We’re all used to keyboards, pads, strings as a means of triggering or playing sounds or MIDI. But, you’ll probably be aware there are other ways we’ve been devising to bring playing and performing sound in different ways, from the futuristic AlphaSphere controller to wearable instruments like the Remidi T8 glove and bracelet combo to ROLI Seaboard RISE that brings the humble keyboard elegantly kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

The above are controllers and don't include on-board sounds. So, let's forget all the above and check out what A guy name Tom has created at Zurich university. «WOMB» is based on the Axolotl platform and is designed to get us interacting in a very different way to manipulate sounds, much like shaping or sculpting sand on a multidimensional interface.

It would be great to know more about whether this electroacoustic instrument could act as a controller is a MIDI interface or whether it uses another communication protocol...

Here’s video of it in action, followed by the description from the video.

«WOMB» — hands on interactions with digital sound from a guy called tom on Vimeo.

Knobs, buttons and keys are the dominant means of interaction with electronic musical instruments. The aim of the «WOMB» prototype is to explore alternative ways to this paradigm. What if we could shape digital sounds with our hands, in the same way we can shape/sculpt clay?

«WOMB» is a hybrid electroacoustic instrument that allows rich, direct, haptic interaction with a multidimensional parameter space through a flexible user interface. It is based on the awesome Axoloti plattform and was developed as part of my masters degree in interaction design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

[Via: MatrixSynth]