Artist, Composer, Technologist
PHYSICAL MOOG
Physical Moog is an interactive piece that turns the human body into a moog-style synthesizer. Inspired by the early electronic synth piece named after
Russian inventor Léon Theramin, the project set out to create a modernized version that allows
for multiple levels of control beyond the Theramin’s restrictions of pitch and amplitude control in one voice.
The piece tracks the user’s hand motions on 3 axis; height (y-axis), width (x-axis) and depth (z-axis). All together this provides a total of 6 points of control outputting to 2 different sawtooth synths (1 per hand) that are set at a fixed frequency ratio/musical interval apart (controlled by slider). The interactive controls for each synth are pitch, fatness and amplitude, all of which change in real-time with the user’s motions.
The piece also has a completely polyphonic output as opposed to the monophonic Theramin, allowing for multiple levels of sonic density and multiple voices playing out simultaneously.