Data Garden, creators of the MIDI Sprout MIDI interfaces for plant biodata sonification, have launched a Kickstarter project to fund production of PlantWave – a new system that creates ‘plant music’.
The concept of plant music was popularized in the 70’s by the pseudoscience book, The Secret Life Of Plants. The book argued that plants have thoughts and feelings like ours, and”might originate in a supramaterial world of cosmic beings which, as fairies, elves, gnomes, sylphs, and a host of other creatures, were a matter of direct vision and experience to clairvoyants among the Celts and other sensitives.” The book inspired a movie of the same name, with a soundtrack by Stevie Wonder.
Data Garden’s approach is a lot more grounded – using sensors placed on plants to control the creation of generative music. It’s a form of data sonification that translates unseen changes in plant biology into music.
Here are the specifications:
Hardware
- Bluetooth streaming via Bluetooth Low Energy / BLE MIDI
- WIFI connectivity for firmware updates
- USB for power and for MIDI transmission to computers and/or pro audio equipment
- Built-in rechargeable LI Battery
- Low Power Mode
- Durable enclosure made of renewable / recycled materials
- Sustainable manufacturing practices
Software
- Standard
- Apps for iOS and Android
- Library of Sound Sets (groups of instruments to be played by the plant)
- Record Audio
- Record + Share video
- Standard data visualization (graphs, etc)
- Change MIDI channel on firmware for customized use with pro audio equipment
- Advanced
- Customizable sounds
- Instruments
- Effects
- Key/Scale
- 440hz / 432hz / 528hz, etc
- Record MIDI
- MIDI Thru
- Customizable sounds
- Pro
- Build sound sets with multiple instruments
- Multi Mode (route up to 4 PlantWaves!)
- Auto key detection
Pricing and Availability
PlantWave is being produced via Kickstarter project and is available to project backers starting at US $220.
I really like the whole concept, I think it’s inspiring and cool.
However, when reading the pledge details it says “Pledge US$ 220 or more INCLUDES:
PlantWave Plant Music Device, pro subscription of our app for one year ($99 value)”
Are they serious? that’s all nice but there will be a 99$ yearly subscription for using the app?? (not for first year, I get it… but still). I have not met a single musician that likes a subscription model. And this much? in a iphone/ipad app? In a market that is full of 1-5-10$ for professional music apps?
Makes me not buy this.
And about subscription models in general. I totally understand how this can be good for companies. IMHO not for customers. Ever. Hope this trend will pass as fast as it appeared.
I second this. I was ready to back it but a $99 yearly app subscription? I get it, they need sustainability but this is way too much for an app in today’s era. Been wanting to jump in for years but this might be the nail in the coffin for me to move on.
Hey James and Jeff!
Jon from PlantWave here. I really appreciate your feedback, just wanted to clarify a few points. There are multiple tiers to the features of the app. There is of course a free version that allows anyone to listen to their plants with PlantWave. The only features restricted to the $99 tier are professional composition features built specifically for use with our device. It’s essentially a mobile DAW for your plants that gives you not only sound design tools but also advanced MIDI routing options allowing you to network multiple plants together (we’ve been doing this manually for our installations the last 8 years and trust us, it’s no small task!)
PlantWave also has a USB out so you can connect it to your preferred music software to build your own MIDI instruments for your plants to play.
Just wanted to clarify that there is no additional paywall for users to get started using their device. That is to say, the $220 pledge will indeed come with everything you need to start listening to plants!
Thanks a lot!
Jon
Hey Jeff and James!
Jon from PlantWave here. Thank you for your comments, just wanted to clarify a few points.
There are multiple tiers to the app. There is a free version which has built in instruments for your plants to play and the ability to record and share your plant music sessions. So to be clear, the $220 pledge allows you to listen to your plants play a variety of well crafted instruments, there’s no additional paywall.
PlantWave also comes with a USB out so you can also plug it into your music software of choice to craft your own MIDI environments for your plants to control.
The features in the the $99/yr tier are advanced professional features allowing users to customize and create instruments for their plants to play. It is essentially a mobile DAW for your plants. The pro tier also includes advanced MIDI routing features to allow you to network multiple plants together as an ensemble (we’ve done this manually for our installations over the last 7 years and believe us, it’s no small task!)
Thanks again for your feedback!
Jon
I love the concept of plant biodata sonification. I picked up a MIDI Sprout about two years ago. It is a fun tool to add into recordings, and occasionally some really interesting stuff comes out of it. I love the device and don’t plan to ever part with it. (Though I’d trade it in for an Instruo SCION)
That said, I was a little disappointed with the build quality for which I spent $300. For example, it was housed in a flimsy cardboard case, and the battery case is touchy enough that you have to fiddle with the batteries to make sure you are getting the right connection.
As far as the musical nature of the plant’s biosignal, I have to be honest and say that it really just sounds like random MIDI notes streaming into whatever device I plugged into the other end. I was never able to hear markedly different signals from different plants. The differences in signal mainly seemed to come from the strength of the connection between the ‘trodes’. For example, if you put the trodes on the same leaf, the signal is very strong and lots of notes are coming thru making the plant seem “excited”, but if you put them on opposite parts of a plant, the throughput of notes is much lower. I’ve also tested the device with other connections, namely human touching: if you hold one of the trodes and give one to someone else, you can get interesting signals by touching (holding hands). Same with any physical object– connect trodes to different legs of a table. And so on…
All that to say that while expensive, these devices are great fun, and if you have a DAW or hardware sequencer you don’t need the software they are selling. I plug my MIDI Sprout directly into my Squarp Pyramid, apply MIDI effects and scales etc and press record. Plug the output of the Pyramid into my eurorack, various synths, and effects pedals, & loop. Fun for hours and hours.
So…if I stick the electrodes to a piece of cheese or a dirty sock, will it produce the same sounds as if it’s attached to a plant? In other words, isn’t it just a completely random music generator and the whole plant thing just a marketing gimmick?
I don’t view it as gimmicky, more like Data Garden should expand their scope to say their devices enable converting all sorts of signals to MIDI: plants, cheese, the sky’s the limit.
The signal appears to be pseudo-random, but that is what makes it interesting to me: it is almost but not quite random.
🙂
I personally would love to ear an album full of music made from cheese!
Hey Dacci Pucci, this is Jon Shapiro from PlantWave.
Just wanted to clarify that the electrodes need to detect a dynamic electric signal only exhibited by living organisms to function. Perhaps there’s enough moisture and microbes on some cheeses for it to work? It certainly wouldn’t be reliable. And you definitely wouldn’t detect anything from a sock.
A lot of people have used use the electrodes on humans as patientfrog described above, very cool!
Press on those harsh clamps which will damage any plant and your fingers activate the prerecorded music loop
This is too cheaply made, clamps popped off in 5 minutes and really embellished advertising
Great idea but why not play yourself ?