Hi all,

Just wanted to share a couple of quick videos I made recently of my new Linnstrument from Roger Linn Design.

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html

Read all about it on the website. It's meant to be an instrument as opposed a grid controller like Ableton's Push or similar. My impressions so far are exactly that. The main thing is that each key responds dynamically in 4 ways (initial strike, movement on the X axis for pitch bend, movement on the Y axis for expression or other midi CC messages, and on the Z axis for aftertouch). You can configure the row offsets by a number of musical intervals. I went with 4th's to make scale patterns really obvious to a Stickist (no surprise there).

Anyway, I thought you guys would like to see this. I've owned it for a week and am finding the my Stick skills are translating over pretty easily. I need to spend some time thinking about fingering in the left hand especially. The build quality is outstanding, and they are adding features to the firmware code regularly. I've used it with Logic, Mainstage, Reason, Ableton, etc. driving a number of virtual instruments and have gotten great results in every case.

Enjoy,
Karma...................................................................................

The big selling point, though, is the guy who designed it: Roger Linn. In the music biz, he’s a bankable brand with a proven record of creating wildly successful instruments.

From Prince and Stevie Wonder to Dr. Dre and Puff Daddy, Linn’s basement inventions defined pop music for two successive decades. The LM-1, the world’s first programmable sampled-sound drum computer, was the beat box of the ’80s. Consider Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the best-selling pop album of all time. Every drum on that record, from the kicks to the snares, came from the chunky LM-1 circuit boards.

As antiquated as the Stradivarius is, Linn insists the MIDI keyboard is higher on the endangered instrument list. “Fifty years from now, the 1970s to 2015 will be regarded as a strange period in history when people played musical sounds with secretarial input devices: on-off buttons, switches, sliders, and knobs. Controlling numbers by pressing keys. That’s a horrible interface. A violin, sax, cello or clarinet has more range than a MIDI keyboard. Because it relies on basic switch technology, it lacks a compelling instrumental voice. PMCs are the future.”

For proof of the MIDI’s woeful sonic performance, look no further than the demise of the musical solo. Resuming his lecture, Linn presents a persuasive theory. “Is there any famous virtuoso player of electronic instruments you can name? The closest thing we have are EDM DJs, who don’t actually play any notes. The concept of an instrumental solo has virtually disappeared from today’s electronically generated pop music. I’d argue this is due to the lack of any compelling instrumental performances.”

The LinnStrument comes with guitar strap pins that can be screwed into any of its four corners, and Roger recommends holding the unit like a Chapman Stick, i.e., on a diagonal with your left hand wrapped around the top left quadrant and your right hand around the bottom right. I tried this, but my left hand strained to reach the bass notes in the bottom left area. It would help if you could flip the note layout of the left-hand split part so that the lowest notes started with the top left pad, but I could see that steepening the learning curve as you’d need to think about two mirror-imaged note layouts at once. I reverted to placing it flat on a desktop with my hands in “keyboard player” position.

Gene, there's a long history of people playing keyboards with their feet, going back to church organs with pedals. I Googled "foot MIDI controllers" and got lots of great products, some recommended here by various Stickists.

http://www.sweetwater.com/c513--MIDI_Co ... Zvb3QiXX19

The LinnStrument is for the fingers. But Roger Linn invented drum pads--he could make a foot controller, I'm sure. I guess with a foot controller, you could play both Stick and keyboards at the same time, which is what I guess many Stickists do with their (usually) 12-note MIDI foot controllers. I've never played with one, although I have used church organ pedals before (poorly).

Side note....Sorry for the hijack....I use a Roland PK-5 that triggers a Roland SH-32....... Poor mans Moog Taurus......used in a Floyd tribute,,,,,shook my teeth.
Still have it....still use it.....

Speaking of foot controllers, I've got a 13-key Studiologic one, mostly because of what Rush did with Taurus. Turns out that triggering long low notes is the only thing this keyboard is good for, you can't really play bass lines with one octave range. Besides, you need a height-adjustable bench and keyboard stand - you have to sit like a foot higher than you normally do so your feet could move freely over the keyboard. Church organ pedalboards now make sense to me...

Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors. Jim Morrison

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