A number of years in the past, artist Modern Biology grew to become a viral sensation when he posted movies of himself controlling a modular synth with mushrooms on TikTok. Pocket Scion provides anybody related capabilities, however with out having to spend 1000’s of {dollars} on a Eurorack rig – and in a far more moveable package deal.
A core a part of Fashionable 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 totally different notes, or change the cutoff on a filter, as an illustration.
Somewhat over a 12 months in the past, he approached Instruo about constructing one thing new. The fruit of that collaboration is the Pocket Scion, an reasonably priced self-contained instrument that may flip small electrical adjustments from dwelling organisms into MIDI knowledge and create soundscapes utilizing one of many 4 built-in sound engines.
The Pocket Scion has a variety of 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 supplies it management over a ton of audio and video applications like Max/MSP, Pure Information, and Unreal Engine for creating visualization or advanced reactive artwork installations. It’s extra highly effective than you’d count on given its $149 value.
The preliminary run of Pocket Scions offered out virtually instantly. However you can place a preorder for when the subsequent batch ships “early subsequent week,” in accordance with retailer Management Voltage.
