Although breath control has been built into the MIDI specification since its inception, it remains a relatively uncommon sight in the performance of electronic music, despite the fact that a variety of MIDI wind controllers are available to those who wish to experiment.
Papritech are hoping to change all that with AirMotion, a wearable breath controller that's equipped with motion sensors for extra dimensions of control. The device rests on the neck with a mouthpiece hanging just in front of the face, meaning the wearer can free up their hands to play a keyboard or synthesizer.
In addition to breath control, AirMotion offers four dimensions of motion control which can be mapped to individual parameters in any MIDI-compatible instrument. These are activated by tilting the head forwards, backwards, left and right.
In the video above, a member of Papritech's team demonstrates this by performing Guadalupe Pineda's "Historia de un Amor", with AirMotion hooked up to control a number of parameters within the SWAM Tenor Sax software instrument.
The device's mouthpiece is being used to control expression, while various head motions are used to control the plugin's emulation of performance techniques like vibrato, flutter-tonguing, growling, and breath noise.
AirMotion connects to your smartphone wirelessly, which can then be hooked up to an instrument or DAW to transmit the device's MIDI signals. An accompanying Android app can be used to configure the device and modify breath sensitivity, offset, and MIDI channel.
AirMotion is available now and retails for $122.
Find out more on Papritech's website.
