Category: Eigenharp: Instruments

Surge Synth went Open Source.

Surge Synth went Open Source.

This looks really promising!

This synth was developed by one of the Bitwig founders and is available as open source since a few days.

https://github.com/kurasu/surge

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/vember-audio-surge-22113:

It even provides MPE support in the latest (unreleased) version!

Sounds like a candidate to put into the EigenD resource package, so any layout can just assume it’s there?

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/vember-audio-surge-22113//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

This launched today on kickstarter… might make sense for a couple of reasons.

This launched today on kickstarter… might make sense for a couple of reasons.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smashmouseusa/smashmouse-universal-pedal-for-hands-free-computer#

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smashmouseusa/smashmouse-universal-pedal-for-hands-free-computer#//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Neova | A Unique Connected Ring For Musicians

Looks interesting – a ring that measures your hand position and thus adds 3d expression capabilities to any keyboard. (Might also be interesting to experiment with that, an Eigenharp and a violin bow 🙂 )

Has anybody played with this at one of the previous music gear exhibitions?

Haven’t found a homepage, they run a Kickstarter atm though:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1618180096/neova-a-unique-connected-ring-for-musicians

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1618180096/neova-a-unique-connected-ring-for-musicians?lang=de//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Physical Audio – Derailer (AU/Mac only)

Physical Audio – Derailer (AU/Mac only)

In beta at the moment, but worth checking out,

Physical Modelling with MPE support (they call it X mode) , what more could we want? 🙂

A quick play it seems to deliver, the UI is pretty complex (ok, Ive not read the manual), I particularly like the bowing presets… some of the others I find a bit hit n miss on strike, might be I need to fine tune my MPE setup. if they can sort this out, then it could become a favourite.

(hmm, perhaps the final release, can lets us reduce the reverb level a bit ;))

https://physicalaudio.co.uk/PA3.html

https://physicalaudio.co.uk/PA3.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Ordered my (first) ’harp (a Black Pico).

Ordered my (first) ’harp (a Black Pico). After discussing it with someone close to me, that person decided to support my musicking activities.

Perfect gift to myself. It’s also the ideal “mid-life crisis” purchase for someone who doesn’t drive, chase women, or go for much conspicuous consumption.

Which means that you might have to endure my questions and such. Will try to keep everything reasonable, but it’s a bit too exciting, already.

Thanks all for your help, already! Can’t wait to explore new musicking horizons. For instance, do you think it’s possible to do some automatic harmonization within EigenD for Windows or macOS? Was able to create some neat harmony tricks in Sonic Pi. It’d be fun to do it within EigenD even if (or, because) it requires some learning.

Wow. Major thing in my life, honestly. Wouldn’t be surprised if Eigenlabs were to get a spike in Canadian sales… 😉

Axoloti MPE – using new MI modules

Axoloti MPE – using new MI modules

I thought Id share this, as its a lovely video by a contributor on the axoloti forum – although its on a Linnstrument, it obviously works on the Eigenharp too.

its a couple of nice patches that are now in the community library.

the heart of one of the patches is based on the new ‘brds’ object, which is a port of mutable instrument braids.

the great thing is, we also ported other MI objects, including rings, elements and clouds, warps.

after seeing this I dug into braids a bit more, and found just a couple of objects, and you can get some really nice stuff e.g. braids into rings/reverb. (I’ll do some videos too soon)

… and of course its all ‘standalone’ no computer needed … a perfect match for stuff I’m doing on the rPI 🙂

https://youtu.be/XNx5zb3PuAw

https://youtu.be/XNx5zb3PuAw//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

a good illustration of Strobe 2’s new MPE features.

a good illustration of Strobe 2’s new MPE features.

its a really good approach, allowing you to adjust response rates on all dimensions for individual patches, useful for all controllers.

its interesting playing the roli patches on the Eigenharp (and Soundplane) as you can really feel the patches need to be adjusted to take into account their unique nature.

this is not surprising, but its just so evident how much difference this really makes… and I can now understand why Roli and Haken are reluctant to release their synths for other MPE controllers… the presets just wont translate that well.

anyway, great free update if you already have strobe 2 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqIsTY_EFw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqIsTY_EFw//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Just listened to the demos of a new physical modelling+sample based hybrid approach for violin simulation.

Just listened to the demos of a new physical modelling+sample based hybrid approach for violin simulation. Absurdly realistic. Wondering how well this would work with Eigenharp&Co when played in realtime…

http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/demos_violin.php

http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/demos_violin.php//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

In the quest to play more with physical models I revived a dinosaur from the past: Tassman 4.

In the quest to play more with physical models I revived a dinosaur from the past: Tassman 4. It still sounds great and there isn’t much else like it out there when it comes to modular synths with focus on physical modelling, even in late 2016 (well, Kaivo and Chromaphone, but these are not fully modular).

And I am glad to report that it works in VpC mode with Eigenharp! You can define the midi channel for each (mono) keyboard or modulation source (as well as for midi learning of the knobs that strangely are not available as inputs in the builder view but only can be automated in the context menu of the knobs in the player view).

For some reason I don’t fully understand yet you then have to set the global MIDI channel to 1 instead of Omni – then VpC works. For Omni all events are copied to all channels (as expected), for 1 strangely all events stay on their channels as they come from EigenD. (Which might be a bug originally, but it’s great in this case!)

Very positive surprise to have Tassman back in the arsenal! 🙂