Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1

Started by slooky, March 09, 2015, 05:57:13 AM

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slooky

Not sure what to make of this?
http://www.artiphon.com






It's just four days in and Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1, the electronic device that can become almost any instrument you want it to be has already surpassed its Kickstarter goal by almost $250,000.

The Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1 allows you to play hundreds of instruments on one device in a number of different ways using an iPhone as the controller. Not only can you play piano, violin, guitar or loop beats as a DJ, you can also mix up the way you play those instruments. You can play the guitar with the sounds of piano keys or play the piano with the sounds of a banjo, for instance.

Artiphon is also creating a companion app so that you can literally program the device to become any instrument you want it to be. "Any number of combinations can be used," said founder Mike Butera.

The idea for the Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1 came about one day while Butera was on the road with his band.

"I was carrying a viola, cello, guitar, an electric guitar, all these instruments and it was hard to lug all that around. I got to thinking about GarageBand. It can sound like anything because it's software. I wanted something like that to exist as an instrument," he said.

It just so happens that Butera also holds a PhD in sound studies and was a product developer for stereo systems at the time – technical skills that enabled him to dream up what this sort of instrument would look like.

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It took four years and many iterations before the product came to be what we see today. An earlier version debuted during CES 2013.

AOL founder Steve Case liked the idea and gave Butera some investment money for research and development. Dave McClure, Eric Reis and a some musical angels from Nashville were on board as well. Butera took in a total of $700,000, hired a team of engineers, brought in his co-founder and CMO Jacob Gordon and started testing the product out on various musicians.

Bands such as The Weeks, Wild Cub, Moon Taxi, Mikki Ekko (who produced Rihanna's 'Stay'} and even Moby have given the product a spin.

Most Kickstarter campaigns don't start out with this much support. "We were told by Kickstarter that we were 99 percent ahead of most campaigns, actually," Butera said.

So why a Kickstarter campaign for something with so much backing already? Part of it is about getting the idea out there for marketing purposes. Kickstarter provides that platform for Butera and his team to reach the potentially interested masses. But it can also provide that extra bit needed to get the product into production.

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"Hardware is pretty intense," Butera said. "The angel funding helps with the R&D process but we needed working capital to manufacture it."

The Artiphon campaign is reminiscent of Gtar in some ways. For those unfamiliar, the GTar is an interactive digital guitar that helps beginners learn to play using an app on their iPhone. The GTar went $250,000 over the original campaign goal. The difference is Artiphon can simplify for beginners, but can also become virtually any musical instrument it is programmed to be. It's also in a later funding stage than where GTar was when that campaign ended.

We could also see this instrument on the shelves at our local Apple Stores in the next year. Butera confirmed his company is in discussions with Apple's retail arm and that he plans to add the INSTRUMENT 1 to other retail outlets by late 2016.

The Artiphon crew will be traveling to the film, interactive and music festival SXSW this next week to share the instrument with festival attendees. "We'll probably have some great spontaneous performances there, too," said Butera.

GovernorSilver

I'll probably order a black Artiphon.  I missed the $299 early bird special (sold out).

Some differences over the YouRock:

Pressure sensitive fingerboard with polyphonic aftertouch
Fretless mode - you can slide up and down the "fretboard" with 14-bit pitch bend resolution.
Vibrato sensitivity (on the fingerboard - no whammy bar needed)
Can be laid flat on a table for "keyboard" mode (doesn't matter I'm sure to most guitarists, but it's a plus for me)
Built-in speaker - convenient for couch practice, quickly trying out ideas, etc.

Elantric

QuoteI'll probably order a black Artiphon.  I missed the $299 early bird special (sold out).

Post a review if you obtain one.

polaris20

The two biggest things for me, over the YRG, are that it's got a programmable grid, and that the grid is velocity sensitive. If the YRG's "fretboard" was velocity sensitive, I'd have stuck with it.

GovernorSilver

Quote from: Elantric on March 10, 2015, 09:49:13 AM
Post a review if you obtain one.

Sure thing!  Though we'll all have to wait until Jan. 2016 at the earliest.

The project has been updated with video demos/explanation of the piano tuning, velocity sensitivity, and lefty mode:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artiphon/introducing-the-artiphon-instrument-1/posts


GovernorSilver

A new video was added featuring a cellist.  She does a nice demo of the vibrato sensitivity.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artiphon/introducing-the-artiphon-instrument-1/posts

gscroggin

Just chiming in that I actually placed an order for one when they did the office pre-order a few weeks back. There's been dialogue and progress emails since, but at this point I'm guessing it's still end of year.

As long as they don't completely fall over or pull a Positive Grid ( ;-> ), I should be getting one and I'm hella excited about it!!!

MusicOverGear

Neat-o.

The vid on the website "Meet the Instrument 1" is a lot more convincing re: this is an interesting controller for musicians.

It looks like they actually did think of it as a generic interface between musician and digital instruments - NOT just a controller that inputs note on/off with velocity for guitar players.

https://vimeo.com/artiphon

Violin mode looks super fun.

I do wish the pads were on a IRL type string scale - i.e. I wish the "frets" got smaller toward the "body"

gscroggin

Quote from:  sec6
Looks like something to be sold at Toys R Us.  Only in America. "There's a sucker born every minute."

Check out this other kickstarter project. I'm pretty sure you will be impressed! Barnum has already raised over 1 million dollars for this amazingingly disruptive, scalable, dynamic, state-of-the-art technology.



Yeah I was going to order one of those too, but they didn't have the color I wanted. Maybe next year.

GovernorSilver

I decided to buy a nice bicycle instead, and thus missed the Kickstarter campaign.

I'll probably just order a production unit after the initial batch is shipped out to the backers.

This controller was developed in Nashville and tested by musicians in the area.  Some of you may have heard of the Nashville music scene.

Elantric


gscroggin

Yeah the Roli certainly looks cool, and got a great review Keyboard Magazine recently: http://www.keyboardmag.com/gear/1183/review-roli-seaboard-rise/55488

Not surprising given  how much Jordan Rudess had to do with its development  ;D  http://www.keyboardmag.com/blogentry/1237

No news on my end yet for the Artiphon this year. I actually shot them an email to see what the latest is. I don't mind waiting on my pre-order as long as useful/accurate news continues to flow.

gscroggin

Update, if anyone is still interested  :P

"Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee.

Thank you for pre-ordering the INSTRUMENT 1. We've been hard at work over the past many months testing and refining the product, developing our mobile and desktop companion apps, and preparing to enter manufacturing. We're pleased to say that according to our current production calendar, we will start shipping pre-orders in June, 2016.

As an early adopter of a new and unprecedented musical technology, we want to thank you for your passion, patience, and support. We're a small but highly-dedicated team, and it is terrifically energizing to hear the uplifting stories and well-wishes from all of you around the world. Music has such an important role in all of our lives, and we're honored to be part of your inspiration."

gscroggin

For those that are interested, I received my Artiphon Instrument1. It's certainly a very interesting and unique instrument, with a new set of play-ability challenges. I think my intended primary goal of using it as a mobile writing/composing interface with my iPad will definitely be a reality though...once I can actually play it better ;-)

Check out http://community.artiphon.com/ and my YouTube channel for more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgSiBbzEZU9JMli3BOmRcvw


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