TEENA: An Open Platform for Musical Production and Live Performance

Objective

Teena began as a question of how a piece of music technology could combine portability, ease of use, and customization lacking from synthesizers in the market. Key to the planning process was a focus on intuitive expression and the expansion of the possibilities of synthesis. To be specific, Teena offers an x-y coordinate of parameters that match to whatever the user wishes, so someone could activate a reverb and flanger while playing a melody. The effects are adjusted through a joystick extending in every direction for a variety of manipulations of audio signals. As Teena is a groovebox, it can be used in conjunction with any software you may desire- it is optimized for modularity and easily integrated into modern digital audio workstations like Ableton Live or FL Studio. Electronic musicians tend to compose in one of two ways: They use Digital Audio Workstation software (DAW) to sequence samples or synthesize sounds on a desktop computer or laptop They use dedicated hardware to produce their music Both methods have drawbacks. Creating music with a computer is inexpressive and non-tactile. This can make it difficult for artists to include a human-sounding element in their music. Expressive hardware synthesizers, mixers, and sequencers are bulky. They cannot be easily transported or used on-the-go Few options exist for mobile music production. Those that do are limited in feature set or prohibitively expensive. TEENA is a compact digital instrument. It has been developed to provide a relatively cheap, extendable, and expressive dedicated-hardware solution to making music in a compact form-factor.

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