With its wooden casing, the Striso Board MIDI controller borrows the look of a traditional instrument, and thanks to its “multidimensionally sensitive” buttons, it’s designed to play like one, too. What’s more, it promises an “innovative note layout” that could make it easy for you to understand musical structures.
Each of the Striso’s 61 soft silicone note buttons is pressure- and direction-sensitive, giving you plenty of scope for expression. Each note can have its loudness, pitch and timbre adjusted individually using a single finger.
The note layout, meanwhile, is isomorphic, with set patterns for each musical interval, chord and scale. The theory is that this helps you to “understand music theory and invites exploration and improvisation”.
You’ll also find that notes in the same key are always close to each other, making it easier for you to harmonise when you’re playing. Pitch is on one axis, with the progression of fifths on the other.
The Striso Board is designed to be played with one hand if you wish, though polyphony is up to 15 notes. There are additional buttons for glissando, octave switching and accessing settings, and the developer says that an internal synthesizer and 3.5mm audio output jack will be added during the current crowdfunding campaign. MIDI connectivity is over USB.
A pledge of €420 will get you a Striso Board by the end of 2020, all being well. Find out more and get your order in on Kickstarter.
