Designing User Experience/Aural Mood Board -Music Interaction Design

Inspiration:

Aural Mood Board:

I have been keeping an open mind for my project and I’ve found a few things interest me most. One being circular representation of sequencing, as well as simple ways to create organic and new sounds.

Example 1: Orbit by LDM Design

This is a really interesting project because it is all done in the code/design which I find really clever. This is beneficial because the hardware system is already really robust. The placing of the buttons on the perimeter of the circle in the grid is another great design choice, despite the issue of making a circular module in a grid system.

Example 2: Pocket Operators by Teenage Engineering

Teenage Engineering have somewhat of a cult following in the music hardware space. They produced the OP-1 which is one of the most popular modern hardware synths, and it is known for its small form factor with surprisingly powerful sounds. There is a really strong learning curve to that device but once mastered it is pretty intuitive. I wanted to design something more simple and easy to play around with. That’s when I stumbled upon the Pocket Operators they produce. I love the playfulness of the design and how easy it looks to start playing around.

Example 3: Circuit Mono Station by Novation

I really enjoy this device’s design because it has a nice mix of pads to buttons. There is a 4×8 grid of pads with some simple/standard synthesizer controls on top, all in a pretty small form factor.

Example 4: Seaboard Block- Roli

The seaboard block by Roli is also really interesting to me when it comes to creating unique sound because it lets you bend between the pitches of the notes effortlessly. Seeing one of these played well really makes the case for always having that sort of flexibility on the keys but does require quite a bit of practice to master.

Design elements:

Who is it for?

I want my project to be used by anyone looking to create unique sonic textures for use in music production. It has to be intuitive and I don’t want to use a piano as the input. Therefore music skills are not necessarily required. I am definitely a part of the group this is intended for and can help test it myself.