Based on the popularity my post, The Future of Music is Visual, I decided to share with you more companies that exemplify the marriage of visuals and audio.

Korg

iKaossilator
First up is an iPhone app from Korg. If you recall popularity of the Kaossilators, it will come as no surprise that Korg has created an iOS version of the Kaossilator called (drumroll please…) iKaossilator. OK, so it doesn’t score points for originality in the naming department, but as an instrument, this is one of the most time-sucking apps I own. I downloaded it for my iPad without realizing it’s not a native app, so you’ll have to hit the 2X button to fill the screen. Don’t worry; it looks and plays fine on the iPad.

There’s a ton of control on this baby and for each track, you can assign up to five different sounds or beats (from a bank of 150 sounds). In no time, I had some interesting glitch-pop tracks going that had my wife tapping her toes to. Minutes later, she was hooked as well. The light display is impressive and reacts to your finger movement. Can gestures be considered polyphonic if they don’t use a keyboard? If so, iKaossilator is polyphonic, but I’m not quite sure how many gestures it can handle simultaneously. Even if the sound you’ve assigned is playing, you can play over without cutting out or clipping the notes or beats.

Bleep Labs

Bleep Labs are a small collective of sound creators who typify the concept of visual music in almost everything they build.

Bit Blob
Bit Blob and Bit Blob Jr. look and act like science experiments. From their site: “By connecting their pins together, you are able to explore a huge range of evolving drones and noise loops.”

HSS3i
The Hard Soft Synth 3i is, “an indescribable audio/video generator by noisemaker extraordinaire, Gieskes.” Like most devices from Bleep Labs, this is a DIY, so expect some soldering and a basic knowledge of electronics before getting one. The video effects have sort of an early Atari feel to them and I mean that positively. I don’t expect big acts would use this, but smaller bands? Definitely.

Seen any new instruments I missed? Let me know by leaving a comment.

I used to hate bands that put more time into their stage than into their music. I loved seeing punk bands because they were raw and had no pretensions about their work; it was all about the energy, anger and lyrics. No one was making million dollar stage productions. Other folks love lavish spectacles and who am I to begrudge them their right to do so?

Recently however, I have been changing my opinion, but not on lavishness. Rather, I changed my opinion on the need for a visual aspect to live music. What made me change my mind after decades? Simple. I looked at my collection of electronic instruments and realized the choices I made in instruments involve a lot of me moving my fingers or hands and pulsating lights. And seeing bands like Chemical Brothers live… well ’nuff said, but remember that while I love the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, I am neither DJ nor raver so glow-sticks will not be part of this article.

I asked notable electronic musician, Mark Mosher about the connection between visuals and electronic music as he is a strong proponent of both. Here’s what he had to say:

“I’ve found without a doubt that visual controllers such as the Percussa AudioCubes and grid controllers like the Tenori-On makes it easier for the audience to correlate my performance with the music and sound coming out of the speakers. Ultimately this deepens the connection between the performer and the audience, and the audience quickly becomes aware of the musicianship required to perform experimental electronic music live and makes them appeciate the music even more.”

Roland and the D-Beam Controller

I have one synth that dates back to the ’90s, a Roland EG-101. It was a fairly standard Hip-Hop synth, really nothing outstanding except for one feature; the D-Beam. This is an infrared beam that is still being added to current Roland synths. Moving the hand near it and around it interrupts the notes and warps them in unpredictable ways. No two performances could be the same (unless you have robotic limbs).

Novation Ultra Nova

I haven’t purchased the Ultra Nova yet, but it’s my next buy (after my wife and I get settled in our new home). Novation added some beautiful lighting effects to the display of this synth. The Pitch Bend and Modulation wheels are internally lit in a pleasing blue and the entire GUI glows like a suit from Tron.

Kaossilator Pro
This is an odd little beast. Is the Kaossilator a synth? A beat box? A sequencer? A light display? Yes. Using a glass pane interface like an iPad, this square piece of magic from Korg allows your hand movement across the X/Y axis of the glass interface to affect the sound, pitch, volume, speed, effect, etc. of your song phrases. You can basically “draw songs” with this device. Not only is it interesting to watch someone use one, the lights under the glass seem faery-like as they dance near your fingers and glide away.

Audio Cubes
I’ve written at length about Audio Cubes and finally broke down and bought four of them after seeing the amazing work Mark Mosher is doing with them.

Controllers

There are dozens of “controllers” available for electronic musicians but they all seem to have a visual aspect to them. From the myriad number of Ableton Live controllers (hardware) to the iOS tablet versions (software) to the Tenori-On that Mark Mosher mentioned above, controllers all seem to combine function with beautiful light displays that make them easy to use in a dark bar or concert hall, and fascinating for the audience to watch.

iOS Apps
Finally, I would be remiss to neglect mentioning the plethora of iPad and iPhone apps that are for music creation. Because iOS devices rely on finger movement and gesture-based commands, the software instruments on iOS naturally require a lot of finger dancing to operate. I have a huge collection of them and there are frankly to many to mention. Some of my favorites (in no particular order) include:

• Curtis
• Arix-303
• Shapemix
• Soundrop
• Magic Piano

What about you? Do you like seeing lavish displays onstage, simple light and gesture-based performances or just raw and dirty? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Photo Credits: Synthtopia, VIEP, Newecho Productions, Korg.