Developers of the Oval MIDI instrument have already met their Kickstarter funding goal for the production of the new controller.
The Oval is a new MIDI controller design and can be used with a dedicated mobile app or with other MIDI applications.
Here’s the official intro video for the Oval:
Here’s a performance demo, Murmur by Ravid Goldschmidt:
Key Features:
- Play any sound you can imagine whilst connected to your smartphone or tablet.
- The Oval works via an App but you can also use any MIDI compatible software.
- Design your own sounds, scales and songs.
- Create your own compositions and use the App’s live-performance mode – it has been specifically designed to get the most out of your Oval.
- Multi Sensing Pad with velocity and X/Y location.
- Pressure sensitive sensors for higher expression control, more organic sound, and complex possibilities such as using multiple layers of samples.
- Illuminated PADS provide visual cues for follow along mode, metronome mode, and musical games.
- The external case is made of Solid Surface composed by natural materials –minerals like bauxite, marble and quartz–, natural resins and acrylic.
- The Oval is light, portable, durable, minimal, simple and energetically self-sufficient.
- The Oval is ergonomically designed and can be played in many ways.
The Oval is available to project backers for 399 Euros. Shipping is planned for May 2016. See the project site for details.
Play any sound I can imagine? Wow guys you took MIDI to a whole new level :p All other bullets talk about the app, so what exactly do we have here? Another MIDI controller with a very cool included app?
USB MIDI not ‘midi’..
.i can’t simply plug this into my yamaha RX5 with a midi cable or my other midi synths..it’s a computer app plus hardware connected with USB MIDI…
how long until that app isn’t supported …nice idea and i’d buy it if there was a real midi version made. it’s a USB controller not a midi controller.
MIDI is not tied to one hardware implementation – MIDI over WiFi, USB, DIN, Ethernet it’s all MIDI.
And DIN is arguably the worst option for routing MIDI, with today’s technologies.
are there that many bad-ass hang drum players out there that they need MIDI controllers to expand their musical expressiveness?
Enough to raise $100,000 in 2 days. So, the correct answer is ‘yes’.
And that’s why these guys are going to raise a quarter of a million dollars for their company, and the rest of us are not.
The nice thing about a Hang drums is that it’s very responsive and very easy to pick up since it’s tuned to a particular scale, and the shape and size mean your hands don’t get in each other’s way as they sometimes can when you’re playing a single drum skin – not necessarily physically, but n the sense of choking off notes if you try to play too fast, not having good control of the drum’s pitch and so on. It’s hard to make a Hang sound bad, which is a good recipe for practice!
I knew an expert player who would mic his up and run it through a bunch of FX pedals with great results, and MIDIfying it offers a whole bunch of extra possibilities.
I see things like this, which are awesome, and I feel like we are still one step away from what I really want! They should sell those pads individually, so we could buy as many as we wanted and put them in clusters of our choosing for our own needs. And over time, those set ups could grow, be repurposed, etc. And we could drive any sampler, just just a custom piece of software that will undoubtedly go unsupported in a couple years.
Just 7 days left in The Oval Kickstarter campaign.
The Oval with the Oval App for Android and iOS is a complete instrument. But used as midi controller there are a complete new world to explore.
The Oval is a USB class compliant controller and we have connected The Oval to Eurorack Modular synths, Electron gear, Caustic DAW in Android and Ableton Live, to trigger soft synths and used The Oval with Expert Sleepers Silent Way and Max4Live to drive CV sound sources.
Its awesome. And this is The Oval proto with the single sensor pad. Yes, video is comming and will be available soon in our Kickstarter page and Youtube channel.
The Oval Kickstarters will receive is equiped with the enhanced 5 sensor pad. This 5 sensor pad can detect velocity, pressure, aftertouch and zone of the pad touched.
And there is the cable stretch goal that will be unlocked at 300%: a very convenient USB Licghtning adaptor to conect with iPad and iPhone and a DIN 5 midi cable to directly connect with a whole world of existing midi hardware.
Back The Oval! the only limit is your will.
http://bit.ly/TheOvalHandPan
Best wishes
Juan, Oval Team.
Cont comment: OVAL Hand Pan: The OVAL can connect by inserting a B USB into the OVAL and the other end an A USB. You can plug the A USB into a PC and you can control a DAW like Reaper and it will play sounds.. I have connected to Reaper using Alchemy. So, I know it can control something. You can also use the lightening camera connector and connect to IPAD and IPHONE . Apple IPAD apps suck as they are all expensive and need several expensive apps to combine, and in most cases require buying and learning the expensive Cubasis. But, there may be hope. Someone out there will eventually crack the codes. Right now, all that has been released is two sheets of code… one for the MIDI slots for the Notes, and one page for the location of the controls. OVAL is not talking to anyone. so we do not know if any negotiations are being made to be picked up by a new manufacturer. You have to see, feel, play, and hear one real time to understand how well made, solid, and jam packed with electronics actually is. It is heavy for its size…and the table top plastic it is made from is tough. Nothing like the thin plastic that covers a common MIDI controller key board. OVAL left us hanging on how to use the in and out MIDI plug ins. And what and how the two 1/4 female plugs are fore. Once hinted that one was used for a foot pedal..(to do what) sustain? change octaves? So, I hope somehow they make it back. Meanwhile, those of us that have the physical OVAL will tinker with MIDI and like myself, probably have to be totally self taught. I am being very protective of the Apple and Droid apps, but eventually someone will write some new apps. Until a new version is produced, and it will be, I hope to be in contact with those that still believe in making beautiful music with a comfortable instrument. A steel pan is still a steel pan..and you would need a wall full of them worth thousands of dollars to get the satisfaction of playing 100 different key configurations. The OVAL still has a future… please keep me informed of any progress.
Can I control the oval app with mpk midi controller?