News - Unique controller (arches) by Soundmachines

Unique controller (arches) by Soundmachines

A small Italian company, Soundmachines, has launched a fundraising campaign for Kickstarter for production of (arches), a progressive capacitive touch controller for modular systems. The device promises a lot of opportunities for controlling several modules in parallel, as well as a flexible and ergonomic keyboard.

This is a very unusual project that brought together the most advanced developments in the field of sensor controllers, very extensive and rich functionality and compact ergonomic design, which, by the way, visually resembles the Buchla 222e. Probably, the developers were inspired by this unusual keyboard and in a sense decided to create its modern interpretation.

The basis of (arches) is a high-speed microcontroller that transforms the device into a keyboard and a sequencer/arpeggiator. You can find 4 sensor sliders, 8 sliders with the record function, 2 touch panels with XYZ sensitivity, 6 navigation buttons, 8 pressure sensitive buttons, as well as more than 30 CV/Gate outputs, a small display and a user interface in this instrument. As for the connection, the outputs of (arches) support all existing standards of modular and many other systems (1V/octave, 1.2V/octave, etc.). Also, all kinds of MIDI connections are supported: DIN, USB and wireless MIDI connection via Bluetooth. As it was already mentioned, the device works in several modes, such as a keyboard and a step or gate sequencer. As a keyboard (arches) is very flexible and offers users a lot of configurations:

A monophonic keyboard consisting of 12 elements
A keyboard of 8 pressure sensitive buttons
A 6-key keyboard for right or left hand
A keyboard of 8 central sensory sliders
A 12-key polyphonic (3 voices with expression) keyboard

By the way, three keyboards can work simultaneously and have their own arpeggiator and a set of outputs. Thus, there are opportunities to manage several modules at once, in different formats (for each of the keyboards, its own connection standard is configured).

We are far from listing all the features of this unique device, it really impresses with its functionality and flexibility. At the moment, the project is actively seeking financial support, not without rewards for the investors, of course. This device will cost you 899 euros, but if you have time to invest in the project on Kickstarter, you can snatch it for 750 euros.