Reactable, is a musical instrument based on the concept of modular synthesizers. This kind of synths, allow to chain several sound generators and effects using wires to connect one to another. In the Reactable the principle is the same but the connections are created dynamically by the software based on the type of the elements and their distance on the table
The Reactable project started at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. In 2009 the team that created the original table started a company, Reactable Systems, to make a comercial product. I've worked with them from 2009 till 2011 creating a new version of the software that was rewritten from scratch.
The original table, had different types of blocks, like oscillators, delays, filters... and each of this blocks had some characteristics that were unparametrizable. One of the biggest changes in the new version, called Live!, is the posibility of adjusting several parameters per block through some panels and gui elements.
Based on the experience of the musicians that have been playing it, we did also some enhancements in the kind of gestures that can be used to interact with the table