Leap Motion’s new Muse app lets you create music with in-air hand gestures

Leap Motion is diving deep into the world of electronic music with the release of Muse, a new Mac desktop app that lets you create and perform original ambient music via hand gestures as you sit at your computer.

Muse was created jointly by musician BT and Dr. Richard Boulanger of the Berklee College of Music. It lets you create and perform your own ambient music in the air with your hands—with the help of a Leap Motion Controller. The Controller is a USB device that reads your hand gestures and interacts with the companion apps in the company’s Airpsace app store.

You move your hands and fingers in the air, which translates your motion into precise 3D input. The hardware works alongside your mouse and  keyboard, letting you intuitively navigate and dynamically interact with the chosen software. 

Muse lets you layer complex chord sets, intricate drum grooves, atmospheric sounds, and more with a cubic interface. Simply hover over cubes to select them and then open your fingers to trigger and play them. Move your hands closer to the screen to control the timbre, panning, echo, and sound reverberation.

Swipe in either direction to bring up additional Chord Sets, Ambiences, Drones, and Drums and choose from three separate SoundSets. Turn on AutoMuse and play along with—or just listen to—the intelligent composing system as Muse creates and performs on its own.

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Muse is one of  more than 200 apps in the Airspace store. It is available for Mac OS X 10.7 and later for $9.99.

Check out the developer’s profile video, which details the creation of the app.

Also have a look at the video tutorial, which outlines exactly how to use the controller and app.

➤ Muse