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http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html (Or Google it)
Here is a link to Roger Linn's web page on his new instrument call the Linnstrument.

I just wanted to start a discussion on.
1.Do you think this is the future of how piano will be played?
2.What do you think about it?
3.Would you get one?

Its pretty amazing that you can now play any type of instrument with musical expression. The notes are also on a grid like a guitar! I wont spoil too much but personally I cant wait till i'm able to afford one!

Add your gender and age if you want.
Male
21 years young.

P.S. New to forum, 1st post!

Interesting. I suppose it will make possible the kinds of note simultaneity (aka chords) that wouldn't be possible on a piano, ditto with melody which would be less constrained by the physical distance needed to be covered on a conventional piano, so wide interval music might start to insinuate itself into our musical culture.

I don't see why it needs to call itself a piano or anything like a piano.

Yes, I would get one, I think. It's a pity that as a controller (I assume!) it won't have a sonic identity of it's own, nothing about it to generate sound other than some kind of synthesis. Non-organic.

I'd already foreseen the possibility of a piano with touch-pressure sensitive keys (no need to depress).

(ancient)

Well dang! I checked it out and added myself to the mailing list to be able to get one when there are ore built. Being primarily a guitar player, kind of switching to piano, the Linnstrument seems a perfect blend of the two instrument interfaces. Would I get one? Yes! I could even hook it up to my V-Grand or Casio PX-5S! What fun and mischief to be had...

Tony

Uh, no. Sound even more synthetic than a digital piano (even a poor one).

It may be fun for some, no doubt particularly younger ones (that haven't spent years and years perfection expression in their chosen instrument) but 'playing an instrument' it's not.

Female
60

After listening to a couple of their demo's, it just does NOT sound convincing to me as a serious instrument... sounds very disconnected and artificial.

Some thoughts:

a) Pitch variation using key pressure is built-in to the acoustic clavichord;

b) "aftertouch" -- key pressure, after the initial strike -- has been used in high-end synth keyboards for years, to control pitch or modulation depth or tone quality (depending on the patch);

c) If you fully implement all the control capabilities -- so that something in the sound changes with _any_ finger movement -- any instrument is going to be an absolute nightmare to play!

Think about controlling a synthetic guitar, where pitch-bend could happen differently on different strings, and their tone quality could (and would!) change independently after the note was plucked:

. . . Who's going to master the monster?

. Charles

It's a midi controller, you can connect it to a computer to use whatever virtual instrument you like.

Stuff like this has been done many times before and they never take off as new instruments of their own, they are good for people who likes to experiment but very very few really commit to develop technique with them.

Check out the Haken continuum , axis c thru, madrone labs plane, the buchla controller and ableton Push.

1.Do you think this is the future of how piano will be played?

No. For this thing to take off players would have adopt it and composers would have to compose for it. Neither will happen because it doesn't do anything players can't already do using instruments and interfaces they already know how to use.

2.What do you think about it?
The ROLI Seaboard is more likely to be adopted in future instruments because it's based on a proven interface. The additional expressive capabilities work as you would expect - and that's the key to developing good user interfaces. Not that I'm not skeptical of the Seaboard, but it's the most viable development we've seen of late.

3.Would you get one?
No.

Having just picked one up, I thought I would offer a few thoughts:

1. The instrument has nothing to do with a piano - it uses a guitar metaphor but is actually tuned like the melody side of a Chapman Stick (straight fourths) if a Chapman Stick had 8 strings on the melody side.

2. There is nothing remotely "artificial" about it. It is a MIDI controller that causes a sound source to vibrate air waves. The idea that a "natural" sound source is inherently better or worse than an "artificial" sound source makes about as much sense for audio as it does for food in my opinion.

3. Compared to a standard keyboard MIDI controller, and yes, even an acoustic piano, you have many more options to control the sound (pitch/vibrato, timbre, slides, velocity etc.

4. That being said, this is not designed to replace or duplicate any existing instrument. Even if it became wildly popular, it will never replace a piano, guitar, violin etc.

5. I am grateful for instrument designers like Roger Linn, Bob Moog, Emmett Chapman, Les Paul and many others for pushing boundaries and developing new technologies. Keep in mind the piano was once the new kid on the block.

6. After playing the Linnstrument for 48 hours, my initial impressions are that it is a serious instrument and a lot of fun. I still play and enjoy my acoustic piano, MIDI keyboards, Chapman Stick, Eigenharp, Zendrum, V-Drums, Wavedrum, Theremin, guitar(s) and trumpet.

Jeremy Cubert
www.soundcloud.com/jeremycubert

I just got a Linnstrument recently also. I agree with what jcub says. In fact, if you watch any of the Youtube videos of people playing it, the people who seem to make music that I would want to listen to are those who already play the Chapman stick well. Other than the concept of two hands each playing different notes at the same time, there really is no similarity to a keyboard. The Linnstrument is a "matrix" instrument like a string instrument fretboard.

As jcub said, it is a midi controller and therefore makes no sound of its own. If you don't like the sounds being produced, use a different midi sound module or software.

I see the Linnstrument not as something that will become a standard as is the piano or guitar, but one of many alternative midi controllers that are interesting to explore on occasion. Compared to some other midi controllers of similar nature, the Linnstrument is relatively inexpensive and much more compatible with various sound modules and software because it generates standard midi messages and has both standard midi 5 pin DIN in and out as well as USB. Some other more specialized instruments such as the Eigenharp cost far more and require specific software on an Apple platform.

Not everybody (in fact, probably most people) will not be interested in alternative midi controllers, so the Linnstrument and its ilk will be a very niche market. I really don't see such instruments taking over anything, but are capable of making music if for no other reason than that is what humans seem to do with various things, whether recognized as formally as "instruments" or not. People are always experimenting with ways to make music. The results can be quite good or not so good, depending on a person's taste. I don't care for much at all of the experimental music that has come out of software that stochastically generates music, for example. Apparently, there are people who do like it.

But the Linnstrument is an instrument one can learn to develop facility on, much like the Chapman Stick. I have seen people make really good music with that instrument and even own a CD or two of such music. The Chapman Stick has been around for years and there are a number of people who have become quite proficient on it. However, relative to the general population, that number of people is quite small and I suspect that most people have never heard of the Chapman Stick and are most likely not particularly interested. So it will be with the Linnstrument, I suspect.

Tony

This is an old video from 1986, but I still really want one! It's a modified acoustic grand. Easy to learn if you already know how to play a traditional 88 key. Check out 4:00 for his description of how to play it. At 7:20 he does the whole impossible chord progression.