Synesthesia
The phenomenon of perceiving one sense through another has inspired artistry throughout history. The experience of sound as movement, color, shape, or texture has been a particularly powerful inspiration for artists who have sought to convey synesthetic experiences through their music.
At Synesthesia we honor the incremental skill-building of musicians and composers to maximize their passion for creative exploration. We design our electronic hardware, digital sound libraries, and software apps to encourage innovation, synesthetic experimentation, and growth. Our products are all born of one ultimate purpose: to help musical artists of all genres and abilities communicate their ‘Vision’.
The added value of the Synesthesia Platform is our effort to remain open to and compatible with other musical platforms so that our hardware can be used with the software most familiar to you. Music is universal and so it should be with your music technology. As musicians with audio and electrical engineering skills and years of studio experience in Los Angeles and in live performance worldwide, Synesthesia is dedicated to building unique products with purpose. At Synesthesia music is a passion. We share that passion with you through our products and we wish all artists every joy in the pursuit of honing their craft and achieving success on their terms.
Have Fun. Do More. Be Great.
Vince De Franco, Founder
Vince De Franco’s career has straddled engineering advanced sensor technologies and collaborating with some of the world’s most renowned musical artists in studio and on tour. With a background in electrical engineering and a love of all things music, Vince has gained a unique perspective from which to develop and test his inventions that are shaping the modern musical frontier.
Vince grew up as a guitarist, computer programmer, and three sport athlete. After receving a degree in Physics at Georgetown, Vince headed to the west coast to begin graduate studies in Circuits and Signal Processing. He soon realized that all nighters in the computer lab with the other students could be time better spent channeling energy toward his passion: the art and science of making music. Wanting to combine his major interests into one endeavor, he took a leave of absence from his Masters/PhD program for an entry level position at the Record Plant Recording Studios in Hollywood. There he gained endless knowledge from both the artists making hit records and the world’s greatest audio and technical engineers.
Vince grew up as a guitarist, computer programmer, and three sport athlete. After receving a degree in Physics at Georgetown, Vince headed to the west coast to begin graduate studies in Circuits and Signal Processing. He soon realized that all nighters in the computer lab with the other students could be time better spent channeling energy toward his passion: the art and science of making music. Wanting to combine his major interests into one endeavor, he took a leave of absence from his Masters/PhD program for an entry level position at the Record Plant Recording Studios in Hollywood. There he gained endless knowledge from both the artists making hit records and the world’s greatest audio and technical engineers.
A few years into his audio engineering career, a technology startup booked a room at the studio. Recognizing Vince’s broad skillset, they offered him a position on their team to help bring new musical technologies to life. This would become the birthplace of Vince's first patent: an infrared light MIDI controller called the Dimension Beam. Originated to enhance the ability to affect guitar and synthesizer sound processing, the Dimension Beam was immediately adopted by artists of all mediums and eventually appeared on all Roland Corp. keyboards and sequencers as the D-Beam.
While building his career, Vince honed his musical skills over the years and developed relationships that helped shape his approach to music. Perhaps most influential was friend and mentor Dr. Timothy Leary, who would often include Vince in brainstorming sessions with other friends and creators from all walks of life and industries. It was through Dr. Leary that the band TOOL first encountered Vince and a creative kinship soon formed. Vince soon found himself engineering and producing tracks and albums by TOOL, Melvins, Fantomas, and his own bands, some of whom found themselves opening for some of those bands' live shows. You may have even caught him onstage as a guest synth player with TOOL on occasion, and heard his knob-twiddling synth work on their live album Salival.
With a vision enriched by these immeasurable musical and technological experiences, Vince formed Synesthesia Corporation. His first project refined the the original low latency/high resolution Dimension Beam to a smaller, more versatile version called Eyris. Then, while working with TOOL’s legendary drummer Danny Carey, Vince conceived of the Mandala, the only ultra-low latency electronic instrument of its kind that senses both strike position and strike force. The patented Mandala translates touch and movement into control signals for producing and affecting sound, and enables new approaches to learning an instrument and manifesting intuitive musical spirit.
Pipes was the next groundbreaking creation from De Franco.
Pipes is a patented sound and music platform for all music makers. Whether using its masterfully sampled instrument library or pushing the boundaries of new sound creations, Pipes is a tool that translates your expressions and inspirations into sound, audio patterns, and music. Pipes launched successfully on Kickstarter and is currently in use around the world. Pipes is a constant work in progress and additional apps for the versatile Pipes platform are currently in development.
And now, in the lineage of Dimension Beam, Eyris, Mandala V1, V2, mk2.9, and Pipes, the long awaited Mandala V3 has arrived. With quantum leaps in technology since any previous version, the Mandala V3 is the culmination of first hand experience and know-how developed in home studios, high-end recording sessions, small gigs, sold out arenas and stadiums, and right here in our lab over many many years. We are very proud to make this labor of love available to innovators all over the world and beyond.
And now, in the lineage of Dimension Beam, Eyris, Mandala V1, V2, mk2.9, and Pipes, the long awaited Mandala V3 has arrived. With quantum leaps in technology since any previous version, the Mandala V3 is the culmination of first hand experience and know-how developed in home studios, high-end recording sessions, small gigs, sold out arenas and stadiums, and right here in our lab over many many years. We are very proud to make this labor of love available to innovators all over the world and beyond.
Mandala V1 released in 2006 based on the original model made for Danny Carey.
The seven purple drums above are still in use in Danny’s kit at home and updated versions dominate his current set-up.
Luke Henderson, CFO
In 2007, Vince brought on Luke Henderson, a good friend and financier. Luke had been an equity trader on Wall Street for 15 years and was looking to get into venture capital when the opportunity to build the Mandala brand lured him to the West Coast.
After Wall Street, and prior to answering the call to California, Luke set out on an adventure to sail around Cape Horn. He found a steel hulled, 36 foot sloop in Cape Town South Africa called The Shangri-La that would carry him across the South Atlantic and around the continent of South America in 2005.
Following that adventure Luke settled in Los Angeles to help Vince create new products and instruments for musicians, while focusing his efforts on bringing order and scale to the musical instrument industry.