Hasta La Ideas

Percussa AudioCubes – An Introduction from percussa on Vimeo.

We’ve seen lots of “block” type tangible sound control systems in installations and experimental student projects, but the folks at Percussa, a small electronics company in Brussels, have made one that’s got the kinks worked out enough to go to market. Their “AudioCubes” are glowing, physical blocks that hook up to a computer and map to musical structures, allowing you to unleash your inner geek DJ and play with toys all at the same time. Electronics embedded within each cube allow the blocks to sense one another’s positions and orientations, as well as the blocks’ distance to other objects, such as a hand (think four-sided mini theramin). They are networked, and scalable, so you can use any number of pieces (up to 100) together, as long as your audio hardware budget can handle it: a single block costs almost 300 bucks, though sets of multiples bring the price per block down.

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