La Voix du Luthier ... and LinnStrument

[Christophe Duquesne]

Roger asked me to post this !
I'm Christophe Duquesne from La Voix du Luthier and Haken Audio and we have designed resonators (speakers, but without speaker cones in the spirit of what Maurice Martenot did in 1920-1930) which are giving an acoustic resonance to electronic instruments... that's all about musical expression, as the Continuums and the LinnStruments are !

On these powered resonators, named the Onde and the Pyramid, the sound directly emanates from 2 separate soundboards (similar to guitar soundboard, with one for high frequencies and one for high frequencies) designed and tuned by a stringed instrument maker.

They are designed to give an immersive acoustic sound to any electronic instrument.

The Onde and the Pyramid, have the following main characteristics:

• they generate a 3D auditory space, just like a traditional acoustic instrument (as opposed to traditional speakers being very directional),
• they offer a coloured sound carefully tuned by the luthier,
• they offer a highly dynamic sound with a nice emphasis on transients,
• they are designed to be able to transmit surface vibrations to your instrument, and offer a high number of possible mounting options to be attached to electronic instruments. This means that electronic musicians now can feel the vibrations of the sound they produce while playing, like any acoustic instrument player!
• they perfectly integrate with an acoustic ensemble (from small ensemble to orchestra)
• they offer a very elegant wooden design

The Onde is designed for mobility and can be battery powered (and can also power external instrument). It is also Bluetooth compatible. The Pyramid is bigger, targetting a warmer and more powerful sound.

The Onde and the Pyramid are on a Kickstarter up to November 25th (so sunday evening).

I'm of course available for any question you may have about them and would be happy to discuss with you about this new project. I'm sure they would fit very well with a LinnStrument (the Onde can be equipes with an instrument shelf on which the LinnStrument would nicely fit !).

Here is one of the videos we did (there are much more on the Kickstarter page and on the Youtube channel)
https://youtu.be/znKTWSDR10Q

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks, Christophe. This is a great way to add natural acoustic resonances to synthesis, and I think adds a great deal to live play because like an acoustic instrument, the omnidirectional sound is not only more natural than a speaker but also slightly different depending on where you stand around the Ondes.

[NothanUmber]

Have experimented with putting mini-speakers on top of the Linnstrument to get additional feedback via the vibrations - adds imho another, quite satisfactory haptic dimension.
The downside of tiny-small speakers that you can put on the Linnstrument is that they are tiny small speakers that sound like tiny small speakers.
This should be quite an upgrade in the accoustic instrument experience departement

Haven't heard one in real yet, but it sounds promising enough that I pledged for the Onde+ContinuuMini+stand combo. The Linnstrument can also be put on that stand, planning to use the Mini as synth, so Linnstrument+Mini+Onde(+a iConnect as MIDI host in between) is a fully self contained standalone instrument.

One thing I noticed: The Onde+ContinuuMini+stand combo is actually offered in both the Voix du Luthier and ContinuuMini Kickstarter. With the difference that for the first everything (including the ContinuuMini) is sent from the EU while in the other at least the ContinuuMini comes from the US. So for EU citizens the first should be a better, customs free option while people from the US might prefer to chose the offer from the ContinuuMini Kickstarter.

[Christophe Duquesne]

Thanks, Christophe. This is a great way to add natural acoustic resonances to synthesis, and I think adds a great deal to live play because like an acoustic instrument, the omnidirectional sound is not only more natural than a speaker but also slightly different depending on where you stand around the Ondes.

Your are perfectly right Roger, it is fully omnidirection and the sound slightly change depending on where you stand. It also interact a lot with the venue like any acoustic istrument, meaning that in a good concert hall you can be heard from far away even with a low sound level (and Onde and Pyramid can be quite loud).

... and thanks very much NothanUmber !

[ThomasHelzle]

Awesome!
Very nice performance and sound in that video.
Seems about time that electronic instruments get more character and give more feedback to the player in the physical world.
And beautifully designed too...

Best of luck with the Kickstarters!

Cheers,

Tom

[Tj Shredder]

I just wonder, if a comparable effect would be possible by putting a transducer on my violin or guitar...

[Christophe Duquesne]

Yes it perfectly works (check my friends from Hyvibe or TransAcoustic from Yamaha for example) also then you use a soundboard designed for a guitar or a violin: a guitar boby cuts arround 100 Hz, where we manage to go under 50.... that was one of the big challenge for us, and we have 2 soundboards instead of 1.... and you have the vibrations of strings.
Not saying it is not good, but really different. The Onde and the Pyramid were really tuned for electronic instruments (also we know that ther is not one single tuning, and we will most probably built other resonators with different sound colors in the future).

[Tj Shredder]

Maybe I should get a Cajon and attach one of those:
https://www.conrad.de/de/monacor-ar-30- ... 31337.html

[Christophe Duquesne]

May I suggest you to try the Visaton instead ?

[Tj Shredder]

Tanks for the suggestion.
I once got a tiny transducer as advertising gift, I just put it on a cardboard or for fun on a drum. Sounds amazing...

[Christophe Duquesne]

Yes, speakers use cardboard ... that works nicely on it ! My own very first early prototype was on cardboard !

[Tj Shredder]

There are cardboard cajons for 20 bucks around, I think they are foldable even. Would be fun in the park...

[ThomasHelzle]

Tj: There's even a shop in your vicinity in Berlin that has exciters from Visaton:
http://www.lautsprecher-berlin-shop.de/ ... on/Exciter
I have a small one and the bass version here for experimentation...

Cheers,

Tom

[Tj Shredder]

Cool... I should set up a camera and a mic and document the sounds...

[Steve_Harhai]

I have DIY speaker setup with two flat panel speakers constructed from styrofoam panels with transducers from Dayton Audio, a subwoofer and rear surround speakers. The Linnstrument sounds fantastic, with the omnidirectional presence of the flat panel in higher frequencies, with the subwoofer (of course, naturally nondirectional) filling in the lows.

I'm sure it's nowhere near the quality of the La Voix du Luthier designs, but it does demonstrate the benefit of using a non-directional sound source with the Linnstrument. And if you want to experiment before taking the plunge with an expensive quality device, you can build the flat panels for less than $50 in a couple of hours.