experimental electronic instrument
Articles about experimental electronic instrument:
Send to a Friend
|
Feed for this Entry |
Filed under: Controllerism, MIDI Controllers, Strange, User Reviews
The Snyderphonics Manta is a new illuminated touch-sensitive interface for controlling music or video that combines alien sexiness with open-ended flexibility.
Each sensor in the Manta’s hexagonal array can tell exactly how much surface area your finger is covering, and this data can be routed to any audio or video parameter you choose.
For instance, you could assign each sensor to a note in a musical scale, and route the surface-area data from each sensor to control the volume of that particular note. Play a chord, and you can control the volume of the different notes of the chord independently with your fingers. Alternatively, you could set each sensor to correspond to a video file, and fade between videos dynamically with your fingers.
According to 2secondfuse’s Vlad Spears:
The build quality is exceptional. The Manta is in the same league as Monome: hand created, all parts sourced and made in the United States, ROHS compliant, solid like a century tree.
400mA of power is drawn over USB, which provides both juice and i/o. A svelte 0.873cm (11/32″) thickness and feather weight means it’s easy to take everywhere you will take your laptop. It even comes with a swanky neoprene case.
If you’ve used the Manta, leave a comment with your thoughts.
The Snyderphonics Manta retails for $675. More details below.
Image: Ricardipus
The Harmonic Synthesizer is an the lobby of the McLennan physics building, University of Toronto.
Here’s the description from the accompanying card:
This marvelous machine was used to dress the output of the large fork and resonator with a controlled set of overtones. Each fork is mounted in front of the appropriate resonator and driven by coils connected in series using the electronome interrupter tuned to the fundamental. A small keyboard opens the resonators.
It appears that the componenets of this apparatus have been redeployed, as the present set-up does not agree with the illustration in the 1889 catalogue and several pieces have been mounted with screws through the maker’s ark – an unlikely occurrence in the original mounting. This was probably done to allow operation of the keyboard from the back.
No word on how this would sound. If you know anything more about this Harmonic Synthesizer, leave a comment!
