This video demonstrates the Morphonium, a 3-part family of MIDI controllers that can be used to expressively shape sound in realtime.
The Morphonium Family consists of
- The Alpha ‘wheelboard’ with a unique keyboard-like layout of over 100 wheels & switches;
- The Delta keyboard, with a suite of novel gestural controls; and
- The Omega pedalboard, allowing the player to continuously shape and add nuance to sound.
The Morphonium project is a collaboration between Claude Woodward and Stewart Greenhill.
“Using wheels (rather than knobs) and arranging them in a keyboard-like layout means it’s possible to have a large number of controls in a relatively small space and have a familiar memory aide for mapping,” notes Woodward. “The unique gestural controls on the Delta keyboard gives the Morphonium Family the most complete control of electronic sound.”
Here are details on each of the Morphonium parts:
- Wheelboard (timbre control)
- 74 wheels and 30 buttons for MIDI notes and continuous controllers
- Touch screen for programming and feedback
- Keyboard (melody)
- 4 octave velocity sensitive keyboard
- “Vibe bar” for vibrato and calibrated pitch bends
- “Gliss strip” for up to 2 octave glissando
- “Tron” for theremin-like continuous control of pitch and volume
- “Pusher” (up/down) and “Spinitt” (rotary) expression controllers
- “Transer” shifts octaves based on proximity of the hand to the back of the keyboard
- Breath controller to articulate volume and brightness
- Pedalboard
- Continuous expression pedal for filter / brightness
- Sustain pedal (continuous or digital)
- 4 digital pedals for loop control
The Morphonium demonstrated here is a prototype. The developers plan to document their second prototype as an open-source project, allowing makers to remix or reproduce the device from scratch, and will consider a production run based on interest.
See the project site for details.
They’re insane. But the point about rollers vs knobs was a good one. Doubt it’ll catch on, which is a pity.
Cool.
It looks spendy.
I doubt I could afford it.
Those wheels interest me.
I’d just like to say we’re not doing it for the money and we hope to make them for under $1000. It’s more about trying to establish a standard layout for synthesis & a way to control everything in realtime. Imo if the sound of say a cello is a movie, a cello preset is a picture. Synthesizers can’t compete with acoustic instruments until the sound they make can continuously move like them. The wheel system allows this & the keyboard-like layout really helps. At first it looks like a sea of controls but with practice one sees all the possibilities of timbre control the same way you can see all the harmonic possibilities when you’re familiar with a piano keyboard.
PS…..still time to vote in the MIDI Innovation Awards!