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

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

Polyphonic expression pedaling 🙂

Impressive setup!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zzkalHmY10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zzkalHmY10//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

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. 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! 🙂

Interesting interview with Jordan Rudess about MPE instruments in general (and of course Seaboard and Rudess playing and thinking about Seaboards and Rudess iPad apps in particular).

Just click on the video. Only the first few sentences are in German, the entire rest of the interview is in English.

One thing I wholeheartly agree with – a new instrument does not only require a signature way to play but a signature sound to become “a recognizable thing”. That said of course different people can play the same device with completely different sounds. But then they probably kind of play different instruments really that require their own way of playing, thinking, literature etc., making it hard to establish something desirable and possible to learn from/teach as a teacher.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Interview-Jordan-Rudess-ueber-Knautsch-Keyboards-MPE-und-Musik-Apps-3129553.html

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Interview-Jordan-Rudess-ueber-Knautsch-Keyboards-MPE-und-Musik-Apps-3129553.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

The demos of that new viola library sound very promising:

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

Did anybody take the plunge and try out how the expressive capabilities work together with the Eigenharp?

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

Collecting sounds for a Bazille Eigenharp preset library

As Mark Harris already wrote in a previous posting: u-he Bazille supports the multi-midi-channel mode since last week and thus elevated itself into the small league of perfect Eigenharp plugins: This allows per key expressions in EigenD, including not only aftertouch and velocity (which is usually possible because keyboards support this) but also poly-pitchbend, poly-modulation, poly-expression etc.! (A download link to a beta version that supports said multi-midi-channel mode can be found here: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=414823 )

Had a look at the presets from the last preset contests. Many nice contributions! For most you feel that they were made from a keyboard perspective though – many mainly velocity controlled short “pluck and release a string” sustain phase sounds. Or “press a key and hear it evolve automatically” things – not so many that allow to shape a note while it sounds with full manual control, allowing the full range from pizzicato to expressive legato.

So perhaps we can collect presets to make our own library of Eigenharp optimized sounds?

The nice thing with Eigenharps is that all control is in your hand, so the simplest sounds can be the most rewarding ones!

Here a first super simple rectangle osc+filter sound that I have been playing around with recently:

http://fstrixner.de/files/EigenD/bazillepresets/Eigenharp%201.h2p

Additional note:

There is currently another sound design competition running for Bazille:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=415329

Just to inform about additional possibilities 🙂 (Most people who vote for the winning entries will use keyboards, so good Eigenharp presets might be too simplistic in their ears as they can’t fully control them – so I would not bet on winning here with an Eigenharp optimized sound. But it can’t hurt to try 🙂 )

http://fstrixner.de/files/EigenD/bazillepresets/Eigenharp%201.h2p//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js