THE MANDALA DRUM/SYNTHESIZER

Synesthesia Corporation in Los Angeles is a company that is specialized in the development of electronic sensors used for the translation of human touch and movement into control signals for producing sound and light.

One of their procucts is The Mandala, a plug-and-play high-definition electronic drum and synthesizer. It's easy to use it with your laptop as it connects via USB and comes with easy to use software with a sound library of more than 150 professionally sampled instruments and more than 100 original presets.

The Mandala detects both "where" and "how hard" you hit it and triggers and controls a proprietary set of instrument and drum samples included with its Virtual Brain software. There are also two built in racks of software audio effects for endless sonic possibilities. You can even load in your own sounds and play any 3rd-party musical software you might already have.

Last month, award winning composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard performed live together for the first time on stage prior to the world premiere of "The Dark Knight" movie at New York's Lincoln Square IMAX theatre...and the Mandala Drum was there! The Mandala was part of the state of the art and vintage collection of instruments played that night by Hans and James along with fellow composers Lorne Balfe and Martin Tillman.

Check the corporate website for more info or visit their Myspace for videos so you can see The Mandala in action yourself.

  Synthesia Corp.