feed/back

In development

The instrument you can talk to.

Play every part by hand on thirteen notes and a full pad grid. When a sound isn’t right, say what should change and hear it before you keep it.

2Drone

Hold a note. Say what should change.

Talk to it through the companion app on your iPhone or iPad. It turns what you say into changes the instrument can make, leaves alone anything you asked it to keep, and plays the result while your loops carry on.

Compare Original and Changed, and keep only what you like.

More movement. Keep the attack and pitch.

Attack kept Pitch kept
Try
A drawing of the idea, not a recording: each line is one voice of a held drone. The companion app is in development; the browser prototype runs this comparison today with scripted requests.

Four rows of pads, not two.

Most compact keyboards squeeze their pads into two rows. feed/back gives you the full four-by-four grid finger drummers learn on, right next to thirteen notes from C to C.

All sixteen pads are there at once, with no bank to switch, so kick, snare and hats each get their own place under your fingers.

8 padsTwo rows of four
16 padsTwo rows of eight
16 pads, feed/backFour rows of four

1Bass 5Drums

Lines with one hand. Beats with the other.

Both surfaces play at the same time, each on its own track. Keep a bass line going on the notes while your other hand plays the beat on the pads.

Record one part and keep playing the other. Nothing stops while you switch.

3Lead

Every loop keeps its own length.

One tempo runs the piece, but a two-bar lead can repeat over a four-bar drone and a one-bar beat. Choose a length before you record, or stop when the phrase ends and it closes on the next bar.

Press Record again to add a pass, and undo it if it didn’t work.

Mute a part and it keeps moving underneath, so it comes back exactly where it would have been.

No phone needed to play.

Sounds, effects, loops and projects all live on the instrument. Plug in power and headphones and start playing. Connect an iPhone or iPad when you want to talk to it, load your own samples or change deeper settings.

Two finishes, one layout.

Light aluminium with white and black note marks, or charcoal anodised. Both are studies for now; the materials get decided after hands-on testing.

The light aluminium study
Light aluminium
The charcoal anodised study
Charcoal

Current design

Every figure here comes from the current drawing and will change with testing.

Size
300 × 159.25 mm
Height
21 mm at the playing deck, 28 mm at the controls
Notes
13 velocity-sensitive buttons, C to C, with octave shift
Pads
16, in a 4 × 4 grid
Tracks
6: four for notes, two for pads
Screen
58 × 44 mm window
Connections
USB-C, headphones, line out
Companion
iPhone and iPad app for spoken sound editing, optional

Where it stands.

feed/back exists today as a design, 3D studies and a browser prototype you can play. The physical instrument comes next.

Working in the prototype

  • Both playing surfaces and every control on the panel
  • Loops with their own lengths, overdubs, mute, undo and restart
  • Saving, copying and reopening projects, with your own samples on the pads
  • The Original and Changed comparison, driven by scripted requests

Next

  1. A full-size print of the panel, to test reach and feel by hand
  2. Real key and pad mechanisms, measured for velocity and pressure
  3. A working rig: sound engine, loops and the app talking over USB
  4. The first complete instrument