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THE PHOTON - Handfree midi controller / mouthpiece

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Rudy Verpaele
Posts: 2
New Member
Topic starter
 

IMOXPLUS will bring a high-tech handsfree midi controller / mouthpiece on the market (the Photon). This innovate mouthpiece is invented Chris Graham. It is called Photon because it uses light to measure changes. We have many other product ideas in mind for the wind & breath controller market segment. We work closely with artist Pedro Eustache who has a strong know-how and a clear vision on wind-controllers.

The Photon contains a sensitive lower lip sensor, ultra fast and sensitive breath in/out sensor, vocalisation sensor, upper lip sensor, oral cavity sensor, adjustable airflow and much more. Each sensor does send a CC, or other MIDI data via USB midi to the computer. Sensors can be configured with a curve, min/max sensitivity etc. This mouthpiece contains a processor and can also store & recall presets. With other words, this controller opens new expression possibilities for musicians, but also allows many other possibilities.

Chris, Pedro and I strongly believe in modularity, re-usability, reducing environmental footprint, and positive impact on the world by having more people playing music. The Photon is step one of a "modular" approach for wind-controllers.

We welcome suggestions en information on following;

- what are the various domains of usage you see (not just music).
- estimations - data on total units sold (wind-controllers like AKAI EWI, YAMAHA WX, ROLAND AE etc).
- estimations - data on total Yamaha VL units / PLGVL cards sold.
- how to get more acoustic sax players to use wind-controllers?
- how to get more keyboard players taking advantage of such hands-free midi controller?
- how to get more young people playing wind-instruments?
- how to get this mouthpiece used for gamers ?
- any information resource that can be of importants to the success of the Photon.

keep in touch
Rudy

Stay informed about the Photon and other IMOXPLUS projects

 
Posted : 09/10/2019 4:33 am
David
Posts: 2
New Member
 

How to get more acoustic sax players to use wind controllers? That's already the market, go after players of other woodwinds, oboe, flute, clarinet, bassoon, etc., introduce them to it. And the biggest potential market is recorder players, the woodwind more adults play than any other. And the recorder already blows like a wind controller, especially the Sylphyo. I would love to talk to you more about this mouthpiece and how it works, I am a player of several wind controllers but am moving to the Sylphyo.

 
Posted : 23/12/2020 9:50 pm
David
Posts: 2
New Member
 

I also wonder if there isn't a way to market wind controllers to people who don't already play a wind instrument. I know Yamaha tried to introduce the Windjammr as an introductory WC, but I think it was not well made and no one liked the sounds it made, plus you needed speakers and so forth to play it. Everyone has a computer now so the Akai EWI USB is probably a great introductory WC (too bad Apple took away their USB ports on their laptops) for someone just getting started and it's affordable and anyone with headphones can start right away with Garritan instruments. Just a step up the EWI solo has a speaker so that if you can't afford stand-alone speakers yet you can at least get started practicing with its built-in speaker. I'm mainly a string player, I'm a little different in that I have a master's in recorder, but I think even keyboard players might be interested in trying wind controllers or the Photon breath controller as an entry into wind controllers. I'm not sure why the WC world is obsessed with sax players and I'm not sure why sax players pick up a WC and want to play sax sounds on it. It seems counter-intuitive. It's not a MIDI saxophone. I think these lower-priced models should be marketed differently, I think there's a lower-priced Roland instrument as well if I'm not wrong. I also like keeping fingering systems simple. I notice a number of manufacturers going out of their way to include sax-type hand (palm?) keys. Those aren't natural for the rest of us and aren't necessary. The WX instruments had great fingering systems with loads of alternate fingerings to accommodate anyone, but maybe more keys even than necessary and TOO many choices. Another thing that would help the intro market would be decent, small, lightweight battery-powered speakers that were affordable and could be carried around made for wind controllers. Sylphyo was offering a package with a studio monitor speaker. It's not portable, they are probably heavy and not easy to carry, not the right thing for a WC companion. maybe Aodyo will come up with some kind of product that will fit the bill that is manufactured specifically for WCs. There isn't anything in the market like that right now. Just my 2 cents.

 
Posted : 23/12/2020 10:49 pm
Rudy Verpaele
Posts: 2
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hey David, thanks for your input.
Personally I think the real solution to the wind-players market is about offering modular hardware instead of all-in-one.
It would be a range of specialised hardware building blocks that can be easily connected together to create a solution that feeds the specific needs of the user. The mouthpiece, the fingerunit, the octaveshifter, the soundgenerator, the soundamplifier etc. A bit the concept of Roli blocks, but then for wind-instruments.

The Photon is our first step in this direction. Unfortunately we keep being delayed due to shortage of semiconductors.

 
Posted : 08/09/2021 11:51 pm
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