But seriously, knowing your shredding skills and that you can already rock a Stick in the vertical position--I don't know what your keyboard skills are, but you've got the fourth tunings and the position in front of you skills down and mastered already. Wouldn't all the chords be exactly the same as the melody side of a Stick (or bass side, if you're rocking all fourths)? My god, you could rock some serious keyboard ass with this thing! (He says, wanting you to buy it so he can live through you. )

And practicing on this pretty much counts for practicing your chord work on the Stick! At least on the melody side--and you can split this thing just like a Stick and I'm sure tune the right or bottom side in fifths. And then--exactly like a Stick is tuned--if not the same range.

Jeremy Cubert turned me on to this thing, with an accidental side reference to it. The Roger Linn design website has sample videos from users, and they have several good jazzy jams by Jeremy (who is my new LinnStrument Hero).

Jeremy claims it's a good fit with Stickists and I can see why. I'm going to poke around a bit more but I'll probably get one before too long!

Every point you make makes me want this even more...

Paigann:

Thanks for the kind words. Roger and I discussed setting this up like a Stick with four "strings" in ascending fourths and four in the bass side tuning. While this is possible, the interface is not set up to accomplish this easily. I think someone with programming ability could set this up but I am not that person!

I tend to use it primarily as a solo type instrument in my keyboard/Stick rig in place of a monophonic lead synth. At some point I will explore two handed playing more.

Another key feature is "per note" MIDI control where each MIDI channel and separately control a note. This permits emulation of "slide guitar" and holding down a chord while playing a lead (complete with independent pitch bend and vibrato). You need a virtual instrument/synth with this capability and there are not that many. Roger has a list of instruments on his website along with a Logic Pro X template designed to take advantage of this feature.

As an aside, I recently picked up a Roli Seaboard (another multi-dimensional MIDI controller) that comes with a custom synth called Equator. One sound in Equator is supposedly modeled on a Chapman Stick but sounds nothing like one! Not even close. Luckily, I have access to the real thing!

That article is fairly accurate. I like that the LinnStrument is not using a keyboard layout. Coming from Stick, it’s easy to navigate (although you can setup the offset between the rows in some other manner than 4ths). It doesn’t require an editor to program, I find the general setup easy to use.

I think the default LinnStrument setup is a bit wide for the Stick-like playing position, you wouldn’t really be able to play the same stuff you’re used to playing on Stick with your left hand. And as the article notes, you can’t invert the notes. It's possible to edit the firmware, I assume that's what Jeremy is referring to for setting up 4 strings per side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amO-I_mDxJE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnr0iE5pctc

The gentleman in that Eigenharp video did the firmware for the LinnStrument.
http://expressiveness.org/
He's also writing the MPE spec.
https://factotumo.com/2015/09/midi-mpe- ... ert-bevin/

You should also check out the Soundplane. http://madronalabs.com/soundplane

The Zendrum is a little easier to handle I think than a 'Linstrument' and works on the same principles in that it has no internal sounds so that what ever sound you have access to via MIDI
or USB is what you can play and you assign the notes you want to the pads, but you still need to make adjustments to the attack and decay parameters...

My take on the Linnstrument is that Roger Linn has created a real 'musical instrument'
with his new controller and after following his work for a long time I think that it is exactly
what he has set out to do; the Linn is as complex as a real acoustic instrument, or at least
as close as you can get given the parameters of electronically accessing sound through taping
pads. Don't forget that Roger Linn essentially invented the Akai MPC. The only problem
is that because it is so good it would really take years to master, imho. Probably the Eganharp
goes a few extra miles(?)...


On the clip below the guy is just doing drums but you can load in a bass or piano or whatever. I have found that sax and flute work well. You don't have the same expressive ability as far as bending and note sensitivity compared to the Linn, but you do have the ability to layer sounds so that a soft touch plays one sound and with more "velocity" you get another sound. The 'pads' are hard plastic not soft.

Most new senth modules and keyboards have this built in so you don't need to stress making your own "velocity layers" unless you are given to tweak. The layering can go four or five deep;-)...


I tried to get the video to post but no luck:

[youtube] https://youtu.be/5vGjRSPFtno [/youtube]

Also here is my only contribution to SoundCloud and I have posted it before so forgive me for not putting up
some new stuff. I am working on it .

This little tune has a lot of Zendrum so it is a example of using the ZD for other sounds besides the drums but all the drums are
triggered from the controller plus the clarinet, flute, sax and acoustic bass are ZD. Otherwise
it is all built off of an Echoplex loop:

https://soundcloud.com/jrj-rauche

jRj
*j*
.~

Gota love this stuff....

Here is another favorite example of a Linnstrument thingy called a "Monome"....
Not as easy as it looks ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0A8xR8ieek



jRj
*j*
.~

JRJ:

Very nice! I have a Zendrum as well and it is my controller of choice for drums. However, the Zendrum responds to velocity only and has a limited number of pads. The LinnStrument responds to velocity, pressure, x (pitch) and y (usually set to timbre) and has 225 pads. I have used the LinnStrument to trigger drums but prefer the Zendrum.

I agree with Claire that the width makes playing in the standard Stick position tricky. I prefer to play the LinnStrument flat.

Here is a video I made using LinnStrument to control a Turkish Oud sample library:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9HvufPjuUM[/youtube]

And here is a piece I did as a demo for a jazz/funk drum library for Nucleus Soundlab:



The advantage of the Zendrum for drums is more space to use your arms and wrists. I found applying Greg's "hand movement" technique for Stick to the Zendrum made a huge difference in my Zendrum playing.

Thanks.

Jeremy

Off the planet Jeremy! I had watched the oud video before but did not connect that
you were one of our Stick mates ...I also checked out your CD-Baby and could not find a way
to listen to any clips(?). I am going to get the album anyway for some serious listening but it would be good for business, I think, to have clips there...

Just amazing music though. You must have come to the conclusion a long time ago
that the music, the playing, the process, the exploration is it's own reward ...

I love your stuff man, inspired ; back to it...

jRj
*j*
.~

There is this new instrument that I found out about recently that seems exciting. It´s called a "banjo". Don´t know much about it but I´ve heard strange rumours that you must be married to your cousin and also have to own pigs to buy one. Strange indeed if that is true. But it seems like a interesting instrument. I could buy a pig. That is a possibility. But my only cousin is a guy and lives in Argentina so that might turn out to be a bit of a problem perhaps.....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzae_SqbmDE[/youtube]

But it seems like a damn cool instrument!

You know who's my banjo hero? Another musician Steve, who dabbles in comedy and movies, Steve Martin:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCS5uIaTFDg[/youtube]