Cheap MPE controllers

[audiojunkie]

Is there a way to assign a chord to a single key on the Linnstrument?

If you have Arduino programming interest and/or experience, you can add/change/remove whatever functionality you want to the LinnStrument's firmware, subject to hardware limitations and among other resources.

Bummer.... I figured you'd say something like that....

[FranklyFlawless]

Well if you want Roger's official response, see this recent thread:

• Feature suggestion. - Roger Linn Design Forum - KVR Audio

[synthique]

I have the big Linnstrument for fun, but for cheap ass keys + MPE I have the CME X-Key. I think it was less than $100. It's not MPE, but it does poly aftertouch.

[BONES]

You are talking about Piano M from Roli, right? When I go to look at LUMI Keys Studio Edition, the site points to the Piano M.

Yeah, it's the same thing. I was play8nig with it and Equator last night, first time trying it for MPE, and it's really, really good. The coloured lights are great for helping you with the right playing style to get the most from the five dimensions of touch. e.g. I realised that if I don't want to trigger Aftertouch, I don't hit the keys fast enough, which affects velocity. With a few minutes practice, I improved my technique so I can hit the keys hard enough to get full velocity without crunching them into the deck and triggering aftertouch. The aftertouch light colour also gets progressively more saturated, which helps with being subtle with aftertouch, too. The deeper I go, the better it gets. Honestly, it's like a cut-price Osmose.

[audiojunkie]

You are talking about Piano M from Roli, right? When I go to look at LUMI Keys Studio Edition, the site points to the Piano M.

Yeah, it's the same thing. I was play8nig with it and Equator last night, first time trying it for MPE, and it's really, really good. The coloured lights are great for helping you with the right playing style to get the most from the five dimensions of touch. e.g. I realised that if I don't want to trigger Aftertouch, I don't hit the keys fast enough, which affects velocity. With a few minutes practice, I improved my technique so I can hit the keys hard enough to get full velocity without crunching them into the deck and triggering aftertouch. The aftertouch light colour also gets progressively more saturated, which helps with being subtle with aftertouch, too. The deeper I go, the better it gets. Honestly, it's like a cut-price Osmose.

Nice! The price isn't bad either. How's the build quality? Does it feel flimsy, or does it have a solid feel to it?

[BONES]

It feels as solid as any of my other MIDI controllers. I don't hesitate to stuff it into my sling bag with the Legion Go, even though it's a tight fit, to take it to band practice. There's no flex in it or anything like that. I've read some horror stories about the early Kickstarter units but they seemed to get over that with later batches.

[audiojunkie]

Nice! I understand that you can attach a couple to each other to get a bigger keyboard. Does this require any configuration? Is the device class compliant and plug-n-play? This has got my interest.

[BONES]

Yes, no and probably no. You can attach up to four Piano Ms and they appear as a single device to your system. My studio config is one Piano M, a Lightpad Block M and a Loop Block and the whole thing works as a single device - turn one on/off and they all turn on or off. When they first released Lumi Keys, my interest was in connecting one to my Seaboard Block but, sadly, my Seaboard Block fell to pieces before Roli finally got around to offering Lumi Keys/Piano M in Australia. Now that I have the Lumi, I think it probably would have made the Seaboard redundant anyway.

I've never tried to use it as a class compliant device but I don't think it would work. You need to have Roli Connect installed to configure any of their Blocks and once you do that, there is a Roli Hardware Driver that runs all the time. It is currently using 0.1% of my CPU power and 0.9Mb of RAM, so the overhead is more than acceptable to me. I usually have the Roli Dashboard open while I'm working, too, which takes up a similar amount of CPU and 10Mb of RAM which, again, is nothing. It's necessary for octave changes on the Lightpad, Lumi doesn't need it at all once you're set up. (I have a custom colour scheme.)

[audiojunkie]

Yes, no and probably no. You can attach up to four Piano Ms and they appear as a single device to your system. My studio config is one Piano M, a Lightpad Block M and a Loop Block and the whole thing works as a single device - turn one on/off and they all turn on or off. When they first released Lumi Keys, my interest was in connecting one to my Seaboard Block but, sadly, my Seaboard Block fell to pieces before Roli finally got around to offering Lumi Keys/Piano M in Australia. Now that I have the Lumi, I think it probably would have made the Seaboard redundant anyway.

I've never tried to use it as a class compliant device but I don't think it would work. You need to have Roli Connect installed to configure any of their Blocks and once you do that, there is a Roli Hardware Driver that runs all the time. It is currently using 0.1% of my CPU power and 0.9Mb of RAM, so the overhead is more than acceptable to me. I usually have the Roli Dashboard open while I'm working, too, which takes up a similar amount of CPU and 10Mb of RAM which, again, is nothing. It's necessary for octave changes on the Lightpad, Lumi doesn't need it at all once you're set up. (I have a custom colour scheme.)

Thanks! I appreciate the response.

[BONES]

I made another interesting discovery with the Lumi Keys/Piano M last night - if you use it with Roli Player, Roli Player overrides all your settings to match those of the patch you are using. Most of them flip back but some things, like scale, don't and you have to go into Roli Dashboard to fix it, or change the scale on Roli Player (which is easiest and makes the most sense). I am undecided as to whether this is a good or a bad thing. I suppose I can learn to use it to advantage over time, although I hardly ever use Roli Player.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Embodme Erae 2 seems to be a very nice device... But I wonder how this integrates into a DAW as a pure remote controller...

The webpage currently lacks a bit of information here. Is it possible to setup a MPE-playable area and at the same time add some sliders to the layout, which then are mapped to specific midi channels and CCs? Since there are multiple virtual outs via usb (mpe out + generic midi outs), this could be at least possible from hardware side / implementation. Any idea?

[Tj Shredder]

The Erae I could do that already! I am still waiting for the new one, but I guess it can do all that and more...

[vitocorleone123]

Looking hard at the exquis

[BONES]

Yeah, it looks kind of interesting but I don't know that I'd like its portrait orientation. It would make it difficult to mount on a keyboard stand.

[WasteLand]

Yeah, it looks kind of interesting but I don't know that I'd like its portrait orientation. It would make it difficult to mount on a keyboard stand.

you can use it as landscape... as far as i know... you can switch the orientation of the pressure and slide and bend ..

so both ways can be done