neo by Lola Gielen

It takes years of hard work to master an instrument. I love making music, but nobody else enjoys it when I make music. I tried to master the accordion, which made me realize just a lot of practice is not enough. You also need some talent. So after years of fruitless effort to become a musician, I almost gave up. But then I decided instead of trying to master an instrument, I would make an instrument that needed neither years of practice nor any talent to play.

So whether you have no musical talent, no time, or you just want to get a taste of playing an instrument, Neo will make it simple. Music is a sensory experience, while playing a traditional instrument sound is directly influenced by touch. This is often lost in digital instruments. Even though Neo is a digital instrument, your touch will still influence the sound. Neo's base is a circular matrix. On the rows of Neo’s base you can put down marbles and the Neo loops over them as pins on a barrel organ. Next to the base there is a collection of external sensory modules that influence the sound, the speed of the loop or make their own sounds.

For Neo you don't need rhythm, perfect pitch or years of practice, Just play.

Based on a Raspberry Pi running Python to handle sensor data, and pd for sound generation.

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