Digital Hand Drum Smashes Kickstarter Spain

This flying saucer is actually a percussion instrument that lets you download and play whatever sounds you want.

June 5, 2015, 9:00pm

Images courtesy of Ovalsound

Two days, 15 hours, and a few minutes: that's how much time it took Ravid Goldschmidt and Alex Posada, or rather, Oval, to achieve Kickstarter funding for its first prototype. An hour after the web's most popular crowdfounding platformopened its doors to the Spanish market, the electronic instrument launched to international audiences, expected to respond over 45 days. Needless to say, Oval has exceeded expectations.

The idea for this product stems from Ovalsound, the association that pairs Ravid's musical expertise with Posada's digital and engineering abilities. While the former specializes as a teacher of handpan—a tool that is no longer manufactured and whose actual cost ranges between $4,450 and $11,000—the latter brings over 10 years of experience building his own instruments and investigating the world of technology.

Thus, Oval was born, a controller that integrates the ability to play samples—and create and modify sounds and scales—with the sensitivity of a handpan.

The Israeli-Catalan team of Ravid and Posada had a precedent when it came to the field of collaborative economy: A couple of years ago, goteo.org presented its first controller, BHOREAL. They earned the €15,000 funding needed within 30 days, a figure that the OVAL Kickstarter hit in just twenty minutes, while admitting that the momentum of the first hour was essentially people from their immediate environment. It is for this reason that, of the more than $129,000 collected thus far, the majority of investments have come from Spain, followed by the US, Germany, and England.

With 36 days left to support the project, the only goal still left to fulfill is for someone to cover the currently-empty pledge of $5,000 or more, for which the promised reward is the very first Oval. Posada explains that this is a very important piece of collection for them because, "after so many months working on several prototypes, we have grown very fond of it," and he promoses that, should the pledge remain unfulfilled, the first unit of the final product will stay behind for the Ovalsound Museum.