#MusicBricks: 8 new startup ideas with half a million social reach
We’re just six months into the #MusicBricks project, and already eight new product concepts are being developed into brand new startups and projects. The tools have proven so popular and have generated such a buzz across social media that news of #MusicBricks has now reached over half a million people worldwide.
#MusicBricks puts exclusive new technologies from the world’s top research institutes into the hands of hackers. These tools range from low-latency microboards specifically designed for music processing to gesture sensors, music transcription applications, melody extraction, pitch detection software. They’re the building blocks of new music tech innovations - and successful projects are helped to commercial prototype with a bit of funding and a lot of support with strong links to industry.
If you’d like to be involved with #MusicBricks, drop us a note. Just hit reply to this email and let’s talk. You can also find out more about #MusicBricks here.
The projects so far:
Four innovative seed ideas developed at the #MTFScandi hack camp last month and four more from last weekend’s Music Hack Day Barcelona at Sonar+D have been selected by expert industry judges to go the next step and prepare their ideas for a real world market.
From #MTFScandi:
- Airstrument - Musical Instrument
Airstrument uses #MusicBricks technology to analyse an existing song, then allows the user to use hand gestures in order to play a melody within the scale and musical context. The aim is to create an intuitive instrument that will make music more accessible in new and exciting ways. Watch the video here.
- Dolphin - Product Platform
Using the #MusicBricks R-IoT board, Dolphin is an accessible gestural interface for controlling music selection & playback using head movements and head gestures. As a platform for interaction, the motion sensitive headphones can be used to track movement in space with respect to the audio played, as well as control that audio. Watch the video here.
- FindingSomething BondingSounding - Performance Interaction
This project is a response to the challenge of music as communication. It represents a duality between the mind and the body in a combination of performance and EEG brainscan data. The mind controls audio and video samples organized according to activation or relaxation; the body controls the effects according to position, acceleration and angle. Watch the video here.
- Interactive Cube - Smart Home Music Product
The Interactive Cube is a physical interface for manipulating audio. The orientation of the cube is tracked using the R-IoT board, and this defines the balance mix of 5 audio loops, while the movement of the cube drives a stereo panning effect. Watch the video here
From Music Hack Day Barcelona at Sonar+D:
- High Note - Accessibility Product
High Note is a hands-free wireless Midi controller instrument. It uses #MusicBricks technology to sense a range of different motion and mouth-controlled inputs to allow people with limited physical mobility or strength (or people who have their hands otherwise engaged) full participation in musical expression. Watch the video here
- Sound in Translation - Collaborative Musical Performance
Sound in Translation explores the possibilities of assisted and collaborative live remixing in a musical performance. It uses a hardware controller to create a sound, and then the system searches for a similar sound and adds it to the available inputs for the remix. The system is in dialogue with the performer, who listens and reacts to the new sounds, finding relevant content within his/her music collection. Watch the video here
- ENBOARD - Action Music Interface
ENBOARD is an audiovisual controller that builds #MusicBricks technologies into a skateboard, allowing for the unique motion of a skater to shape, select, transform and alter a music and video performance. Watch the video here
- Ear We Go! - Music AIThis ‘bionic ear’ helps musicians get in tune with an existing musical ambience or context. The technology simplifies jamming and improvisation with other musicians. Press a button to listen and your sampler/synthesizer will automatically be in tune with what’s going on around you. Watch the video here
If you’re a hacker, developer, maker, designer or artist, there’s still a chance to get your hands on these tools to create intelligent music objects. Join us at #MTFCentral18-20 September 2015 in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the final #MusicBricks creative test bed and you’ll have exclusive access to these tools. Get hands-on with tangible user interfaces, musical libraries for real-time sensor analysis and visualisation.
The best ideas will be showcased on the Music Tech Fest stage, live-streamed, uploaded on the MTF channel, and micro-funded to evolve to early stage prototypes. Our community will help you evolve your ideas and turn them into something everyone can play with.