Circuito Sonoro

About

Find out what sound is made of — then make your own. Circuito Sonoro is a real modular synthesiser for starting from scratch. Grab pieces, tie them together with coloured cables and listen to what comes out. On screen, an oscilloscope shows the wave while the Maths Magnifier turns what is happening into numbers anyone can understand. AGES 6 AND UP, WITH NO UPPER LIMIT It is written so a child can understand it, and that is why anyone can: people who have never touched a synthesiser, and people who have been turning knobs for years without knowing what each one does. Oscillator, filter, envelope, LFO, sequencer: the same as in a real modular, with household names and, underneath, their real ones. NO HIDDEN MAGIC Every oscillator, every filter and every envelope is written number by number. What you hear is exactly the sum you see. When someone asks “but how does it do that?”, the answer is right there on the screen — and it is true. THREE DOORS • The Classroom: seven short lessons, each with its own gadget to play with. A speaker that shakes, a staircase of octaves, a blanket that muffles the sound. • The Lab: eighteen pieces and free cabling. The Singer, The Blanket, The Tap, The Strike, The Robot… each with a household name and, underneath, its real name. • The Sounds: twenty-six ready-made synths — spaceships, drums, robots, ghosts, the movie laser — to open up and take apart to see how they work. LEARN BY PLAYING • Ten challenges that tick themselves off as soon as you manage them. • Slow motion: the sound goes so slowly you stop hearing it and start seeing the turns. • Multiplying by 2 goes up an octave: the first multiplication you can hear. • Sing into the microphone and watch your own voice become a wave. FOR TEACHERS AND FAMILIES The four properties of sound — pitch, loudness, duration and timbre — are four pieces you turn and hear. The website has a full manual and a classroom guide, with concepts by age and a 50-minute session plan. IN ELEVEN LANGUAGES English, Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Basque, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), French, German, Japanese and Italian. The piece names are not translated: they are re-invented in each language. REAL KEYBOARDS Play with a finger, with the computer keyboard or with a connected MIDI keyboard. It is also an Audio Unit instrument (AUv3): it opens inside GarageBand, Logic and other music apps. NO DATA, NO ADS, NO PURCHASES No accounts, no advertising, no analytics and no in-app purchases. It works offline and nothing a child does leaves the device. The microphone is only used when switched on by hand, and nothing is recorded. One purchase works on both iPad and Mac.