Street beats: the bouncy ball that holds a digital drum kit

Record ID: 1440648

  • Title: Street beats: the bouncy ball that holds a digital drum kit
  • Date: 6th November 2019
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - JULY 9, 2019) (REUTERS) ODDBALL BOUNCING DOWN STAIRS AND ACROSS FLOOR
  • Embargoed: 20th November 2019 09:37
  • Keywords: DJ drumming technology music composing music beat box drums percussion making music Oddball
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Music
  • Reuters ID: LVA00BB4EEBMJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Two London entrepreneurs have created a music-making bouncy ball they say is like "a drum machine crammed in a ball".
    Oddball connects to a smartphone through Bluetooth to create sounds through speakers or headphones.
    Inside the ball are motion sensors which detect when the ball bounces and how hard. Users access the Oddball app to assign sounds to the ball from the app's library. They can also record their own sounds using their phone and change the pitch.
    "Not everybody feels comfortable playing an instrument. Not everybody learns to play the drums, play the synth and so we wanted to make laying down to beat as accessible to as many people as possible and that's what Oddball does," Oddball co-creator Nathan Webb told Reuters.
    The app allows users to freestyle over existing songs and record loops of beats. They can also add additional sounds to saved loops as they build tracks.
    Webb and his business partner Pasquale Totaro met at London's Royal College of Art while studying design products.
    "It's somewhere in between a musical instrument and a performance device. And we would really like to explore how people can use this in the most expressive ways possible," said Webb.
    Oddballs, which can work together, connect to digital audio workstation software and are rechargeable with a USB connection.
    In summer 2018 Webb and Totaro raised more than £180,000 ($218,000) on crowdfunding website Kickstarter.
    They expect the Oddballs, which are manufactured in Shenzhen, China, to be made delivered to pre-order customers in February 2020.
    More music-making products are also on the horizon, the pair confirmed.
    (Production: George Sargent)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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