Kaleidophone - Light to Sound

Kaleidophone is a camera instrument. Point it at light and it plays.

Whatever falls inside the ring around the lens becomes sound. Brightness sets how loud it is and where the light sits shapes the voice. Move the phone, move the light, and the sound moves with it.

Inspired by optical audio instruments like the Rare Waves OCM-2 Stereo Photophone, Kaleidophone is built for deep, dark, low-register sound: drones, rumbles, pulses and noise you can sculpt with your hands and your surroundings.

TEN VOICES Sub Quake, Deep Drone, Leviathan, Thunder, Static Field, Night Drive, Ornithopter, Descent, Sample & Hold and Corrode. From sub-bass tremors and three detuned saws through a ladder filter to an endlessly falling Shepard tone, vintage chorus and crushed stereo noise. Every voice has its own colour world, and the screen crossfades as you switch.

TWO WAYS TO PLAY LIGHT turns brightness and its position into sound. MOTION listens to movement instead, so passing traffic, waving hands or drifting clouds become the performance.

STEREO Split the lens into two rings, like two eyes. Light in the left ring pulls the sound into your left ear, light in the right ring into your right.

SHAPE IT SIZE and SLIT set how much of the image is heard, from a wide pool to a thin line of light. NOTE sets the pitch, from C1 to C4. BPM sets the tempo of the rhythmic voices, down to a slow 20.

HOLD IT Freeze a sound you love and let it drone. A held sound keeps playing in the background, even with the screen locked, and a sustain pedal does the same. TORCH lights up whatever is close to the lens.

RECORD IT Record your performance as 24-bit / 48 kHz WAV and share it straight to your DAW, sampler or friends. Every take is kept in RECORDINGS, where you can play, trim, rename, share or delete it, and in the Files app. MUTE lets you record silently.

PLAY IT YOUR WAY Save sounds as FAVOURITES and bring them back with one tap. Play in time with Ableton Live and other apps using Ableton Link. Connect a MIDI keyboard over USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi: notes set the pitch, the sustain pedal holds the sound and program changes pick the voice.

SEE IT A halo of grains surrounds the lens and reacts instantly to what you hear. Every pitch has its own grains: bass glows deep and slow near the rim, highs spark brighter and drift further out.

ALWAYS AT HAND Add Kaleidophone to your Lock Screen or Control Centre (iOS 18 or later). While a held sound plays, the Lock Screen controls mute it and change the voice.

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