What happens if you bolt together two keyboards, full colour displays, a full suite of analogue controllers and a granular synthesiser engine for two enthusiastic musicians? The Collidoscope is what — and it sound just futuristic as you’d expect.
The guys that built it, researchers Fiore Martin & Ben Bengler, describe how it works:
The Collidoscope samples from the microphones (or line inputs) and displays in real time a waveform of the sample and allows it to be played back instantly. The main sliding knob positioned below the waveform allows for the visual selection of a portion of the sample to be played (by moving it horizontally), and for the modification of the size of the portion being looped (through rotating the knob).
Two additional sliders allow for the high passing of the sound and for the extension of the boundaries of the loop being played to its neighbouring audio material, fading in more of the audio sample without changing the rhythm of the loop.
It’s currently still a prototype, but we sure as hell hope it doesn’t stay that way for long.
[Doctor Mix via Engadget]