑based protocol, it made most sense for MIDI guitarists to address it via a set of keys, but with those keys arranged in a pattern that corresponds to a guitar fingerboard. The solution came in the form of the iconic Starr key‑based ‘fretboard’ that has continued to grace the majority of the company’s models over the last 18 years since the Ztar came into being. The keys on a Starr Ztar neck are actually low‑profile, long, narrow buttons arranged in rows, to represent fret positions, and columns, to replicate strings. Pairing the pressure‑sensitive Starr fretboard with a set of triggers for the right hand results in a guitar‑like instrument that outputs clean MIDI with none of the delays and pitch detection errors that plague pitch‑to‑MIDI instruments.

Starr Labs’ instruments have always been customisable to a degree, with plenty of options and configurability available to purchasers. Early Ztar models generally had a bank of six elongated switches, or ‘Trigger Bars’, for the ‘picking’ hand, as well as a selection of larger pad surfaces suitable for drum triggering, but an option for right‑hand triggers based on six short lengths of real guitar string was soon made available. These are perhaps easier to adapt to, for most guitarists, and also allow notes to be ‘damped’ in a fairly intuitive way. The strings generate no pitch data (in the basic ‘guitar’ mode), merely note‑on timing, and velocity. In other modes, however, the strings can also be used to send chords, trigger sequences, or apply Continuous Control messages simultaneous with picking notes. You might, for example, want to be able to add modulation or crossfade between voices via velocity....

Read the full article/review here: SoS

Ke$ha... and a Ztar!

2011-07-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Max, guitarist for Ke$ha, performing in Las Vegas with a Ztar Z7SX

Ke$ha's good sleazey-fun take on dance-pop rock has the kids and charts taking notice. We love her, and guitarist Max, of course, and can't wait to hear more sonic mayhem they create with their Starr Labs Ztar Z7SX!

Starr Labs Ztar Z6SPX with Custom Fingerboard!

2011-06-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

Another Ztar Z6SP rolls off the line!

2011-06-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Starr Labs iTar(tm) for iPhone and iPad

2011-06-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, we here at Starr Labs have been working on the iTartm, a MIDI guitar/instrument application for the iPhone and iPad. The more we labor over what we want the iTartm to accomplish the more we expand its scope of control, programmability, customization, and interactivity. Think pages of customizable control screen surfaces with dozens of controller and trigger types, arranged and implemented however you like. That said, we invite any serious programmers/developers to join us in the iTartm conversation. Seriously, contact Harvey Starr harvey@starrlabs.com and be a part of the Starr Labs team that unveils the best MIDI guitar/instrument application onto the world, the iTartm!

Ztar Z6SX w/ ribbon, breath, in buff pearl...nice.

2011-06-21T13:26:00.000-07:00


Starr Labs Ztar Z6SX with ribbon and breath controls, in Buff Pearl Finish.

Starr Labs Ztar Z-LP (LesPaul) MIDI Guitar FOR SALE!

2011-06-20T15:11:00.000-07:00


Starr Labs Ztar Z-LP (Les Paul arched maple top, mahogany back)


Z-LP Arched Maple Top, clear coat finish... is nice!


Ztar Z-LP Mahogany back


Ztar Z-LP!

http://www.starrlabs.com/products/sale-instock-items

Create Digital Music and the future of guitars!

2011-06-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

    There is/was a great discussion happening over at the awesome blog Create Digital Music about guitar technologies, the guitar as an instrument in general and how it and it's players fit into the realm of modern music making gadgetry and innovation. Guitarists can be some of the most 'purist' musicians out there. Let's face it, it can be hard to compare the tactile interaction and expressiveness that can be harnessed with a guitar in the hands of a master with someone pushing buttons and turning knobs. But why the hesitant nature of even the most experimental of guitarists to openly embrace true innovation in their chosen instrument? Is it a matter of having to learn or re-learn techniques and concepts found within this new technology?
    Guitarists have manipulated their instrument over decades, creating new and exciting tones and sounds full of subtleties and high expressiveness, and they've done this with generally few technological advancements to their rig (amps, pedals, pick-ups, strings etc...). Enter the realm of synthesis and MIDI, and many guitarists quickly turn the other way and head back to their tried and tested ax. I suppose what I'm getting at is the importance of actually creating and sculpting a sound and how its characteristics directly pertain to its performance and expressive capabilities, regardless if its being triggered by a keyboard or guitar. A lot of the MIDI guitars/guitarists out there, both past and present, seem to only take on the roll of a 'controller' versus that of an actual expressive instrument used in composition and performance. To say it plainly: using an instrument's inherent values and characteristics to create/express/sculpt one's music, not simply trigger it.
    We here at Starr Labs are constantly asked to show a Ztar playing, of all things, guitar samples. While this is all fine and good, it still speaks to the overall importance of the sound's characteristics, and what you can do with it other than simple sample play-back and amp/rig emulation, i.e. triggering speed, accuracy, precision, velocity sensitivity, bends etc... 'If its guitar sounds you want, why not play a guitar?' is the rebuttal we get from those persons interested in alternate MIDI instruments/controllers who want to hear serious synthesis manipulation and performance innovation. Sampling/emulation harware and software have improved immensely since the dawn of MIDI, with decent products such as Sampletank and Orange Tree providing realistic guitar sounds full of expressive qualities that are right at home when played on a Ztar. On the other hand, we're quite excited about the innovations in modal and additive synthesis hardware/software such as Prism and Razor from Native Instruments, or the amazing engine found in the Nord Modular G2, and the resurgence of the Karplus-Strong algorithm! We're indeed fans of pure synthesis and the creation of new sounds and how they can be expressed through a Ztar!

Our Alternate MIDI Controllers!

2011-05-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Though Starr Labs is well known for our professional line of Ztar MIDI Guitar controllers, it stands to be told (re-told) that we've designed and built many other alternate MIDI control instruments. From keyboard-like controllers with alternate key/note layouts, to MIDI foot controllers and other multi-array MIDI instruments. Check out Roger Linn's site for a great little archive of Alternate MIDI and New instruments for music expression. Here are a few photos of our goods:

ZB12 Grid Keyboard layout, multizones, multi-channels, full polyphony, 5 1/2 octaves vertically.

ZB 2424

Floor Pad foot controller.

ZBar

MicroZone U-648 hex key layout

More Ztar controlling Native Instrument's Prism synth awesomness!

2011-05-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

Starr Labs MIDI Breath Controller and NI's Prism!

2011-05-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Some great playing techniques on a Ztar Baby Z!!!

2011-05-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ztar and Ableton Live make great friends.

2011-05-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

A new Ztar for Rob Swire of Pendulum

2011-05-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

We here at Starr Labs were excited to build this amazing custom Ztar Z6S-XPA for Pendulum front man, Rob Swire. Can't wait to see/hear what he creates with this beautiful beast of an instrument!

The latest and greatest Starr Labs custom Ztar Z6S-XPA for Pendulum's Rob Swire!

Starrlabs Z6S deluxe in sunburst with WHAMMY!

2011-04-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at our Z6S Deluxe in sunburst finish with Log-neck and new Whammy Bar upgrade!!

Thanks To Heather Rae Morton for the photographs!

Les Fradkin NEWS!!!!!!!

2011-04-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

Les Fradkin returns with an Exclusive Single Version of Canon In D.

This Single version available Exclusively at iTunes and Amazon.

Full Version available on his CD "Baroque Rocks!" At Apple iTunes,
amazon.com, CD Baby, Napster, Rhapsody, and other fine stores.

Single Version:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/canon-rocks-single/id424660482

Full Version:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/baroque-rocks/id318427737

The full record version just made #9 in the Amazon Japan Rock Charts!!

This video shows Ableton Live Clip backing and guitar and synth triggering in the

style of "Classical Gas". This also features a newly composed acoustic guitar melody on the Ztar over

the original Johann Pachelbel score. Every sound on the record played from the Starr Labs Z7S.

Watch the video HERE

Musikmesse Frankfurt

2011-04-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Ztarists of the world!

Just wanted to make a quick and exciting note to say that Harvey will be in Frankfurt Germany this week at the Musikmesse show walking around with our RockController! We don't have a booth, so catch him if you can!

Best-

Jacques

Musikmesse info> Musikmesse

LED MIDI to DMX Lighting & FX!!!

2011-03-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

Starr Labs is pleased to announce that we will be selling LED lighting systems with a focus on MIDI to DMX controllable systems and effect lighting. Which in essence means you could control LIGHT with your Ztar!!!

Another Lovely Silver Wizard Ztar...!!!

2011-03-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Check out the 'reversed' custom fingerboard layout on this sexy Ztar Z6SPX!

The Z5S reviewed in eMusican!

2011-03-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

We are super excited and honored to have received such a positive and critical review for our Ztar model Z5S in the April issue of eMusician. A zillion thanks to Maestro Marty Cutler for giving the Z5S a worthy workout! Check the specs on our site here.

Silver Ztar Wizards!!!

2011-03-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

The Z6S-XPA Ztar....!

2011-02-22T16:31:00.000-08:00

Just some sleek photos of one of our sleek Z6S-XPA Ztars in Black Satin finish. Enjoy!

Starr Labs AirPower MIDI Wireless Solution

2011-02-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

A fun, if not funny, video demo of the speed and distance power of the Starr Labs AirPower MIDI Wireless Solution!

A Ztar Z6X for Linkin Park's bassist, Phoenix!!!

2011-02-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago we received a call from one of Linkin Park's guitar techs inquiring about the Ztar Rob Swire of Pendulum performs with (a Z6SX). A few phone calls later and we're tasked to make Phoenix, Linkin Park's bassist, a Ztar Z6X ! Here is the resulting instrument:

Starr Labs Ztars at the National Guitar Museum

2011-02-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Starr Labs is honored to be a part of, "GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked The World", the National Guitar Museum's latest and greatest touring exhibition. From the exhibit's brochure:

"The guitar is the single most enduring icon in American history. This fully immersive exhibition explores all facets of the world’s most popular instrument, from its history as an instrument of popular culture over the past 400 hundreds years to the science of creating sound with wood and steel. Visitors will experience the science, sound, history, and cultural impact of the guitar in an exhibition that contains more than 60 instruments--ranging from the rare and antique to the wildly popular and innovative--along with performance video, audio, hands-on interactives, models, touchscreens, stunning images, and photographs.

“GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked The World” is an exciting and engaging experience that gives visitors the chance to interact with the guitar not only from the perspective of its history, evolution, and design, but through the music it has created and the technology that continues to improve it."

Starr Labs was asked to donate one of our groundbreaking Ztar MIDI guitar controllers showcasing the evolution and progression the instrument has made throughout its long history. We've decided to go with our Z7SX Ztar, which we feel exemplifies the possibilities of creativity, composition, and performance cababilities found within the 'guitar' instrument format.

Starr Labs on Create Digital Music blog

2011-01-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

AirPower Wireless MIDI Transmitter/Receiver

Peter Kirn, over at his outstandingly informative blog, Create Digital Music, has featured a few of our instruments and MIDI technologies. His critique/review and consequent comments from blog readers are almost always critical and knowledgeable. Check out the post on the Starr Labs AirPower Wireless MIDI Solution...

...and our new ZS-XPApro model Ztars!

Z7S-XPA and Z6S-XPA pro model Ztars

Harvey Starr and the ZS-XPA pro model Ztars

Reintroducing the ZBass!

2011-01-21T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yes indeed, the ZBass is back! We here at the Starr Labs are making a limited quantity run of the ZBass MIDI bass guitar controller. The new ZBass MIDI bass guitar offers unsurpassed ultra high-speed MIDI control for today's bass players. The ZBass differs from other guitar synths in that it provides the industry's only glitch-free, 4-string x 24 fret touch-sensitive keyed-fingerboard; ideal for playing and controlling all aspects of synthesizers, samplers, sound modules, software, and DAWs. Having all of the features of Starr Labs professional line of Ztars, the ZBass will allow bass players to finally jump into the realm of creative MIDI control, and expanded performance capability! (Oh yeah, we forgot to mention the ZBass comes with a wood neck-stock!) Visit our site to order yours today!

Features:

4 Velocity-sensitive String Triggers
4-Way programmable Joysitck
Wood neck-stock
Unlimited string and finger board tunings
32 Mappable Zones
Programmable Chording System
Arpeggiator
Sequencer
Volume Pedal Port
Sustain Pedal Port
MIDI and USB i/o
Power Supply

New Software Downloads @ Starrlabs.com!!!

2011-01-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Finally! Some new software available for download here! You'll find a Master Sysex file that allows you to reset your up-to-date Ztar to factory installed 'song' settings. We've also included a zip-file full of individual sysex files for you to pick and choose from. But what we're really excited about is our Ztar Ableton Live Demo Session pckg download. In it we give you our in-house demo .wavs and samples, sysex files for Ableton Live fingerboard layouts, and the actual .als file. Think of it as a template to use as a starting point from which you can modify and customize to your needs!

ZS-XPApros with Ableton Live color coded fingerboard and sysex layouts with .als optimization.

Our eBay Store

2011-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hello and Happy 2011,
Wanted to let you know about our eBay store and some sales, in-stock items, and specials available to purchase within it:

Micro-Zone U-648

Ztar Time has arrived!

2010-12-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

Finally the first episodes of Ztar Time are up on Youtube! Check them out, learn some basics, then suggest what other tips/tutorials you'd like to see. Thanks for watching!

Our flag-ship Ztar, the Z6S-XPA Ableton Live MIDI guitar....YEAH!!!

2010-07-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of our latest and greatest Ztar model, the Z6S-XPA. Check the spec. sheet on our website for the full feature set. Needless to say its chalk full of control capabilities geared towards composition and performance.

The Starr Labs Rock Controller... . .

2010-07-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the first photos of our latest offering, the Starr Labs Rock Controller. Being the first professional MIDI guitar and gaming controller, the Rock Controller comes with the advanced MIDI control functionality you'll find in our Ztar series (6 Zero-latency velocity sensitive string-triggers, TCA touch pads, 21 fret logarithmic neck, multi-polyphony modes, tunings, mappable zones, chording system, etc...) as well as the ability to interact with all music based video games on all platforms on the market now and in the future (including music teaching software). Also comes with: Whammy bar, 5 way Mod knife switch, 4 way hat switch, MIDI USB i/o, pedal & volume port, 2 programmable buttons, compact size, graphite finish!

A slew of new videos... . .

2010-07-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

StarrLabsZone has uploaded a few new videos of our latest products, the Z5S and Rock Controller, for your viewing / listening pleasure. The Z5S is available for pre-orders now!

Auto-chording on a Starr Labs Ztar Z6S-P

2010-05-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

A quick demo video showcasing what a simple user-created chord mapping can sound / look like on a Starr Labs Ztar Z6S-P. Here we have a Cycle of 5ths ascending the fretboard. Major chords are on the E string, while relative minors on the A string. This function is not only applicable for aiding composition and writing, but also a strong performance feature as well.

StarrLabsZone

2010-05-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Starr Labs has created StarrLabsZone, the official youtube channel dedicated to Ztar MIDI guitars and other Starr Labs MIDI controllers. In the StarrLabsZone you will find demos, interviews, tips and tricks, performances, and instructional videos that will help any musician explore the Starr Labs universe of sound. Below is a great vid of Jeff Meadows playing a Starr Labs Ztar Z7S showcasing the string triggers and fret tapping features.