Sphero may be best known for its educational app-driven robots and adorable Star Wars droids, but the company has expanded into the world of music with its new Specdrums.
Specdrums are essentially app-enabled instruments - colour-sensing rings that pair with a smartphone over Bluetooth. Tap a colour (or a coloured object) with the ring, and it plays a corresponding note or sound. Tap a different colour, you'll get a different sound. They're next level finger drums.
In fact, Sphero Product Manager for Specdrums Steven Dourmashkin, says his background as a drummer inspired him to come up with the gadget.
"I'm tapping all the time, so basically, the goal was to turn that into real musical sounds and make drumming more accessible for everyone," said Dourmashkin. "[Playing drums] is expensive, it's hard to get into, and it has a steep learning curve."
“The whole goal is to make it really easy for kids and parents.”
Specdrums are suitable for pretty much all ages, but targeted at primary school kids in particular - especially visual learners, given the focus on colour.
In the box you'll find one or two rings (depending on which configuration you buy) and a mat with 12 coloured zones. While the mat is convenient, it's optional when it comes to actually playing with Specdrums. Tapping a red iPhone case, for example, will trigger the same sound as the red square on the mat. Striking real world objects is pretty damn fun.
At present, there are two main apps you can use with Specdrums: Specrums Mix and Specdrums Music.
Specdrums Mix is the simpler of the two apps. It's an easy way to map sounds to the 12 colours Specdrums can detect. Four of these trigger loops, while the other eight are individual notes or sounds. It's designed to let anyone make music that sounds good out of the box, while still having an element of control. Everything you play is in key, and synced to the tempo.
There's about 50 free sound packs to choose from in Mix, and Dourmashkin says more will be added on a regular basis. There are no in-app purchases either, which means kids won't accidentally rack up huge bills on your credit card.
Specdrums Music is a little more complicated and a little less polished from a user experience perspective. The app gives you a lot more freedom to build your own tunes, and lets you map individual notes or chords to each of the 12 colours Specdrums can recognise. You then pick from a whole host of samples and record loops that range from 2 to 16 bars. After you record a few different loops, you can turn them on and off and switch between them to create songs. While Music is a little more advanced, it still has features like "quantisation" and "preloaded" that make it easier to write music that's in time and in key.
Specdrums work with both iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android devices, but Android support is limited. They're only compatible with Pixel devices, and Samsung S smartphones from the S6 and up. Specdrums can also be used as midi controllers for applications like Logic and Garage Band. Sphero's Specdrums are available in stores now. You'll pay $109.95 for a set with one ring, or $169.95 for two. Get the set with two. You can find them at Apple, National Geographic, JB Hi-Fi, and Amazon.
See Specdrums on AmazonAlex Choros
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