A couple of years in the past, artist Trendy Biology turned a viral sensation when he posted movies of himself controlling a modular synth with mushrooms on TikTok. Pocket Scion provides anybody comparable capabilities, however with out having to spend 1000’s of {dollars} on a Eurorack rig – and in a way more moveable package deal.
A core a part of Trendy Biology’s setup is a module referred to as Scion from Glasgow-based Instruo. Scion turns biofeedback, whether or not that’s from houseplants or your individual pores and skin, into CV (management voltage) for controlling different synth modules in a bigger setup. Touching two sensors to your hand or a mushroom completes a circuit, after which electrical fluctuations in that circuit can be utilized to set off totally different notes, or change the cutoff on a filter, for example.
Somewhat over a yr in the past, he approached Instruo about constructing one thing new. The fruit of that collaboration is the Pocket Scion, an reasonably priced self-contained instrument that may flip small electrical modifications from residing organisms into MIDI information and create soundscapes utilizing one of many 4 built-in sound engines.
The Pocket Scion has plenty of superior capabilities too, together with MIDI out for controlling exterior devices. There’s additionally a companion app for Home windows, macOS, and Linux that exposes sound design instruments for creating your individual synth patches, and may ship information over Open Sound Management (OSC), which provides it management over a ton of audio and video packages like Max/MSP, Pure Information, and Unreal Engine for creating visualization or advanced reactive artwork installations. It’s extra highly effective than you’d count on given its $149 worth.
The preliminary run of Pocket Scions bought out nearly instantly. However you may place a preorder for when the subsequent batch ships “early subsequent week,” based on retailer Management Voltage.
