http://youtu.be/wZCn6QEB-AI
Adam Place, inventor of the Nu Desine AlphaSphere, gives a broad overview of the features of the MIDI controller, and answers some frequently asked questions:
- What can [one] do with an AlphaSphere?
- Why wouldn’t [one] just use a keyboard?
- Why is it spherical?
This short demo is the first video in the company’s tutorial series – Understanding the AlphaSphere. The tutorial series will be diving into depth with the presets which are available with the AlphaSphere demo project which comes with the device as default.
The next set of videos will act as a guide for setting up the AlphaSphere with AlphaLive as a multichannel MIDI controller and connecting to your DAW. Later demo videos are planned to explore presets 1 to 5 in the demo project and some of the possibilities for mapping multichannel notational arrangements around the sphere.
For more information, check out the Alpha Sphere website, and the Alpha Sphere channel on YouTube.
this is way more interesting with the augmented reality overlay
– i still think the spherical design is a novelty –
a flat interface would do the same thing ..
I love how trippy this video is – it makes me think that, while the AlphaSphere isn’t something that I need, I might want it to explore music in new ways.
What I’d really like to see, though, is somebody really jam on this.
I like the idea of this, especially as a hand drumming controller; not that fond of the you-are-getting-very-ascended hypno-marketing, though. Don’t tell me how to feel about your product, tell me what it does and get out of the way, please.
I’ve “played” one of these at the maker faire in Newcastle. It was unusual but also strangely addictive.
I am struggling to hear the voice in the clip and the close-hat doesn’t help at all.
I contacted them to buy one last September but they weren’t very receptive. Looks cool but after their lack of caring for a sale I won’t be contacting them again.
I don’t think it was shipping yet, then, so they couldn’t sell you one if they wanted. They posted a video back then about the hoops they had to jump through to get the device approved for sale….
Pre-order?
I have yet to understand how this device differs from a normal controller with polyphonic aftertouch. I see that a bent surface to arrange the pads makes sense, but I believe that the 360 degree arrangement is counterproductive – pads that are behind and underneath are simply quite difficult to reach.
There really isn’t a ‘normal controller with polyphonic aftertouch’ to compare this to.
There’s a really expensive folding control keyboard with poly after touch and a couple of KMI devices that more controllers than keyboards, but not much else.
I completely agree with you about the pads on the ‘southern hemisphere’, though. You don’t see the get used much in their demos.
If you poke around there are a couple of videos where the underside pads are used quite effectively, often for triggering sequences or switching between samples which don’t require continued playing.
The argument that you can’t see them so you can’t play them is flawed, you don’t play music with your eyes, and saying you can’t reach them is also flawed as you clearly can.
It’s very easy to criticize a new design which you don’t understand and haven’t played yourself but in a few years time when musicians have had time to master this and the ergonomics of the device are fully understood you are going to look pretty dumb.
You want to bet money on that?? I’m pretty confident it’s you that’s going to be either spinning that thing like a disco ball, having your Saint Bernard play fetch with it, or busting it up like a piñata in a couple years when this thing becomes just another grab at a futuristic instrument gone wrong. The person who designed this didn’t think anything of how an instrumentalist approaches an instrument. They did think more about the light show.
It’s oddly hilarious how worked up people get about this, fear of change I guess.
The manufacturer is making a lot of dramatic claims about how great it is, as opposed to marketing of the ‘here’s how it works, and I shall now demonstrate it in action, draw your won conclusions’ style. When you talk a lot about ‘the ultimate this’ and ‘the unique that’ then you must be prepared to encounter challenges and deliver on these promises.
The main objection here seems to be that other than the shape, it’s not all that different from other kinds of controllers, and I think they have a point. As far as new things go, I’m more interested in the Syntact (ultrasonic tactile feedback so you feel the music while controlling it with your hand – sadly not available yet and likely $uper-expen$ive http://www.ultrasonic-audio.com/products/syntact.html) and the Leap Motion (complex gestural control from an $80 device about the size of a mouse https://www.leapmotion.com/product).
It’s weird that you say that, cause if you listen to the narration there are actually no claims of that nature. It’s just a guy playing the thing and talking about the theory that led to the design. Not once does the guy say anything along the lines of ‘this is the ultimate’ or ‘this is unique technology’ but is actually just probing established ideas about the nature of music. In many ways it is more philosophical and inviting informed debate (which this thread is sadly lacking in) than just straight marketing.
A lot of the criticism I am reading here is not really based on anything other than a kind of luddite kneejerk reaction to new concepts in HCI for synthesis and a lot of quite embarrassing presumptions about ergonomics that reflect poorly on the commenters. Look at the ‘ergonomics’ of a violin and tell us that is useless lol, it’s difficult to say its useless because it has existed for 100s of years and people are trained to play it now, but can you say that is an ergonomic instrument? Quite simply it would fail human centred design standards if it was released as new today. If you actually look at a lot of principles around ergonomics then this sphere fits those much more intuitively than anything I have seen or played before.
At the end of the day time will tell about this kind of thing, however, I would wager that based on the market response to this, these guys are onto a winner and there will be a couple of red-faced Synthtopia commenters forced to eat their words as this thing becomes ubiquitous.
The narrator should add, “Think about developing arthritis after playing the pads on the bottom and on the side opposite you!”. It looks like an interesting concept but its not ergonomically laid out so its kind of useless. Ehhh…if you’ve got money to burn it would be good for a party. It’s like a disco ball you can play 🙂
Even more useless is making misinformed comments before you really fathom the reality.
visuals > ergonomics = aesthetics > performance
Hey man, read your book. It was a trip.