The Birl

In development

You can read a chapter about the development of the Birl that I wrote for the Springer book "Musical Instruments in the 21st Century" here: http://www.scattershot.org/Snyder_Birl_Adventures.pdf

Features:

* USB wind controller (with optional built-in synthesis expansion pack)

* 11 continuous touch sensors (allowing techniques similar to an open-holed wind instrument)

* milled from a single-piece walnut or maple body

* X-Y touchpad for right thumb

* octave buttons for left thumb allow for 7-octave span

* embouchure sensing that goes beyond the usual pressure + bite, incoporating lip and tounge position sensing

* directly compatible with the MantaMate USB-to-CV converter, so it can be easily used to control a Eurorack modular synthesizer

* very low latency sensing (3 ms)

* LED indicator for breath pressure and embouchure state

* trainable fingering system and embouchure sensing using machine learning

* light and portable (mouthpiece is detachable so that it fits in a backpack)