Very high speed

The Soundplane is very fast. It measures the pressure at each of 512 points on its surface almost 1000 times per second, enough to capture every nuance of a musical gesture. In comparison, the touch screens in tablet computers typically capture data at 30 to 60 frames per second.

Compatibility

The Soundplane requires a computer running Mac OS, for now. Linux and Windows versions of the software are planned.

With the Soundplane comes the Soundplane client application, which reads the raw pressure data over USB and converts it into customizable MIDI and OSC touch data. The surface can be configured as either a 150-note keyboard with position and pressure sensing on each key, or divided into an arbitrary number of zones. Other settings are available that provide fine control over the touch tracking and pressure response.

The source code for the Soundplane client application is available under a permissive MIT license. This means that you are free to compile and use the software for any purposes, even commercial ones. Download it from github/madronalabs.

Also included with the Soundplane is Aalto, our patchable modular software synthesizer. Aalto works with most controllers and software via MIDI, but when a Soundplane is connected it communicates directly over OSC, providing an easy-to-use, high-bandwidth connection from gesture to sound.

We have worked with Symbolic Sound to make the Soundplane plug-and-play compatible with the Kyma system. For controlling analog synthesizers, we recommend Silent Way from Expert Sleepers, which has a built-in Soundplane module. And for everything that other software can’t do, we recommend Max/MSP/Jitter by Cycling ’74.

See this onesheet PDF for current specifications: [3 Mb PDF]