Music
This Ball-Shaped Drum Machine Could Change The Way You Think About Making Beats
Meet Oddball, the strangest drum machine concept you’re likely to see all year.
Drum machines come in all shapes and sizes. Browser-based emulators and shrunken classic instruments have made the drum machine increasingly accessible and portable, but the format has remained largely the same, rarely straying from the step-sequenced box of pads, buttons and knobs that’s been applied by top instrument manufacturers for decades.
Oddball is the new instrument that makes your machine drumming more…active. Featuring a full drum machine crammed inside a ball, it simplifies and adds playfulness to the process of writing beats. While most electronic instruments require extensive manual reading and head-scratching, all you have to do to get started with Oddball is bounce it, hit it or do whatever else you would normally do with a ball to it.
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The ball acts as a pressure-sensitive percussion trigger, so you can play harder or more delicate sounds depending on how hard you bounce it. The information from Oddball is sent to a mobile app, where it can be looped, reshaped and warped with effects. Oddball also works as a MIDI controller, so you can apply its intuitive, cable-free workflow to any software instrument or synthesizer.
While it may look like a toy, Oddball is a refreshing instrument that may lead the charge in getting electronic music production off of hardware-crammed desks and into more dynamic and performative environments. Check out their Kickstarter for more information here.
Read more: Check out this new drum machine by electro legend DMX Krew
