The 1997 Mathews Radio-Baton and Improvisation Modes

The Radio-Baton is a controller for live computer music performances. It tracks the motions, in three dimensional space, of the ends of two Batons which are held in the hands of a performer. The X, Y and Z trajectories of each Baton are used to control the performance. The Radio-Baton is a MIDI instrument in the sense that it has MIDI input, output, and thru connectors. All electrical communication with the Baton is done over MIDI cables using standard MIDI conventions. The Baton was designed to work with MIDI synthesizers and MIDI-based sequencing and programming software.