French company Enhancia has been working on the concept for its MIDI ring for over a year, and it’s finally releasing in March. The tiny accessory, which is to be worn on the index finger of the right hand, allows a user to trigger musical effects like pitch bends or vibrato by making specific movements while playing a keyboard.
The ring, which is lightweight and made out of a soft plastic with a metal accent, and communicates via a hub that is connected to a computer. The hub both charges the ring and also tells the ring which effects are mapped to which movements. There’s also a standalone piece of software and a plugin, which can be used with a Digital Audio Workstation, like Ableton or Logic.
According to The Verge, the ring’s sensors track three specific hand movements that are by mapped to certain effects by default. There’s a slight hand wobble, which is for vibrato, a slow tilt back and forth for pitch bend, and a tilt forward for a low pass filter. These movements were chosen because they tend to be natural gestures while playing a keyboard anyway, allowing musicians to add dimension and additional expression as they’re playing with extremely minimal effort.
Although the model that was shown at CES is wired, the final version will be wireless, and will come with seven different sizes of interchangeable ring bands for a good fit. The company also says it has plans for future features that will be integrated specifically for other types of musicians, but will reveal more details later. The price of the ring is undisclosed.
