Moognify II from Combo Square on Vimeo.
Here’s an antidote to the trend toward virtual knobs, touchscreens, and mobility: a big-ass, tangible knob bigger than your head.
That may be a slightly impractical idea, but behind it is something absolutely practical: a simple, open source OpenSoundControl to Control Voltage interface. Unlike MIDI’s standard Control Change messages, OSC is capable of expressing quantities in a way that may be easily translated to the accuracy of CV. And once you’re in the realm of analog voltage, you can do all the things voltage does – including, as the creators do in their videos, interfacing with vintage gear.
The project, built by Eddy Depoorter and Charles Hannotte, is built largely on the Arduino project. Artists, engineers, and improvisers, the duo is based in Lille in the north of France, and they’re gradually making headway on this stuff. Check out progress on these two blogs, each written in both French and English:
http://chroniquesweb.typepad.fr/combosquare/
http://plusplus.alwaysdata.net/
Definitely looks like a project to watch. Who says digital and voltage can’t coexist?
Bonus video below: SH-101 plus singing.
Roland is singing from Combo Square on Vimeo.