Flash Synth...

[John the Savage]

Okay, so, who wants to challenge this guy to make this thing MPE capable?

I nominate Roger Linn (wink, wink) ...

Cheers!

https://mitxela.com/projects/flash_synth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvVS8g ... &index=102

[Roger_Linn]

I can’t wait to see the knobs.

[John the Savage]

Haha... Yes, point taken. Lord knows, I have certainly been vocal about the attributes of a hands-on physical interface. The idea here, however, would be to make use of the LinnStrument’s CC faders.

Anyway, I just thought I’d post this to spur ideas with regards to how the LinnStrument might be made into a stand-alone synth, without having to replace what we already have.

Cheers!

[Roger_Linn]

Good point. Assuming you like its sound, you could simply connect it to the MIDI OUT and have an (almost) built-in synth.

[John the Savage]

Exactly!

From what I understand, with this particular device, he plans to have more than one type of synth engine available, such that you could choose whatever model you like {FM, subtractive, etc.} and load that into the peripheral.

Granted, he’s currently making use of 16 fixed CC parameters, but I’m sure a LinnStrument-friendly sound engine could be designed to make compelling use of only 8 faders instead.

Again, just a thought.

Cheers!

[Tj Shredder]

At the introduction he mentioned Aaron Hunt. I know his microtonal keyboard and he was always driving standard midi synths realizing his microtonal magic with sending the tuning information as pitchbend on different Midi channels!
Around 17:30 he mentions that the Flash can be connected directly with Aarons microtonal keyboard!
That means it might do voice per channel out of the box! That is almost MPE enough!
In other words the main difficulty in implementing complete MPE is almost done...

[John the Savage]

Yes, I do remember him saying that in the video, and it certainly sounds promising.

That said, it's not that I think this particular synth is the way forward pre se—I mean, it's pretty lo-fi, and understandably so, given the form factor—but the idea is pointing in the right direction. By comparison, there's so much more space to work with, in-and-around the LinnStrument. Surely someone could put a slightly more comprehensive synth on a chip, house it in a little box that could be attached ergonomically to the LinnStrument, and powered from the MIDI connection in a similar fashion. And there are several places to mount such a device: i.e. the strap-pin screw points, the side-cheek screw points, it could be Velcroed over the LinnStrument logo, etc.

At any rate, in my opinion, something like this would be way better than producing a separate, standalone LinnStrument.

Cheers!

[Roger_Linn]

Good point, but there’s a lot more to a practical synth than this simple device presents. It seems to me that the best compact external synth is an iPhone or iPod Touch running one of many high-quality synth apps.

[John the Savage]

I don't disagree with that. In principle, it sounds like the perfect solution. However, as someone who has been wrestling with an iPad onstage since I got my LinnStrument, two years ago, I can tell you that it's a PITA. Apple's protocols are always changing, breaking apps and peripheral connections, and alienating third-party developers in both the software and hardware markets. And using a laptop is no different in that respect. Hell, the newer devices don't even have a headphones port, should you want to slum-it without an audio interface. It's good in theory, but not in practice. Period.

To that end, I would vastly prefer a dedicated little black box; preferably something that feels like it's a part of the LinnStrument itself.

Cheers!

[Roger_Linn]

I think it's an ongoing problem: the limitations + reliable operation of a hardware device vs. the higher capabilities + ever-changing nature of a mature general-purpose platform. There's no single answer and it depends on each person's priorities.

[John the Savage]

Okay, but some of the LinnStrument's closest competitors have garnered much fanfare using dedicated, built-in sound engines, limited though they may be. Hell, several LinnStrument owners have bought the ContinuuMini just for the EaganMatrix.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that I'm out numbered here amidst the desk-jockeys and home-studio hobbyists who can fiddle endlessly with fun, flimsy audio solutions—no offense intended, folks; seriously, I actually envy y'all—but the LinnStrument was designed to be played live, yet the options to use it thusly are limited at best and a constant source of frustration. It's a huge deterrence. Having some sort of proprietary peripheral, on the other hand, designed with the LinnStrument in mind, could only make it more inviting. No? At very least, it might provide a satisfying and reliable foundation to fall back on when all else fails or becomes redundant.

Anyway, I know you're not a synth designer, Roger, and that's fair. I'm not asking you to answer this call. But I am pleading with the hardware industry to deliver something in the way of a sound engine for the LinnStrument, be it under your watchful eye or otherwise.

I deal with this daily. I just want an instrument that works.

Cheers!

P.S. Can you tell that I'm dealing with some iPad BS today (wink)?

[Roger_Linn]

I understand, John. With a long-term view of perhaps 20 years, I think general-purpose computing devices (including iPad) are a temporary solution, allow people to stay on the cutting edge of technology by hitchhiking on these devices' economies of scale. Eventually though, once features settle down, reliability goes up, and prices come down, people will prefer dedicated synths to general-purpose computers, mainly because the user interface will be optimized for making music instead of reading, viewing movies, doing email, etc.

[John the Savage]

I doubt I have 20 years left to play...

Cheers!

[mrspiral]

One of these days, I would love to find out what you are trying to use live on stage, John. I have been playing live with iOS devices for nine years, and have had a grand total of one failure in all that time. I’m just curious as to what we are doing differently. Perhaps my applications are less demanding.

I do admit, however, that when I saw the video for the flash synthesizer, I IMMEDIATELY thought of putting it on my LinnStrument.

[mrspiral]

The idea of a tiny engine for synthesis is actually quite appealing in some ways. It doesn’t matter if the resulting sound is not Blu-ray quality, depending on what you do with it. The problem is, I don’t think that this platform is optimized for access to large amounts of RAM, and the one thing I want most from something like this is a way to pay Mellotron.