In Sleeper , the humans from Woody Allen's dream future made love in machines, had robotic slaves, and enjoyed a kind of lysergic ball that they passionately rubbed. The Nashville Artiphon company has also removed a particular electronic ball from its sleeve, but it is for musical purposes. It is also an addictive ball. It is sweeping the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform.
The creature, called Orba, is about the size of a grapefruit and has the mission to create music wherever we go by just playing it. To do this, it has eight touch pads and are illuminated by LEDs that respond to user gestures and transform them into music and sound through its small integrated speaker.
In this way, Orba can be hit or shaken to emulate a battery, slide your fingers as if it were a harp or pinch its sensors as if we were playing a cello or an electric bass in a kind of virtual pizzicato. And it is that this magic ball can be tilted, caressed, scratched or pressed at our whim while creating musical loops and fragments of songs. With it, music acquires more than ever a tactile dimension where melodies arise from gestures and groping.
Quite an amulet for musicians and a grateful toy for laymen, who can now write songs by tickling this portable device. Of course, Orba was born with the intention of expanding its melodies beyond its small plastic shell and automatically synchronizes with the smartphone via Bluetooth MIDI to communicate with the main music software platforms, such as Ableton Live, Logic or Pro Tools. Palpable and manipulable digital music in a small almighty ball.
