Music Technology
SynthAccess Brought Talking Synthesizers to a Brooklyn Expo Floor
SynthAccess, from NYU's Ability Project, makes analog synthesizers usable for blind and low-vision musicians with braille labels, 3D-printed knobs, patch-diagram overlays and MIDItoSpeech, software that speaks parameter values as you turn a control. It was demoed at the Brooklyn Synth & Pedal Expo on 17–18 October, and the underlying argument is counterintuitive: the screenless old gear is the easier problem.