A plasmaphone is a musical instrument that produces sound in plasma, or ionized gas, with or without later amplification, processing, or the like.
In terms of musical instrument classification the plasmaphone completes the four acoustic classes of musical instruments that use matter in its solid, liquid, gas, or plasma state to make sound.
Contents
1 Public performances
1.1 Underwater plasmaphone
2 Possible confusion with electrophones
3 External links
Public performances
The plasmaphone was introduced, in public performance, at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference in 2007, where it was played together with a hydraulophone in a concert that took place in a pool located in New York City.
Underwater plasmaphone
A plasmaphone performance was also part of the Immersive Music theme of ICMC 2007. In keeping with the spirit of ICMC's 2007 theme, Immersed Music, the instrument used here was an underwater plasma instrument, in which clear plastic trays of water were hung from sounding pipes. The initial sound-production medium was underwater plasma. Due to health and safety reasons, the plasma was not generated in pool water, but, rather, in separate containers of water, in order that bathers in the Swim Center's pools not be exposed to any danger.
Possible confusion with electrophones
Plasmaphones may involve either or both of:
Open flame (in which case it is subclassified as a pyrophone);
Electrical discharge (sparks, etc.).
Whereas some plasmaphones, like the fifth Hornbostel Sachs category, Electrophones, use electricity, the plasmaphone is not an electrophone (any more than an electric guitar is an electrophone merely because it uses electricity in some way).
As with the electric guitar, which is a chordophone using electric amplification in conjunction with electric, optical, or acoustic pickups, the electric plasmaphone produces the initial sound acoustically, which is then picked up electrically, optically, or acoustically (or by a combination of these).