Mogees Harness the Musical Power of Mundane Objects

Engineer, researcher, and musician Bruno Zamborlin wants to break the boundaries between musical expression and the physical world. In a Kickstarter-funded project, Zamborlin’s intends to achieve this by transducing the vibrations of everyday objects into musical sounds, using his new invention called Mogees. Using a similar sensor to a contact microphone, Mogees are placed on the surface of any solid object with a sticky, reusable backing. When the object is tapped, Mogees sends the information from the object’s vibrations to a phone app via the headphone jack, which converts the signal to a proprietary musical response, unique to Mogees. The signal is then output through a speaker or headphones.

Mogees has a number of options for creating sounds from otherwise mundane objects:

1. Sounds presets: Select different sound presets and associate them to the objects you play.
2. Free Mode : The free mode lets you improvise completely. Find new ways to produce different notes and timbres by exploring how to play physical objects using different gestures using bare hands or anything you can find around you. Through the app, you can also select the musical notes and timbres that you want the system to associate to your gestures.
3. Song Mode : You can also use Mogees to play and re-interpret your favorite tunes. Just use the app to load a MIDI file of the song you want to play and you are ready to go.
4. Capture : The Capture function allows you to capture the natural sound properties of your gestures and convert it to a sound preset. In this way, you can apply the sound properties from one object to another. You might like to play a tree with the acoustic properties of a glass, or a bicycle with the properties of an ice cube. The limits are only your imagination !
5. Backing track : Play along with a backing track. Use our pre-loaded loops or record/import your own audio files.

Mogees is also available in an upgraded pro version which enables customized sound synthesis, remote mode for controlling Ableton or other DAW devices, and DMX control which via Wi-Fi can control lighting systems and VJ software.

1. Acoustic properties : Achieve total control on the sounds you create by accessing the advanced Mogees synthesis parameters. Customise the sounds you capture or create brand new ones.
2. Remote Mode : Synchronise your Mogees performances to your computer remotely. Use Ableton Live or other computer software to send OSC messages to the app and control all the parameters in real time.
3. DMX control : Control lights remotely using Mogees! The Mogees app can generate ARTNET messages on the fly to control any DMX-compatible light system via WiFi.

Mogees is completely portable, and with simple modes as well as connectivity to more complex production situations, it’s an affordable way to diversify any musical endeavor. Mogees also has performance art applications for dance, theater, and improvisational music, and can be triggered by nearly any object in any environment. Also useful for classrooms, Mogees shows promise for early education applications.

The project has 15 days left on Kickstarter, and it’s one that seems worth getting behind if you’re always inspired on the go. Mogees will be available for iOS and Android once it is released.

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