Published
Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 17:36
- The Eurorack-compatible Field Kit will ship in March 2017.
KOMA Elektronik has a new instrument.
Carrying on traditions established by avant-garde composers and musicians in the 20th century, the Field Kit is designed for capturing and manipulating sounds from everyday life. It was listed as a Kickstarter project but has already reached its target. Receivers like microphones, contact microphones and electro-magnetic pickups capture the sound, which is then channelled into one of four inputs, each with a tone, gain and mix level in addition to an auxiliary sub-mix—KOMA also points out that it can handle no-input mixing.
There is also a CV-controllable radio capable of picking up AM, FM and SW bands, whose audio can then be further processed in the device. A CV-controllable envelope follower with a gate out is capable of "full-wave rectification," low-pass filtering and frequency doubling, while an LFO with three waveforms can enter the audio rate range for use as a primitive oscillator. Devices like fans, solenoids and buzzers can be controlled with a DC interface. A signal interface allows you to control parameters with forces like "light, heat, humidity, distance, speed, acceleration, proximity (and) pressure," which can then be converted into various types of gate and trigger signals.
KOMA is also selling an optional Expansion Pack to accompany the Field Kit, including two contact mics, an electro-magnetic pick up, a solenoid motor and more. It ships with a book titled 50 Ways To Use The Field Kit, which contains information about the Field Kit's capabilities, including how to turn it into a spring reverb.
Listen to audio examples of the Field Kit.
The KOMA Elektronik Field Kit ships in March 2017 and is available from 159 Euro, while the Expansion Pack costs 49 Euro.