University of Edinburgh spin-out transitions from education to mainstream with the launch of the Skoog 2.0
Having spent the last four years exporting their products to schools worldwide, Edinburgh-based Skoogmusic is tackling the mainstream consumer market.
With around nearly 2,000 Skoogs in schools from the UK to Australia and Hong Kong to the US, the founders of Skoogmusic, Ben Schögler and David Skulina, have created a new product for anyone to enjoy, and have launched it on crowdfunding site indiegogo.com today.
The Skoog, is an innovative, accessible, musical instrument for everyone, and was initially developed to help children with disabilities enjoy and play music. Roughly hand sized, the soft, squeezable Skoog allows users to ‘play’ a wide range of instruments, or sounds that they’ve recorded themselves; and in 2009 it was included by Local Education Authorities and Music Hubs as part of the Special Education Needs and mainstream music curriculum.
“The Skoog is essentially every musical instrument in one small squeezable cube,” said Ben Schögler, Creative Director at Skoogmusic.
“At some point in their life everyone has wanted to make music – whether it be by the traditional route of learning an instrument, which can be hard, or by simply tapping a beat on a worktop. Being musical is in all of us in one form or other.
“We’ve spent the last four years developing the product for the education market, and taking on board feedback from teachers and parents – but at the same time we’ve been working towards creating Skoog 2.0 for mainstream consumers,” he said.
Like the original version, the new Skoog still has the same tactile multi-dimensional control over sound, but the new, smaller Skoog is now multi touch – meaning all five surfaces can be played at once. It’s also wireless, iOS compatible and comes with its own music-making app.
“We’ve really considered what users want from Skoog 2.0,” continued David Skulina, Chief Technology Officer at Skoogmusic.
“From technology early adaptors, to parents and even DJs we’ve asked people what they want to achieve from Skoog – and built it in. We’ve even developed an app for the new Skoog called Mogo, which gives Skoog 2.0 the high quality sound of the original Moog synthesizers – all under your control. The possibilities for creating music, from one little box are endless, and fun.
“To have something that gives a direct connection between movement and sound is exciting. Anyone can experience what it’s like to create music – whether you want to play electronic music, brass, string, woodwind, percussion, or record your own sounds.
“Launching on indiegogo.com will allow us to finance the next stage of the product’s development and continue to ensure that Skoog 2.0 is both at the cutting edge of technology and delivers tactile, immersive musical functionality for everyone – and grow the business,” he said.
Submitted by Natasha Lobley
