

synaesynth converts color into music at the push of a button

all photos by philip pille



‘synaesynth‘ is a musical instrument that translates visual imagery and color directly into sound with just a push of a button. simulating a synaesthetic experience — a neurological condition in which two sensory pathways involuntary overlap — the project by melbourne based designer daniel kerris has developed for orchestral production, performance and exploration.



japan black and fijian mahogany variant casings

data that collects chromatic value is pulled from a video feed and sent to a control pad, allowing the user to choose the hue they’d like to hear adapted into audio. the feed is divided up into a grid within the software, correlating to a specific button on the device. on screen, the program enlarges the pixel to more easily identify the converted color, identified by it’s red, green and blue value components, which inform the system of the brightness values, which are used to generate scale and pitch settings. the external settings for pitch, scale, and instrument style can be modified from buttons on the left side of the device, as well as a play, pause and record button so that users can record a loop of button coordinates. a freeze frame option captures a moment from the video feed, allowing to lock in a palette of interesting colors.



the device has nine function keys, a 16 buttonpad matrix, and an LCD screen



the synaesynth runs on 5V DC supply and talks to the software on the computer via USB



color data is pulled from a video feed and sent to the synaesynth to be converted into sound at the push of a button

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.