Developer Wray Bowling let us know about his Kickstarter project to fund production of a new Eurorack module, The Biggest Foot, that enables you use a Wii Fit Balance Board to control your modular synthesizer.
Why would you want to use a The Wii Fit Balance Board to control your modular synth?
The Wii Fit Balance Board is available used for $20-30 – so it’s a very inexpensive option for a wireless foot controller.
The Biggest Foot converts wireless Bluetooth signals from the Nintendo Wii Balance Board into control voltages you can use in your Eurorack synthesizer.
What Bowling say about The Biggest Foot:
“The Biggest Foot is unlike any controller in music tech. It provides 9 channels of pressure unlike a joystick which only provides 2 (X and Y). The grid is an intuitive layout that saves space on labeling, and bypasses the need for toggle switches to invert. Instead, you get clear immediate patching. Add aftertouch to instruments that don’t offer it.”
Here are some of his ideas for how you can use it:
Panning: Control a sound’s panning in Stereo, Quad, 5.1, or even 7.1.
Timbre: Lean to open a filter, add shimmer, or increase delay feedback.
Keyboard Tracking: Place the Wii Balance Board on a piano bench. As you naturally lean to play lower or higher notes on a piano keyboard, capture the left and right outputs individually.
Pedalboard Tracking: Place the Wii Balance Board underneath your pedal board to capture pressure from your stompbox layout or add Z to an expression pedal.
Theremin Waveshape: When you aren’t able to touch your instrument, it’s impossible to adjust the waveshape while you play. With The Biggest Foot, you can.
Funding for production of The Biggest Foot is being done via a Kickstarter project, and it is available to project backers for $300.
*Note: Crowdfunded projects can involve risk, which are documented at the project site.
Synthesist John L Rice shared this sneak preview of an upcoming module from Synthetic Sound Labs, The Matrix Algorithmic Composer.
The Matrix is an algorithmic and deterministic event generator/sequencer, inspired by the rare Triadex Muse. The Triadex Muse is a rare algorithmic sequencer & synthesizer from the early ’70s, which creates sequences based on the position of 8 40-position sliders.
Like the original, the SSL Matrix can be used as a self-contained algorithmic sequencer & synthesizer.
The Matrix is also designed to integrate with MU format modular synth systems – and other analog gear – offering Clock and Reset inputs for syncing to other devices, and CV/Gate out for sequencing other synth voices.
Another example of SSL’s The Matrix module in action:
Details on pricing and availability of SSL’s The Matrix Algorithmic Composer are still to be announced.
Fiedler Audio, ‘the German reverb professionals’, has announced Spacelab 1.5, a significant update to their 3D Reverb, developed in cooperation with Fraunhofer Institute.
Spacelab 1.5 now seamlessly integrates with Dolby Atmos Composer. This means that there is now a 3D Reverb plug-in that feeds directly into the complete Dolby Atmos Bed.
New in Spacelab Interstellar and Spacelab Ignition 1.5:
Seamless integration with Dolby Atmos Composer
LFE HANDLING – LFE signals at the input will be handled properly and passed through to the output speaker layout. Spacelab’s speaker layout editor allows for freely assigning LFE(s) to the respective channel(s).
Reworked Binauraliser Algorithm
Better and smoother 3D panning plus 2 additional new spaces. The options Space – R,
Space – E and Space – O and the new Spaces A1 and A2 offer different overall tonal characters. Depending on the content now there is a choice for getting the best possible room response for monitoring and binaural production.
Apple Silicon Support
Mono Switch in Spacelab Beam addresses unwanted stereo operation forced by some DAWs (eg. Ableton LIVE, Reaper, BitWig)
Open Beam Editor directly from Spacelab
Beam Manual Delay Compensation on all DAWs – Allows for manual compensation of latency issues in buggy hosts (Logic Pro X 10.7.8, Pro Tools 2023.6)
