How major a project would it be to change the note lights on/off settings?

[Roger_Linn]

Sounds like a good plan, Hez.

[Jimmy34742]

Would it be enough of a common denominator feature to allow the saving of at least one custom lighting preset onboard? The requirement to constantly tether to a computer to customize lighting is an annoyance all lighting customizers have in common. Once we go through the trouble to use the computer to customize our own lighting, if we could just save at least one of those customized configs on the LinnStrument itself to be recalled instantly with a button push, it would be a big help.

[Roger_Linn]

The problem is that while some people have asked for this feature, it seems they usually want the ability to have it in case they might possibly want it, or want to try out a specific pattern to see if they might like it in the long term. But what I haven’t seen is people using the external app to play a specific desired light pattern over a period of months, and which they discover to be more useful in the longer term for general musical play than what LinnStrument offers internally. In my site’s guiding principal for adding features, I explain that LinnStrument is not a free-form control surface for detailed MIDI experimentation but rather focuses on trying to be an expressive musical instrument with a limited set of features focused on that goal.

Is there a specific lighting pattern that you’ve been using on an ongoing basis and that you’ve found to be musically useful?

[Jimmy34742]

My percussion controller pattern (pictured above), and EDO-19 microtuning lighting pattern. For microtunings, the isomorphic LS is the only real choice out there because the traditional keyboard layout is way too cognitively demanding to keep track of where you are. But the LS's current onboard lighting choices all work counter to tracking anything but our traditional Western EDO-12; blanking out all lights would be better, in fact.

[John the Savage]

The problem is that while some people have asked for this feature, it seems they usually want the ability to have it in case they might possibly want it, or want to try out a specific pattern to see if they might like it in the long term...

Is there a specific lighting pattern that you’ve been using on an ongoing basis and that you’ve found to be musically useful?

Well, I don't need the note lights at all, but I would light up "fret markers" for myself if I could. And that's something I'm absolutely sure of. I think if the LinnStrument could save even a single custom user-configuration for the lights (never mind one per preset), even if it took an external app to set it up initially, that would definitely be useful.

To be fair, I can't say that I'm being held back as a player with the way it is now; however, even after four years, I still fight the lights. Typically, I turn all but one of the note lights off (I keep the 'E' lit up), because that's the closest I can get to "fret markers". Else I just turn them ALL off; but that can be disorienting at times, depending on what I'm playing.

Personally, I think some people depend too much on the lights; hence why they're asking for so many different configurations. I do think that's gratuitous. But I can totally understand why someone might want to customize the layout of the lights, if only once, for standalone use. For me, it's about familiarity, retention, and the synesthesia of it.

Cheers!

P.S. If I were to redesign the LinnStrument from scratch, I'd make it so that, when you're in the Global Settings, instead of being presented with a bunch of prefab note and scale options, you just enter a mode wherein you can touch each cell on the playing surface to turn the cell on or off and cycle through the colours as desired. That said, I came to the LinnStrument from a fretted instrument and already understand music theory, so I don't need the prefab scales and "accent" notes. To that end, given that many people would not have known where to begin with the LinnStrument, I can understand why Roger chose the system that he did.

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks, Jimmy and John, for your thoughts.

The fundamental problem here is one of design choices. The vast majority of LinnStrument owners use 12 EDO and the scale lights, with light positions shifted by the transpose function. But there are also a few people who use LinnStrument for microtonal music or like to see traditional guitar neck dots. My design choice is whether to have a complex UI that permits any EDO value or light color/position, and that would be confusing for the 12 EDO players; or to optimize the instrument for the majority of people who use it. Given the lack of an alphanumeric display and my design focus on making LinnStrument as an expressive musical instrument for 12 EDO music, I chose the latter but for the former, opened the source code and added lots of MIDI hooks for external applications.

I think what both of you are saying is that LinnStrument's design focus on 12 EDO and scale lights isn't a problem, but rather the problem is the inability for the custom light patterns you've loaded to stay in memory after power is removed. Is this correct? If so, then this is probably a practical solution.

[John the Savage]

Thanks, Jimmy and John, for your thoughts.

I think what both of you are saying is that LinnStrument's design focus on 12 EDO and scale lights isn't a problem, but rather the problem is the inability for the custom light patterns you've loaded to stay in memory after power is removed. Is this correct? If so, then this is probably a practical solution.

Yes, that's correct.

The use of 12-TET is ubiquitous enough that pandering to that tuning system, design wise, was really the only sensible way to go; so, no criticism there, Roger, whatsoever.

However, which cells (or "notes", depending on how you look at it) are lit up, and in what colour; in my opinion, that is a very personal choice for each individual player. Again, it's not like I'm letting it stand in my way, but not a day goes by that I don't wish I could change it.

My personal reasons:

• Having all the lights on can be blinding in the dark onstage.

• Having just the 'E' notes lit leaves several blind-spots, and diverges ever-so-slightly from standard fret markers, which is a constant head-trip.

• Turning all the lights off is ideal, but has left me in a lurch in the heat of a performance, void of a reference point; especially when jumping back-and-forth between instruments, stage lights swirling around.

So, yes, if the LinnStrument were able to retain a custom light pattern (loaded from a third-party app in this case), after being disconnected from the computer and powered-down, that would be perfect, and a fair compromise I'd say.

Thanks, as always, Roger, for your careful consideration of such matters.

Cheers!

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks for your input, John.

[Jimmy34742]

Right, Roger, being able to save a custom lighting preset that I currently create with Ben Fuhrman's app would solve the problem of persistent tethering to a computer. Actually, I need two presets. It all simply boils down to this need for constant tethering that presents a surprisingly obtrusive situation. Everything else about playing and settings etc. works fine and as expected. By the way, Ben has told me that he was not even confident that he could add onboard presetting due to his own perceived technical limitations, and that's coming from someone who clearly has skills. You and your team of wizards are the only hope.

Yes, of course I understand that microtuning is niche at best and that my enthusiasm for percussion is singular. Drum kit players don't even like the ZenDrum. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think that the presetting idea might have a more general and practical appeal.

It's a chicken and egg thing with microtuning: a taste for microtuning sounds doesn't creep into the culture because our instruments have made it too difficult for musicians to mess around there, and it's an economic stretch to provide instruments with physically appealing (playability-wise) microtuning configurations for musicians to mess around with because so few people have a taste for it.

[Roger_Linn]

I was not suggesting adding a UI and memory system or for saving lighting presets that are loaded from external applications, but rather merely that the same loaded light pattern that you're currently using would not be forgotten when power is removed. If that isn't sufficient, then a more complex solution is required that I'm afraid will take longer to implement.

[Jimmy34742]

Both capabilities are very desirable. Thanks for considering.

[Roger_Linn]

Then I think it's best to shoot for the simpler option of not forgetting the light pattern that was loaded from an external application. Thanks for your feedback.

[yinwang0]

For colors, it might be helpful to use a keyboard app on iPad for experimentation. I installed a keyboard app named "Musix Pro", where you can have a LinnStrument-like layout and have various color settings.

I tried to make it very colorful to remind me of the notes, but it just made it harder for me to see the notes. It looks like this:

Every note with its own color:

IMG_2601.jpeg

Root note and scale note with two colors:

IMG_2600.jpeg

I guess there is some human psychology going on why this doesn't really work. Now I have LinnStrument, I found that I'd like to turn on only the root note lights with very faint yellowish color.

[Jimmy34742]

You might want to check out Ben Fuhrman's Linnstrument Light Controller, which lets you load the color scheme you create in the app directly onto your LinnStrument:

http://benfuhrman.com/linnstrument-led-controls/

Along with the MaxMSP version, there's a Mac app, but you have to contact him directly to get it.

[yinwang0]

For a fun coding project, I found it might be interesting to improve the LED light display, not for setting colors for different notes, but try to make the lights more steady, maybe adding more colors or adjust current colors. Some current colors are too pure and bright.

It is currently a little hard to take pictures or videos of LinnStrument because the lights are actually flashing (refreshing). The refresh rate is quite low. Sometimes even my eyes can see the flashing. So if I take pictures of LinnStrument, some lights are likely to be off on the picture although my eyes saw them all the time.

I looked into the LED part of the code. Some colors flash more than others because they are "compound colors"--two colors taking turns to display. Those are white, orange, lime and pink. If you use low power mode, the refresh rate will be halved, then there is a very noticeable flashing of compound colors.

The comments say that this is for reducing power usage so that USB power is possible. I just wonder maybe we can do better, to have steadier display and at the same time saving power.

Another nice addition may be a "brightness" slide bar similar to the volume one, so that the brightness of lights can be adjusted in many levels instead of just having two. A long press on the low power mode button might be a good entrance into the slide bar.