Remidi reveal their T8 Wearable Musical Instrument

26 Jan 2016 by Robin Vincent | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

Remidi T8 · Source: remidi-pro.com

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It’s an idea that keeps floating around: we need to be waving our arms to control music. I wrote about the Precision Music Technology gesture arm bands just a week ago, which are very similar to the Remidi T8. However, the T8 is a glove solution which along with gesture and position control also offers touch sensors on the fingers and palm. There are 8 pressure sensitive spots that can be assigned to trigger notes, so rather than carry a keyboard around you can play any on any surface, or yourself. A button on the back of the bracelet lets you switch between sets of mapped notes so you’re not restricted in what you can play. The gesture side is what they are calling “Air Modulation”, where motion sensors let you move or twist the hand to control other MIDI parameters.

The T8 will also come with its own app for both iPad and desktop that enables you to edit all the mapping and settings. It will come with sounds and samples to get you playing melodies and remixing tracks without having to dive into your DAW software.

As with all controllers of this kind, there’s potential for fun and creativity in live performance. The video of founder Andrea Baldereschi sitting in his studio demonstrating it feels a little awkward and doesn’t really show creative usage of his product. The other video on their website shows a performance artist (looking uncannily like Guy Martin) tapping on glass and palettes in a sort of air-keyboard manner. This is interesting but perhaps unconvincing. They need to get some artists in to develop some killer demonstrations. I’ve always had a soft spot for innovative controllers – the restraints of the piano keyboard are long overdue for evolution – and we’re starting to see that in the Multidimensional Polyphony Expression space, but it is still tied to that same old piano form factor. Remidi would do well to look into MPE, to go beyond MIDI and push their glove into being something inspirational.

The Remidi T8 is looking for crowd funding and will be coming to Kickstarter campaign soon

For more information: http://www.remidi-pro.com