There are no shortage of crazy and unique MIDI controllers out there. But TheoryBoard seems to have succeeded quite admirably.

It claims to let anyone create music, regardless of skill level, while also teaching them about music theory.

TheoryBoard has two 12x4 sets of velocity sensitive pads, with a touchscreen in the middle. The pads on the left are dedicated to playing chords, while the ones on the right are for playing notes in a scale. The middle touch screen is where you change octaves, select from one of 840 scales, change chord voicings, etc.

It uses some of the core concepts that have made large pad controllers like the Push and Launchpad popular, but is more transparent about what’s going on in the background.

Every chord of the scale is loaded on the left and every note is loaded on the right. These are color coded by root note so if you want to play an A minor chord with an A minor bass note at the same time you can quickly and easily identify them. Additionally, there is a section of pads on the right that auto update with the notes in the chord currently being pressed, so if you want to venture outside the scale without getting too dissonant or mirror your harmonies with an arpeggio there’s an easy way to do that.

There’s also hot keys across the top for on the fly key changes and for modal interchange. The pads support polyphonic aftertouch. And, in addition to USB MIDI, there’s TRS MIDI for controlling hardware instruments directly.

TheoryBoard is not cheap. Early-bird Kickstarter prices start at US$599.

(SD-Agencies)