Not everyone out there is fortunate enough to be musically inclined. Whether you can’t keep a beat or you’ve just never had the chance to take lessons, don’t worry - it’s going to be OK. A Berklee grad has come up with a tool that could turn you into a bonafide Mozart - sort of.
Meet Kevin Clark, the founder of Golden Wish LLC, brings you Puppet Master and Point Motion. With this program and an accompanying camera, your body becomes an instrument. I know that sounds profoundly hippy-dippy and philosophical, but I’ve seen this thing in action, and that’s exactly what happens.
Clark openly admitted that this whole concept is so new and foreign that it comes off as strange. “This crazy guy with crazy hair is having them make music by dancing,” he announced to a room of people before the Puppet Master and Point Motion demo last night. "It sounds insane.”
The gesture control software and hardware interpret your body movements as if they were instructions to alter sounds. As you move in different ways, you’re able to manipulate sound and create your own music. There’s no training required - that means no hours in front of sheet music, no endless rehearsals.
This could change music production as we know it.
“There aren’t any other products out there for the range of amateur or non-musicians all the way to professionals,” Josh Jason, in charge of media for the startup, said. “Puppet Master can be as rigidly preset or as customizable as the artist wants.”
So, if you’re just experimenting with music for the first time, you can use simple movement presets through the software and still easily make music. At the same time, professional artists at the top of their game can perfect their performances with Puppet Master. Jason explained that their product may help most with stage presence, especially for people like EDM artists.
“They won’t have to be hunched over on stage anymore. They could step away from their tables and mixers. All they have to do is use the program to set as many custom effects cued by different motions.”
Clark believes that the program is like any other new instrument introduced to the world. Just with the piano and electric guitar, people will have to get used to it, but once they do, it will change the way they think and open up the imagination.
His failure fueled success
When talking to Clark, what really stood out about him was his optimism and genuine hope to change the world.
He was turned down by Berklee twice. While some people would have given up even after the first try - maybe even retire from music entirely - Clark didn’t shy away from his dream. On his third attempt, the school finally accepted him.
“Failure is only part of success,” he explained. "I was meant to go back and refine myself.”
"I wanted to create something that gives everyone, despite any physical or mental limitations, the opportunity to express themselves.”
Clark grew up rapping - a passion for which he was bullied - and he didn't start playing the piano until he was 18. Despite his late start, he poured all of himself into his music, and it paid off.
“In my first year at Berklee, I could barely play the piano. By the end of my time there, I was picked to write the music for graduation. The kid who they had once denied twice was the one writing the music that everyone walked down to.”
Coming to creation
Perhaps his own fight to make it into the music realm inspired him to come up with Puppet Master and Point Motion. But in general, Clark was clearly set on bringing something spectacular to society.
“I would think to myself, ‘If I could bring something to the world, what would it be?’ I didn’t want to make a new way of doing something old,” Clark told me. "It had to be an entirely new way of doing something people have never done before.”
“My cousin is paralyzed from the waist down from a motorcycle accident,” he continued. "I wanted to create something that gives everyone, despite any physical or mental limitations, the opportunity to express themselves.”
More than music
With that motivation and personal connection to a problem, Clark came up with Puppet Master, which has been 3 years in the making. His prototype isn't ready for the market yet. When it is, he wants it to be ready for multiple markets.
Music creation is only the first step for Clark and his team. They have a whole list of applications they hope their technology can one day cover. For example, they’ve been working with mental health care professionals to find therapeutic uses. With their camera and software program, they aim to read micro-expressions on patients’ faces.
Clark pointed out that the vast majority of human expression is non-verbal. By picking up nuances in facial and body language, people struggling with various conditions could have a channel to better express themselves.
These revolutionary ideas are the product of a group effort. Clark knows he needs help to make his concepts a reality, and he has brought on team members, such as Jason, Creative Director Jeremy Jordan-Jones and several outside partners.
“I try to be humble," Clark explained. "I don’t know everything, which is why I have such an amazing team here to be with me.”
Image and video provided.
