Just a few years in the past, artist Trendy Biology turned a viral sensation when he posted movies of himself controlling a modular synth with mushrooms on TikTok. Pocket Scion offers anybody comparable capabilities, however with out having to spend 1000’s of {dollars} on a Eurorack rig – and in a way more transportable bundle.
A core a part of Trendy Biology’s setup is a module known as Scion from Glasgow-based Instruo. Scion turns biofeedback, whether or not that’s from houseplants or your individual pores and skin, into CV (management voltage) for controlling different synth modules in a bigger setup. Touching two sensors to your hand or a mushroom completes a circuit, after which electrical fluctuations in that circuit can be utilized to set off completely different notes, or change the cutoff on a filter, as an example.
A bit of over a yr in the past, he approached Instruo about constructing one thing new. The fruit of that collaboration is the Pocket Scion, an inexpensive self-contained instrument that may flip small electrical modifications from dwelling organisms into MIDI knowledge and create soundscapes utilizing one of many 4 built-in sound engines.
The Pocket Scion has various superior capabilities too, together with MIDI out for controlling exterior devices. There’s additionally a companion app for Home windows, macOS, and Linux that exposes sound design instruments for creating your individual synth patches, and may ship knowledge over Open Sound Management (OSC), which provides it management over a ton of audio and video applications like Max/MSP, Pure Knowledge, and Unreal Engine for creating visualization or complicated reactive artwork installations. It’s extra highly effective than you’d count on given its $149 value.
The preliminary run of Pocket Scions bought out virtually instantly. However you’ll be able to place a preorder for when the subsequent batch ships “early subsequent week,” in keeping with retailer Management Voltage.