All concert-attending music fans are familiar with that tingling feeling that electrifies the body when you stand near the speakers. You may have become acquainted with this sensation at a local skate shop’s garage band round-up, an awkward high school prom, or perhaps, like myself, you were introduced to these musical vibrations the first time you got into a friend’s car who had a subwoofer in the trunk.The downside to these subwoofer-equipped cars is that they rattle on the outside just as much as they do on the interior. And while my bass-addicted, underage music fan friends and I could get our fix at concerts and all-age clubs, it was impossible to transport the musical vibrations without creating loud disturbances in our quiet suburban streets.The SubPac, developed by the cross-disciplinary team StudioFeed, provides a solution for music-loving surubanites or city-dwellers trying to avoid another noise complaint. This device, currently on KickStarter, is portable and quiet, resembling a backrest ,and will produce vibrations to match your music source, sort of like headphones for your entire body.While there is a novelty factor to this product, and it could find appeal with any EDM fan in need of a bass fix between EDC and Nocturnal, it also has great applications in the world of music production. The product has a laundry list of celebrity DJ/producers singing its praises, including Hank Shocklee, Mala, and !LLMIND. Since, as StudioFeed explains, the SubPac has a frequency response from 5Hz to 130Hz this provides musicians with more control over those unruly low frequencies.The SubPac has potential to help DJs and producers gain a better control of their music—however, arguably a more substantial application would be its potential to bring music to the deaf. Robbie Wilde, also know as “That Deaf DJ”, who is, as his stage name implies, deaf says in the video, “toward the deaf community that hasn’t tried the SubPac yet, our headphones are finally here.”@megyoungblood
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