Level
2019A
handheld instrument that reacts to tilt and allows
everyone to make music in seconds.
Level uses a gyroscope to translate simple hand movements into sounds. It hooks up to advanced Computer Synthesis software, which can be trained to recognize different gestures and play sounds accordingly. The user starts with a simple setup, in which they can change the pitch and frequency of acomputer-generated sound wave. More advanced players can also teach it to play other sound-bites though.
It was very important to focus both on how Level will
sound the technical side, as well as thinking about how it will
feel, how natural it will be, and how users will interact with it. A lot of user testing has been done, investigating how natural they think
the interaction between them and Level feels. The shape has been chosen because it doesn’t define what the instrument has to feel like, but it still invites you to pick it up and explore.
Here is a short demonstration of how Level sounds out of the box.
Process
This project emphasized interaction, so i wanted to make sure that its form factor matches what it set out to do. I tried a lot of different shapes, first as dummies and then also with working components.
Part of the design process was user testing. Lots of people had the chance to test my instrument out and give feedback on it, both shape-wise, as well as regarding the sound they think it should make. This is where I saw experienced musicians approach Level very differently than newbies, which I wanted to focus on in the later stages of the process.
