Motion made music: AUUG Motion Synth nearing Kickstarter goal
Imagine being able to play notes and alter sounds through the motion of your hand and arm, using an iPhone or iPod touch. That's the idea behind the AUUG Motion Synth, a unique musical instrument and controller that is getting close to its Kickstarter goal with another eight days to go in the campaign. The developers of the AUUG Motion Synth are looking for US$70,000 in funding and have achieved just over $57,000.
The AUUG Motion Synth consists of an app to convert your hand motions to output (either sounds or MIDI actions) and a wearable grip that holds the iOS device and provides tactile feedback for virtual keys on the screen of the device. It supports wireless and cabled MIDI, so just about any musical hardware or external synthesizer can be controlled by hand and arm gestures.
There's also a cloud component to AUUG: The company hopes to have a cloud service that will let users share settings and ideas. Some of those settings include presets for the AUUG app to work with other iOS music apps. One of the videos we've attached to this post shows how easy it is to set up the AUUG Motion Synth to work with other apps as simple as GarageBand or as complex as Ableton Live.
There are a limited number of backing opportunities available starting at $68 and $78, with one of the aluminum AUUG grips and the software being your reward for backing the project. After the device goes into production, the AUUG Motion Synth will retail for $110.
The entire concept makes a lot more sense when you've seen it in action, so check out the videos below for a full idea of how the app, grip and cloud work together with the musician to make beautiful music.
