This instrument is designed to appeal to the devotée of spiritual music who is also familiar with binary math. In other words, it's a niche product.
The chords and inversions are selected by using combinations of the eight keys. When you select a chord the Hymnotron changes each note
in the chord into just temperament to create intervals that are always perfectly in tune.
Leon Dewan and I spent about ten minutes geeking out about the Hymnotron's tuning system and about a microtonal piece I composed for
The Hutchins Consort. I think we were both delighted to talk to someone who
immediately understood what the other was going on about.
You can think of Ball Beats as a semi-analog version of a Tenori-on.
The device senses the marbles and that information is transmitted to software. A sound is triggered for that
row when the beat gets the corresponding column. Check out the videos on the Alkex site to get a better understanding of how it works.
Yeah, they look odd (why do you think you're seeing them here?) but there are some definite sonic benefits to eliminating parallel surfaces within a monitor.
These are the next logical step beyond the Tannoy Eclipse monitors that I covered in 2002.
I named full-sized stand-up version of the Emulator the 2011 Oddity of the Year.
This year they were showing a tabletop version of their touchscreen interface.
This is nice but I really love its larger sibling.
There is some impressive audio analysis software available for iOS devices. The problem is that the built-in mic has a frequency response that's far from being flat.
The sensitivity of these small diaphragm omni-directional mics are measured at the factory. Before using them, you enter the calibration data into the analysis software.
Their software also compensates for the nonlinearity of the Apple A/D convertors.
All in all, this is an impressive step forward in using iOS devices for professional measuring situations.
The iOS software world and modular synth world rarely intersect, but when they do, it can be impressive.
This product is quad-surround panner in a eurorack module that's controller by an iPad.
Using just one iPad, you can control multiple modules for even more fun.
And now something for an iPad that's a little less amazing.
The wooden guitar (for iPad) and ukulele (for iPhone) really have no function at all.
They're just an ineffectual attempt to make you look less ridiculous while pretending to be a musician.
Think of this as a Hobby Horse. Except that the horse, in this case, is a guitar.
