Artiphon Has Raised A Million Dollars To Make The Instrument 1 MIDI Controller

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Instrument startup Artiphon recently started a Kickstarter project to fund production of their new Instrument 1 MIDI controller.

As of today, the project – which had a funding goal of $75,000 – has raised over 1 million dollars. 

The Instrument 1, shown above, is a MIDI controller that can be played in a variety of ways, is fully MIDI compatible and connects to iPhones, iPads, Macs, and PCs via Lightning or USB.

Here’s the official intro video:

The Artiphon Instrument 1 is available to project backers starting at US $349.

22 thoughts on “Artiphon Has Raised A Million Dollars To Make The Instrument 1 MIDI Controller

  1. It always makes sense to wait for unbiased reviews of a product before handing over your hard-earned cash, especially one that costs a few hundred bucks. The warning bells here are that they suggest that it’s possible to use this thing in a ‘keyboard’ or ‘beat’ modes, even though the control surface is a black fretted touch panel intended for guitar fingering.

    1. it’s essentially a budget Linnstrumment and it can be expected that it will have benefits and drawbacks of course, as well as likely being lots of fun and enable new sounds and playing, not to mention being so small, portable, and easy to use casually or in a rig

  2. The other warning sign: the slits at either end looking suspiciously like built in speakers…(?)
    This instrument screams “living room” at me.

  3. It looks like they have plenty of dough for their Kickstarter and there will be plenty of early adopters. When I can lay hands on of these for a demo at say, Guitar Center, then I’ll see if it works for me.

    But what is great about this, and many other cool new devices and apps hitting the market recently, is that MIDI tech innovation is going through a reawakening.

    These are great times we are living in, my friends!

  4. it should be compatible with expert sleepers FH-1 ‘faderHost’ , CVpal, or any USB/Midi to cv interface
    …adding built in cv/gate would justify the cost for me

    1. Why is it that almost every time some new and different instrument comes out someone always has to label it as a “hipster” instrument, or anything else for that matter? Who cares if hipsters use it? If you don’t like it, at least have some sort of constructive or decent criticism instead of just labeling it or posting worthless hate.

  5. so between this and the eigenharp we’re like 50% there in humanities quest to realise the star wars cantina band… what a time to be alive

  6. Unfortunately, it is the super over-funded Kickstarters that always seem to go awry.

    Something about having extra money amplifies spending above budget for these sorts of things. Or maybe they say fuck it and move to Costa Rica.

  7. The hardest part is that my iPad won’t let me type the name. Keeps wanting to fill in “Artichoke”.

    Also, for some reason this reminds me of a story I once heard about this guy who built a cuatro (Puerto Rician guitar) out of Roberto Clemente’s bat.

  8. This looks really, really interesting. It’s a computer-based multi-instrumentalist’s dream! Being able to write guitar, bass, piano/keyboard/synth, drums, strings, etc. from one MIDI controller? Wow. Obviously it would be a bit worthless to try and play this for actual recording purposes, but it looks like an amazing composition/learning tool nonetheless.

    Nonetheless, I’m also waiting to hear more from those who aren’t associated with the product to get a better idea of it’s shortcomings and strengths.

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