Chances are, like me, you're a gamer of a certain age and have always had the vague thought somewhere at the back of your mind, "It'd be pretty sweet to learn how to play an ocarina…if I had the time and motivation." Okay, so maybe that's speaking way more to my own specific blend of Legend of Zelda-inflicted damage but for me, a particular USB-C-powered peripheral has recently made that thought way louder.
Italian company Artinoise has recently unveiled their Zefiro device, an app-supported MIDI controller with a wind instrument twist (via Hot Hardware). Plug one end of the Zefiro dongle into the USB-C port of your phone, then plug yourself to the mouthpiece on the other end to control the musical tones with your breath for an expressive performance.
The free accompanying app offers a range of synthesised instruments to play with, as well as additional audio effects and the option to play along to background music. From what I've seen, the Zefiro can be used to create musical tones that wouldn't sound out of place in Zelda's Lullaby.
It's a novel, playful bit of kit that's already massively overshot its original funding target on Kickstarter, and there's still a couple of weeks left on the crowd-funding campaign if you fancy picking up your own Zefiro with a pledge of €29. Artinoise's bread and butter is quirky digital instruments like this, and they've already attempted to rehabilitate that scourge of school children everywhere, the recorder, with a digital makeover.
Side note: if you've ever wondered why you were forced to learn the recorder in school, this video from Answer in Progress offers a great overview, plus musical food for thought.
According to their Kickstarter, Artinoise's mission is to "merge the timeless joy of music with the convenience of modern technology [in order to offer] accessible [music-making] to everyone."
The Zefiro's thumb drive dimensions and reasonable price point adhere to that commendable goal. You know, I might just pick up a wind instrument after all.
But I do have one pressing question: what's the best way to clean a Zefiro? A number of instruments in the brass section have a valve to mitigate a build up of, ahem, 'condensation,' while the shape of most wind instruments gives all that, um, 'condensation' somewhere to go.
Where does it all go in the Zefiro? Artinoise addresses this concern directly in their Kickstarter FAQ, writing, "Zefiro has a closed cavity for the breath pressure sensor, which means that a very low pressure is needed to play it. This way, a much lower quantity of condensation and saliva is produced, and the issue is minimal."
For those still concerned with condensation, the Kickstarter campaign offers absorbent cotton rings as a pledge add-on, and the FAQ advises musicians to use "absorbent paper perfume testers" to clean out the Zefiro mouthpiece. Now, speaking of commanding moisture, I need to get a bit more practice in on my stirring rendition of the Song of Storms.
