The Pocket Organ: An Open Source Musical Instrument

Presented at HOPE 2020 Virtual Rescheduled, July 30, 2020, 9 a.m. (60 minutes).

If you were to name three instruments, chances are they would all be over 300 years old. If not, then their user interface would be inherited from centuries past. They need to make beautiful sound while bearing archaic manufacturability constraints. They might be terribly difficult to learn, and probably for the wrong reasons.

The pocket organ is about designing an instrument that fits in your pocket, plays with earphones, is extremely easy to learn, and has a depth to it, plus a set of strengths and limitations that are quite unique and useful.

While there are exquisite modern instruments out there, they're all legal monopolies of their respective owners, and their price typically puts them out of the reach of beginners. The pocket organ is an attempt to change that.


Presenters:

  • Thomas Tempe
    **Thomas Tempe** is a migrant of the global village. He grew up, studied, and worked mostly in France, where he fell in love with computers, then Free Software. He's been living in China for close to ten years now. He's an aspiring musician. He'd do anything to not learn the piano. He has a wife and son, and a day job in manufacturing. He once started a Linux Users Group, built a straw bale house, and became a fluent Chinese speaker after age 30. When time allows, he goes to jam at the Shanghai hackerspace, or hits the keyboard for more hacker points.<br>

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