This is how Kraftwerk turned a Nintendo Power Glove into a MIDI controller

The robots used Doepfer’s MOGLI in 1993 to make music with gesture control.

Kraftwerk are known to keep their live rig a closely guarded secret, but a recent video shows off at least once unusual device used by the act back in the ‘90s.

A video from YouTube user studentsmusic demonstrates the MOGLI (MIDI Output Glove Interface), a device created by modular synth pioneer Dieter Doepfer in 1993, which turned Nintendo’s Power Glove in to a MIDI controller.

Released in 1989, the Power Glove was a peripheral that allowed gamers to control the NES with hand movements, pre-dating the Nintendo Wii’s gesture control by 17 years. Due to a lack of software support it was a critical and commercial flop, going down in history as one of gaming’s worst ever controllers.

However, Doepfer’s MOGLI device shows that as far as music goes, the Power Glove isn’t completely useless. It plugs into the glove and turns its signals into MIDI data, which can then be used to activate and control synth parameters.

Kraftwerk supposedly used the MOGLI during a concert at the Brucknerhaus in Austria for the ARS Electronica Festival for Art, Technology and Society in 1993, using it to perform ‘Pocket Calculator’ and ‘Musique Non Stop’. Only 350 MOGLIs were made, but Power Gloves are plentiful – you can pick one up on eBay for as little as $25.

Last year, a company called Remidi was successful in crowdfunding a modern MIDI glove controller called the T8. [via Synthtopia]