Chromaplane

An electromagnetic touchless synthesizer and collaboration with KOMA Elektronik

Hidden in the world around us is a continually buzzing environment of electromagnetic fields. The Chromaplane is an instrument that lives in that hidden electromagnetic world, but with an intentional musicality. It is played using two electromagnetic pickup coils, which are used to listen to a cloud of electromagnetic fields produced by the instrument. The fields are laid out in an isomorphic pattern and identified by small dots on the instrument’s surface.

The instrument was designed by us in 2021, with refinements happening over the following years, culminating in a collaboration with KOMA Elektronik, that saw it become our first instrument to reach a wider audience through commercialization. After its successful Kickstarter campaign, the instrument can be purchased through KOMA’s web shop. Working with KOMA has pushed us to think beyond what it means to design an instrument only for ourselves, considering a wider range of musicians from different genres and creative backgrounds.

The idea behind the Chromaplane was first developed from experimentations with speaker coils, microphones, and conductive textiles in the form of an installation artwork. It was then turned into a portable A4-sized instrument that could easily accompany our tours for years to come, and is especially featured in our Circo Pobre live set. This instrument represents for us the perfect combination of gestural expressivity that we experience when playing acoustic instruments like percussion, and the richness of electronic sound design that we can generally achieve using synthesizers. Our design sensibilities for the instrument center around creating highly nuanced constraints for the performer.

The interface design also combines various inspirations that we have gathered through the years, and that range from the touch plate by Buchla in the 100 series synthesizer to the wooden beams of the Basque txalaparta.

To accompany the instrument we also designed a special electromagnetic tuner, which silently detects the field’s note and displays the correlated pitch and octave.

To make the experience of using the Chromaplane even richer and more versatile, we added two other elements to the ecosystem: an accompanying website for tuning, and a Max For Live device.