Reactable, now turning age five, still remains something that can take people’s breath away. Making the relationship of musical components into actual building blocks, it demystifies music making and makes it more magical all at the same time. And since the table itself is big, not-portable, and pricey, there’s also the iOS- and Android-compatible tablet edition. (The Android app is one of the few that gives my vintage Galaxy Tab something useful to do.)
This weekend, you can grab Reactable Mobile yourself 50% off:
50% Off Fifth Anniversary
But this is also a perfect opportunity to watch a tantalizing video that matches the table with a physical synth – Teenage Engineering’s OP-1. It shows what a digitally-augmented studio of the future might look like.
I had the pleasure of playing with Reactable creator Martin Kaltenbrunner in New York a couple of years ago (with support from the Austrian government, even). It’s a perfect jamming instrument, even just in the mobile edition. And Martin and I spoke to Dubspot on that same trip:
In the latest instance of the “everything is cooler in Japanese” phenomenon, though, you have to see the mobile app put through its paces on a great, recent Japanese app Webshow. I don’t know why there’s a screen with a face and arms and legs, but … yes. More of that, please. If CDM ever gets it together to do a video show, this is the setup we need.
And happy anniversary, Reactable. Have a fiducial good one. TUIO, a tangible tracking protocol, remains a wonderful legacy of this project:
Via the always-terrific sequencer.de