Superstar electronic music producer BT & Dr Richard Boulanger, Professor of Electronic Production and Design at Berklee College of Music, have released a new music app, MUSE, which works with the Leap Motion controller & OS X.
The MUSE app gives the user the ability to create ambient electronic music using gestures, captured by the Leap Motion.
Here’s an introduction into MUSE and how it works:
Features:
- Hover over cubes to select them; then open your fingers to trigger and play them.
- Move your hands closer to the screen to control the timbre, panning, echo, and reverberation of the sounds you have triggered.
- Swipe in either direction to bring up additional ChordSets, Ambiences, Drones, and Drums.
- Choose from three SoundSets, each with unique Chords, Drones, Drums and Natural Sounds.
- Turn on AutoMuse and play along with or just listen to our intelligent composing system as Muse creates and performs on her own.
- Adjust the Mix and EQ on the Slider Screen.
- Transpose, on the fly, to any key and play along with your friends or other musical pieces.
- Create interesting and complex drum grooves by layering simple rhythmic patterns.
- Record and AutoSave your compositions and performances.
- Hover over the Menu or Transposition icons to reveal and select from the many program options.
- All options and commands are selectable through hand-motions or from the ASCII keyboard.
The following video captures a performance demonstration by Dr. Boulanger:
Pricing and Availability.
MUSE for the Leap Controller is available now via the Leap Motion Airspace Store for $9.99. Additional information is available at the MUSE website.
The video is a lot more impressive than the app.
Yes. We need to Leap beyond MPC60 thinking.
i haven’t got passed playing the spoons
Spoons can be your Leap controller.
“Choose from three SoundSets, each with unique Chords, Drones, Drums and Natural Sounds”
too bad it’s constrained to fixed sets, and only three of them at that… what’s next, muse download packs for $1.99? *sigh* i might still give it a spin…
It’s like Beamz in 3d.
How long can you do that before your arm falls off?
NO thanks.
Interesting concept… and the controller is not expensive either.
Very cool
Off Topic:
What happened to the Roland D-50 software article?
this is a very cool instrument
i am sort of disappointed with the interface
the qunexus can do the “same thing” with reaktor –
it is all about sound after all…
sound design is at the point where ANYONE can do this
with the limitless combination of hardware and software that is now available
I’m still not convinced this is a whole lot better than buttons, sliders and knobs.
BT makes a common mistake here when he says, “it’s an infinite sonic pallet”. Motion tracking does not in any way directly translate to “new sounds”. None. At all. Nor does using CSound as the sound generator. That application would generate exactly the same sounds driven by any controller. And the motion tracking on it’s own generates zero sound. It’s just a new controller. That’s it. If moving your arms and fingers somehow makes you a better composer than using knobs, keys, strings, sliders, pads, screens, buttons, d-beams and all the other crazy stuff we already have, then good for you! But don’t make this same mistake of somehow thinking that magic will happen somewhere in between, or that plugging motion control into your existing synths will allow anything new to come out of it.
Given the combo of BT and Boulanger, I’d expect the results to be a lot more interesting/experimental than the video demo. And the interface almost seems conservative.
It left me wondering if we’re not the real audience for this app, but that maybe it’s more for people that just want a fun music app.
I’d like to see what BT does with this – he does some pretty extreme sound mangling live.
TC-11 for iPad and Modulus for OS X and iOS are two examples of apps that are pretty adventurous with their interfaces, but that manage to also be attractive and easy to use.