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Hit the cube, make the music
Most of us would love to play a musical instrument, but don't have the time to spend learning how. Skoog is a digital instrument for us.
It's a simple cube, but it's capable of a lot. Connect it to your iPad or computer wirelessly, then choose a sound. Then just touch it. It's amazingly tactile, and responds differently depending on what you do to it.
Poke it and it'll make a short noise. Twist it, and the sound distorts. It reacts depending on how hard you touch, where and how. Which opens up an enormous range of sounds. There's no correct way to play, just prod, hit, press and squeeze and see what happens.
You can assign different notes, effects and parameters to up to 17 playable areas of the Skoog, including the buttons and the areas around them. That means you can customise it as much as you like.
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Because it's so easy to use, it could be ideal for aspiring musicians or children. If you want to delve a little deeper into its potential, it's also a hackable, multi-parameter expressive controller.
For the more technically minded, its software sounds are made by processes called physical modelling and subtractive synthesis. The former makes it sound like an instrument – like the way a keyboard can mimic a trumpet – while the latter makes classic analogue synth sounds.
It also connects to a MIDI controller so you can hook it up to GarageBand, Logic and other programmes.
It's exceeded its £15,000 funding goal, and there are still 17 days left.
