Texas start-up Remidi develops the T8, a wearable MIDI controller that allows a user to mime music.

You can now create, remix and record digital music anywhere simply by tapping your fingers with a new invention from Texas start-up Remidi. Billed as the first wearable instrument that allows you to record, play and perform, the T8 is a high-tech wireless glove that uses pressure-sensitive sensors in the fingers and palm to trigger custom sounds. A wrist connector responds to hand movements, controlling effects like reverb and echo. It is essentially a MIDI controller – much like a synthesizer or drum pad – and can be used with software like Ableton Live, GarageBand or ProTools, but also comes with its own software and sound packs and can be synced to mobile devices.

According to Remidi’s CEO and Founder Andrea Baldereschi, the goal of the T8 is to turn human gestures into music. Based in Austin, four members of the five-person Remidi team come from Turin, Italy and have just completed a successful fundraising campaign through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign, which finished on March 19, successfully raised US$137326 with 530 backers, smashing through the initial goal of $50000 a mere two weeks into fundraising. Remidi aims to ship brand new T8s to its Kickstarter backers in September 2016.

Aimed at both musicians and people who have never played an instrument before, the T8 could well change the way electronic music is made, as well as offering new electronic possibilities for conventional acoustic instruments. As Baldereschi says, “It works on every surface, so there is a whole world to explore.”