INSTRUO Pocket Scion

The interface between Gaia and the world of synthesisers

Pocket Scion by Instruo is the (mobile) handheld version of the Scion Eurorack module. This handy device generates sounds and MIDI data using so-called biofeedback and acts as a bridge between plants, people and living organisms on the one hand, and a synthesiser or DAW on the other.

Pocket Scion obtains its information from the wired clamps, which can be attached, for example, to the leaf of a houseplant, inserted into a lemon or a mushroom, or from the capacitive touchpad beneath the circular display. Tiny fluctuations in the surface conductivity of the organic material trigger changes in the integrated sound generation or MIDI output.

The purely digital sound generation offers four sound engines (Secret Garden, Fungal Waves, Treebeard’s Koto, Soil Circuits), the results of which are almost impossible to put into words. All the sounds have a rather meditative and experimental feel to them and, above all, are completely random; there is definitely no such thing as ‘exactly the same again’. These are the sort of sounds one would expect from a medium-sized modular system peppered with a few randomisers. Thanks to up to 5-voice polyphony, there is a ‘sense of polyphony’, although even the choice of pitch depends on the test object.

If you connect the Pocket Scion to a computer, the computer can power the device whilst simultaneously sending the captured data to the DAW.