There are several advantages of using the Musical Mushrooms in your signing bowls. Take a look at our blog post on the subject found here

The Musical Mushroom® unit has soft rubber feet and is simply placed at the bottom of the bowl. An optional silicone o-ring can also be placed underneath it.  A small exciter coil (similar to a speaker) needs to be secured to the inside wall of the bowl during a performance.  To do this, a small plastic threaded mounting disc is glued to the inside surface of the bowl using a small strip of special double-sided tape.  This disc can either be left inside the bowl permanently and won't affect its resonant characteristics should the bowl be played with a regular mallet.  It can also optionally be removed by applying a steady pressure with fingernails and won't damage or leave residue on the bowl.  Replacement discs can be purchased should they be required.  Once the disc is secured, the exciter is simply screwed onto it and can be unscrewed when no longer needed.

You may remove the Musical Mushroom® from the bowl and unscrew the exciter at any time to allow you to play it in the traditional manner using a mallet.  It is important to note that if you chose to leave the exciter mounted in place while using the mallet, the bowl's output will be dampened to a varying extent depending on the bowl's properties.  This dampening effect is more pronounced on very thin lightweight bowls and less pronounced on thicker heavier bowls.  As a result, we don't recommend using Crystal Tones / Alchemy singing bowls with super thin walls.  All other bowls such as frosted/colored/clear ones with thicker walls work well.  You can always use the mallet to strike the bowl while using the Musical Mushroom®.  However, rotating the mallet in the usual way around the rim of the bowl while using the Musical Mushroom® is unnecessary and will cause your arm to interrupt the gesture sensor light beam which is used to electronically control the bowl.  It is also possible to mount the exciter on the outside surface of the bowl and move the Musical Mushroom® outside the bowl.  In all cases, playing the bowls using the Musical Mushroom® itself is not a problem since it actively drives the bowl using its internal energy source rather than the mallet.

You don't necessarily need one Mushroom per bowl.  Some people only need a few Mushrooms to hold drone notes in their larger bowls in the background while they play their other bowls manually at the same time.  Others prefer the ability to play all their bowls using hand gestures so they install one mushroom per bowl.  It is a matter of personal preference. Just be aware that you should space your bowls about 1 bowl apart when they have mushrooms installed so the hand gesture sensors don't interfere with each other.  You might want to start with a few bowls at first and add more later on.

The Musical Mushroom® was designed to work with crystal singing bowls.  Metal signing bowls or gongs are NOT recommended because of their non-uniform surfaces difficult to mount to an more complex harmonics.

The Musical Mushroom® was designed to work with crystal singing bowls.  Generally speaking, all crystal signing bowls (frosted / colored / clear) work well with the Musical Mushrooms® with the exception of the higher end super thin-walled bowls like the Crystal Tones Alchemy which get dampened too much by the weight of the exciter and are not recommended.  They are also taller than other bowls and trigger the laser sensor on the tall rim edge unless the Mushroom is elevated from the bottom.

Not only can you control the bowl via hand gestures, but you can also control it via a direct USB Type C cable to a computer using the MIDI protocol.  3rd party Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software can be used to control the singing bowl using MIDI (such as Ableton Live).  Perfect for live as well as pre-scripted shows!

A pair of hand reflectors is included in every kit.  The hand reflectors are simply used to improve the strength of the reflected light pulse from the laser range sensor to detect the hand position.  Most people don't need it at all.  The main scenario where it might be needed is when playing your bowls from a standing position where your hands are farther away or if the light level in the room is very high.

The Musical Mushroom® uses an infrared time of flight laser light sensor to measure the position of the hand.  Because sunlight has a lot of infrared energy, it interferes with the operation of the sensor and therefore it is not recommended to use outdoors in full sunlight.  Indoor use is best..

The Musical Mushroom and Whisperer units are both charged using a standard USB Type C cable and wall charger adapter included in the kits.

The Musical Mushroom® is sold as an electronic musical instrument enabling users to mechanically vibrate an existing musical instrument in response to hand gestures.  It is NOT a healing instrument.  We do not claim to heal, cure or ameliorate any health condition with this equipment. It is the client's responsibility to do their own research and seek professional medical advice in every instance. No individual should use the information found on this web page for self-diagnosis, treatment, or justification in accepting or declining any medical therapy for any health problems or diseases.  Any person using or reselling Musical Mushrooms® and making any such claims are not endorsed or condoned by us.

Crystal singing bowls are generally very robust. We have personally used dozens of frosted bowls for many years outfitted with the Musical Mushrooms and have never damaged a bowl as a result. We also have sold units worldwide for a few years to hundreds of users without incident. We also do NOT recommend using high-end bowls with very thin walls like the Crystal Tones Alchemy series as is indicated on our website. Although extremely rare, it is always possible that crystal bowls have some internal imperfections leading to damage (whether using the Musical Mushrooms or not). It is also possible that a user accidentally drops a Mushroom, mallet or exciter into their bowl during setup causing accidental damage. Those are standard risks associated with crystal bowls and not specific to the use of the Musical Mushrooms.

Yes, the Musical Mushroom and Whisperer both support the MIDI protocol over USB.  MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.  It is a standard for connecting musical gear to a computer or to another MIDI device.  MIDI over USB is the modern standard which replaces the bulky 5-pin legacy cables of the past with a USB cable, allowing your computer to talk to your instrument.  MIDI over USB does not transmit audio. It sends digital data—essentially a high-speed stream of instructions—telling your instrument exactly how and when to play a sound.   Each Musical Mushroom has a built-in USB port which supports the MIDI over USB protocol as an output device.  This allows MIDI instructions sent to it by a computer to control the ON/OFF state of the bowl as well as its volume in real-time for more complex wave-like modulation effects.  The same USB cable also powers the Musical Mushroom (or Whisperer) keeping its internal battery fully charged during a performance. ​ The Whisperer can be optionally used as a transparent wireless MIDI bridge broadcasting MIDI messages to all its paired Musical Mushrooms (bandwidth limitations apply, wired USB connection is recommended for best performance and reliability).