Digi-Gurdy

An affordable electronic MIDI Hurdy Gurdy for practice anywhere.

 

digigurdy@gmail.com

Overview

(Site updated 23/12/23)

The hurdy-gurdy is an ancient musical instrument (10th century) with drones and melody strings bowed by a rotating wheel, played by pressing keys which contact them at different points. It has in more recent times featured in TV series such as ‘Black Sails’ and ‘Walking Dead.’ The high cost and long wait times can be a major barrier for beginners. Rather like bagpipes, they are noisy. For pipers, practice chanters and e-chanters exist to solve this issue while nothing similar is available for the hurdy-gurdy. The Digi-Gurdy has evolved over three years through many design iterations. It has a thriving online community around it, many of whom have fed back into the project. The current version has been designed in collaboration with Jaap Brand of Nerdy Gurdy fame and my software has been improved by Basil Lalli, a professional software developer. The body is laser cut for accuracy with internal electronics and crank mechanism, with access panels on the underside. Digi-Gurdys are all electronic devices, with correctly placed keys, that output MIDI via a USB cable to an attached or wirelessly paired, PC, phone or iPad running suitable MIDI player software, for practice anywhere. 

NOTE: We can optionally, since Feb 2023, add an internal audio board and a headphone socket/line-out. This allows you to just turn it on and use it without connecting a phone or iPad. This has proved to be very popular.

If you need to see an overview of how a regular hurdy gurdy works, here is a link: Click Here and another: Click Here

Here is one explaining the history of the hurdy gurdy in detail: Click Here

 

Q: Do you have to be into folk music to play one?

A: You can be of course but there is also a gurdy presence within the rock/metal scene. Here is a rock/metal Spotify playlist all including hurdy gurdys: Click Here

 

For a lot more detail on any aspect you can think of, please take a look at the ABOUT section.

OK, first things first, what does it sound like?

This is the latest variant (Feb 2023 – on). Here is a better player than I am having a go with it for the first time at Halsway 2023. The crank has been improved since this video was taken, see Jaap testing the crank on the ABOUT page (click the ABOUT icon at top right of this page).

How did this project begin?

In 2019 I decided to build a hurdy gurdy from a kit (Nerdy-Gurdy). My inspiration for this was seeing Nigel Eaton play with Led Zeppelin in 1995 - see video clip below. Having built the kit, being an electronics hobbyist I decided to build an electronic version as a personal practice device. It has been through many design iterations (see lecture above I gave at EMF Camp in 2022).

Nigel Eaton playing with Page and Plant.

Who is it for?

Once I described this project on the Hackaday website, I was overwhelmed by interest from both beginners and experienced players. I was a beginner at the start - now finally having online lessons. The fact that it is in tune from the moment you pick it up is very useful, as is having it remember your previous settings. Some hurdy gurdy owners want something that is easy to practice with as regular gurdys require maintenance and fettling to remain in good condition.

Is it expensive?

Regular hurdy gurdys are expensive because they are complex instruments, hand crafted by luthiers. A basic playable instrument is around $ 1300 with a middle range version being around $5000. The DigiGurdy is much lower in cost than either of the above. It is however still a hand built instrument (by me) with a hand assembled circuit board made in small numbers and the price is a fair reflection of this. This has grown from a hobby through many design iterations and now I am making it available through this website.

30 minute detailed video of Revision 4 version, February 2023-on,  explaining how it works, set up and use.

Quick Start Guide (12 minutes)

Don’t be worried about all this tech. It takes a few minutes to set up the first time. After that the iPad app remembers your previous settings, so next time you just power up the iPad, open the bs-16i app, select the preset you used last time on the Digi-Gurdy menu and go. Update Aug 2023: The bs-16i app is now available on the Google Play store for Android devices as well.

Instructions For Use

Full instructions for use, how the menus work and what the buttons do are all described here: Click Here

The Digi-Gurdy won best hardware prototype category of the MIDI Innovation Awards 2022.

The latest version has been designed for manufacture with a much improved crank action. 

– Common tunings are presented as pre-sets on a menu screen by the keybox.

– You can also create your own custom tunings and save them, including some that might not even be possible on a regular hurdy gurdy.

– Plug it into an iPad, phone or PC and you are ready to go (or connect wirelessly using a plug-in MIDI Bluetooth dongle).

Connected to and being powered by, an iPad. 

See note above. They will all be tested with my own iPad but in some cases it is better to connect to the iPad using a plug-in MIDI Bluetooth transmitter (also shown in this image).

QUESTIONS?

Whether you’re curious about features, setup and use, or even press, we will happily answer any questions.

Company name: Dingley Innovations Ltd.

Company number: 14301744