Once, weird instruments only made the rounds at exclusive academic conferences. Now, they go viral on Facebook.
Such is the case with Collidoscope, the creation of a UK-based mixing and mastering service (out of London label Sunlightsquare Records) and Queen Mary researchers – Ben Bengler and Fiore Martin. It’s a massive tangible table-top interface to a granular instrument.
There are a few things that make this one special, even to those of us who have seen such items before.
1. It’s big. It appears that the basis of this is a very large display, cleverly built into a slick-looking table-top interface.
2. It’s visual. A crisp, clear waveform display attractively shows you where you are. Nicely executed, that.
3. It’s physical. Big knobs and faders and a keyboard set this apart from the iPad apps and whatnot that do the same – and also set up the possibility for collaboration.
4. It samples. Built-in sampling is connected to a SuperCollider engine underneath for responsive sonic control.
More here, though they’re a bit scant on details other than it’s a one-off prototype. (And the site is, sadly, orange and full of big ads! But the prototype itself is great!)
http://www.doctormix.com/blog/collidoscope
Built your own interesting granular controller? We’d love to see it.
Seems this could also be a chance to open up design ideas. Speaking of which, I really should come up with a better interface for my own mangled Pd creation and maybe clean up the patch enough that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to let anyone see it!
But really brilliant and inspiring work, lads! This raises the bar. Or, at least, the table.
