Cool New Instrument - The Eigenharp

[CardZeus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8294355.stm

[Ove]

Hmmmmmm dunno really. It looks to me like a more complicated gizmo used to operate MIDI modules. You could do more or less the same with a standard guitar + MIDI.

[Careyp74]

I wouldn't be surprised if I started seeing these in the emo/prog groups that are gaining popularity in the US. It adds a lot of fill like a synth, but looks a lot cooler.

[arthwollipot]

I. Want. One.

[KarlG]

They should get it together with one of these (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenori-on).

[leonAzul]

Hmmmmmm dunno really. It looks to me like a more complicated gizmo used to operate MIDI modules. You could do more or less the same with a standard guitar + MIDI.

/thread

Almost. It is a clever collection of MIDI controllers.

Small quibble: a guitar has to be specially prepared to work that way and wouldn't exactly be 'standard' any more. Frequency to MIDI converters don't handle polyphonic (more than one tone) source too accurately, so either the instrument needs to be fitted a separate pickup for each string, or the fretboard and bridges are specially prepared to measure relative changes in impedance when each string is stopped, like a Chapman Stick.

ETA
I looked more closely at the WP article and confess I seem to have confused the Chapman device with another similar controller whose name escapes me just now. I know the Roland guitar synth included that mode of control, hence the need for that odd looking conduit to run wires through the neck, but am now not so sure that the Chapman Stick did too.

[madurobob]

They should get it together with one of these (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenori-on).

An addictive online version of which is here (http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix)

[KarlG]

An addictive online version of which is here (http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix)


I don't know whether i love you or hate you :)

[CelticRose]

I am not impressed. It's a synthesizer and sounds like one. However, the responsive controls are kind of cool.

I wouldn't be surprised if I started seeing these in the emo/prog groups that are gaining popularity in the US. It adds a lot of fill like a synth, but looks a lot cooler.
True. People who want their synthesizers to look cool might use one, but I can't see any serious musicians bothering with it.

[calebprime]

I am not impressed. It's a synthesizer and sounds like one. However, the responsive controls are kind of cool.


True. People who want their synthesizers to look cool might use one, but I can't see any serious musicians bothering with it.

Haven't checked it out myself, and I tend to be a little dismissive of new types of controllers.

But the microtonal user-group I subscribe to on Yahoo--which has a lot of real experts in microtonality, far more advanced in that subject than I am--seemed to think it was interesting, at least. They weren't dismissing it at all, and they can be harsh.

internet connection on this computer too slow to check out...:(

[ParrotPirate]

Heard about it on Friday night-As it Happens (CBC) had a piece on it. I thought it sounded cool. Might be easier to use for those of us with less experience/talent.

[dropzone]

Jimminy Christmas, Keith Emerson should give it up and start wearing Hawaiian shirts and blue jeans. And what's with the dyed hair? Dude, yer 65 and fat. Accept it. Revel in it.

[king catfish]

Jimminy Christmas, Keith Emerson should give it up and start wearing Hawaiian shirts and blue jeans. And what's with the dyed hair? Dude, yer 65 and fat. Accept it. Revel in it.

Isn't that Rick Wakeman?

[ParrotPirate]

Wakeman

[ZirconBlue]

I am not impressed. It's a synthesizer and sounds like one.

What exactly, does a sythesizer sound like? It sounds like whatever you want it to sound like.


True. People who want their synthesizers to look cool might use one, but I can't see any serious musicians bothering with it.

I guess that depends on what you consider a "serious" musician. There's already a (very brief) video on YouTube of Jordan Rudess, keyboard player for Dream Theater, experimenting with one.

If nothing else, it seems to reproduce wind instrument sounds better than a standard keyboard controller does.

[dropzone]

Isn't that Rick Wakeman?So he's 60, fat, and has a bad dye job. I'm adaptable. :D

[arthwollipot]

It appears to have a number of interesting control surfaces, which makes it different from any other MIDI controller available. Plus, it looks cool.

[Ove]

But still. I can understand the "clavisynth" or whatever it's called because a clarinettist of saxophone player who does NOT play piano can still use a synth and the same story with a Guitarsynthiziser but inventing a new control/input device seems to me to be nothing more than a gimmick. Actually it looks like a Sitar with the mouthpiece from an oboe attached.

Cool? Perhaps. Flashy? Definitely. Usefull? No not really. ;)

[arthwollipot]

I strongly suspect that there's more to it than meets the eye. We don't know the function of the various control surfaces (beyond what we've seen in the video). It may well be more than just an ordinary MIDI controller.