I worked with Andrew Boch to make custom gamelan instruments for a Gamelan Galak Tika performance with the Kronos Quartet at the Lincoln Center. This is an interesting project because it entails using novel electromechanical techniques to reproduce the unique sonic and interactive experience that standard gamelan instruments offer.
Making electronic instruments for professional musicians is a particularly challenging/rewarding job because your end-users are already virtuosos in the “real” thing—as a result, second-and third-order aspects of the design (tactile feedback and resonance, latency measured in tenths of milliseconds, fit-and-finish, etc) become as important as the instrument’s primary function.
