The Music Works
SOUND GADGETS
Making music inclusive and accessible with motion controlled instruments for people with varying ability.
“The Music Works commissioned Phoenix Consultants to work with them on a new project, called Sound Gadgets, which had received a small amount of seed funding to create a new accessible music instrument to work with disabled musicians.
Over the next year, we worked through several concepts with their design team to create a device to meet the needs of participants from National Star Centre and some of the specialist education schools in Gloucestershire. Initial plans to create a glove capable of transmitting MIDI data were modified based on participant feedback and market research, and through a number of consultancy meetings, we developed a simpler but more practical device that better met the practical requirements of the disabled musicians and their needs in the session.
Phoenix Consultants and The Music Works came up with an innovative solution that was modelled on the affordable Micro:Bit prototyping board operating as a data cartridge for individually customisable settings for each musician, and a wearable element for wrist or ankle that incorporated a battery pack and input for accessible switches. This enabled accelerometer data to be captured and sent to a computer or iPad with the touch of a button, creating an extremely configurable device that broke down barriers to music making for those with physical disabilities.
The Music Works are grateful to Phoenix Consultants for bringing this project to life and working closely with us to find a practical solution to a real world challenge and helping us to transform lives through music.”
- Lee Holder, The Music Works
First build working prototype of Sound Gadgets.
Pioneering Inclusive Music
Sound Gadgets is an inclusive musical instrument that transforms motion into sound. This is to make music more accessible to a variety of users with varying levels of physical mobility while looking striking, high tech, and futuristic, as opposed a clinical aesthetic that is more commonly seen in accessible products.
Project client: The Music Works
User Friendly Versatility
The design makes use of an innovative cartridge system enabling cartridges to be programmed with different audio effects and tuned to meet specific users needs. The user wears a cartridge dock allowing for quick changing of cartridges as well as swapping of cartridges within a group for accessible, uninterrupted, and social music creation made with movement.
Work with us
07746 897421 | info@phoenixconsultants.co.uk