Shellfegio Synthesizer

These days I love thinking about how "good vibrations" in the water column can either recruit or repel coral and fish larvae to support accelerated reef restoration. So whilst I was in the midst of some downtime recovering from surgery earlier this year, I fell down a rabbit hole where I ended up in a meditation teacher training (with my mum no less), and was inspired and fascinated after learning about these so-called healing "Solfeggio frequencies" linked to energy centers (chakras). From there, the Bay Scallop shells I'd collected (over years of scallopping in the GoM) suddenly became the perfect "piano keys" for a digital synthesizer.... As an experimental vocalist and synesthetic, acoustics literally change my mind. So I wanted to make something playful and powerful for acoustic generation using a 16 input MIDI controller Playtron (mercii Playtronica) reminding us how grounding a return to the ocean's within ourselves can be explored with a bit of listening...

sooo voilà, the Shellfeggio Synth!

This v0 prototype video uses an iPhone 16 with USB-C to MIDI controller, running a custom MIDI keyboard browser based app, enabling anyone to become a reef fish DJ.