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The IprePhonicbloom Wing Drum is a cute and portable electronic tonguing drum synthesizer from the creators of Gecho Loopsynth.
Gecho Loopsynth is a very compact experimental synthesizer with a variety of synthesis engines, and Glo, a polyphonic whale I wrote about, is another sound machine that can turn external audio into big ambient soundtracks on the go, all of which are products of Irish indie company Phonicbloom.
His latest creation is called “Wing Drum” and it is an electronic tongue drum synthesizer with various sound engines. As a first product, this instrument is also very well made and has a lot of features.
Phonic Bloom Wing Drum
WingDrum is a digital drum synthesizer built into a tunable electronic tonguing instrument. The instrument has a round wooden shell (15cm/6 inches wide, 5cm/2 inches high) and has an interface with touch-sensitive pads; there are nine in total, eight main wing pads and a central pad for ninth notes or dampers, so you can play softer and louder. According to the developer, it is made of fiberglass laminated with matte black polymer, or white enamel with gold-plated metal elements.
Additionally, a built-in accelerometer measures the angle of the drum, allowing you to control a variety of effects. Speaking of the sound, or engine, Wing Drum has six-voice polyphony and switchable playback modes: it can play handpan, steel tongue drum, xylophone, and glockenspiel sounds.
The core is based on three different synth engines, which are based on additive synthesis with samples, wavetables and additional DSP algorithms, allowing you to shift the pitch of the sounds if you want and add optional sound effects like reverb or delay, plus you can set different scales and tweak each pad individually with the save function.
MIDI Controller
The Wing Drum can also act as a MIDI controller for external synths, greatly expanding the range of sounds you can create. The built-in accelerometer acts as a pitch bend/continuous controller depending on the axis of rotation, and also transmits velocity information.
It’s easy to carry and runs on USB power or AA batteries.
It’s a very nice and special instrument, and I’m sure it will please as many musicians as the Loopsynth.
The Phonicbloom Wing Drum will be available later this year for €249 + shipping and VAT. It will be available in black and white and pre-orders will open from 31 October 2021.
More info here: Phonicbloom
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