PocoPoco is a new musical interface that users can control by pushing, holding and turning.
To create Pocopoco. IDEEALab developed custom solenoid units with built-in sensors and assembled 16 of them in a box-shaped container to serve as a universal input/output device.
Users can play music with PocoPoco by pushing,
holding and turning its cylinders:
- When a user Pushes on top of a cylinder, a sequencer switch is flipped to the “on” position causing the cylinder to rise and a sound to play at regular intervals.
- Holding a raised cylinder prolongs the note being played like the sustain pedal of a piano.
- Turning a cylinder affects the instrument’s tone in various ways (e.g. volume control, filters, pitch bend).
See the IDEEALab site for details.
It sort of reminds of a more beautiful Whack-a-Mole. The demo was put together very well, it only didn’t show how they switched instruments on the fly.
There must be some very clever controller mapping behind this performance.
Pretty sure they just change midi.channel a.device this.oi nt ricate should make that very easy
Awesome!
???????
i got pretty excited watching this and i dont know why, this is probably one of the most creative controllers i have seen in a while that seems actually practical…. just my 2 cents.
if i could hook this up to an Electribe it would be super fun
So it’s a Midi Fighter 4D!?!
It’s a simple and straightforward interface. Not much to it. On their site they mention that it could be good for young kids. I think that’s a great idea. Having a big pushbutton/rotary/illuminated interface to do 16 step sequencing could be good for kids, folks with developmental disabilities, and elderly to learn about music tech. It might also make an interesting display to have a set of these on some kind of loop in some kind of interactive display. (THOUGHT BUBBLE: Hmm. I didn’t think I liked it at first, but I’ve come around. )
So what are the three guys for?
Machine music for machine people – where is that Charlie Chaplin speech?
There is a lot to be said for imperfection and human performance.
Don’t get me wrong, my first synth was an ARP Odyssey.
I suppose you could make real music with it, but beats are just a cliche now.
I suppose it is less boring than just a laptop, but i ahven’t seen anything performed on laptop that was not a pathetic imitation of what a real musician could be doing..
Don’t get me wrong, I was doing computer music back in 1985 (Dr. T’s KCS) and 8 bit music back in 1979 until MID came out (Atari i400 and 800) but I wasn’t being robotic or cliched about it.
“I suppose it is less boring than just a laptop, but i ahven’t seen anything performed on laptop that was not a pathetic imitation of what a real musician could be doing..” Well said, sir!
Wow you must have a hard time not contridicting yourself. Don’t get me wrong but you used “don’t get me wrong” twice.
Damn, you got me wrong anyway!
“PocoPoco is a new musical interface that users can control by pushing, holding and turning.”
Sounds like a Bop It! BOP IT! TWIST IT! PULL IT!
I give them credit for the controller. Looks like a neat piece of gear. But I’m really tired of the “line of disaffected expressionless guys” pushing buttons as if it means anything.