It’s really great! Loving playing with it. I have to say, so far while the features I was most interested in – independent pitch bend, modulation, and aftertouch per note – are indeed really cool, the thing I’m really loving so far is just the layout. Having so many responsive pads in a guitar-like layout is really awesome. I’m planning to write up my experience of learning to play it…will follow up with a link here next weekend.
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Jamrod have you tried to use it as a drum pad controller?
great!!! i can wait to be availabe in Mexico I am really bored with the keyboard format and i am a guitar player 
Yeah it’s pretty great actually. Lays a tons of sounds at reach easily, and the pads are very responsive. You could get very interesting results playing synth drums and mapping the Y axis of the Linnstrument (n addition to the velocity).
I’m actually planning to do a project where I replace my MIDI keyboard w/ Linnstrument for a year. Maybe I’ll try to include drums
Has anyone used their Linnstrument with the Analog Four? It seems it would be a perfect match - a poor man’s Buchla? Would love to see some live performance with these! Thanks!
I asked something similar recently and chad had some excellent info on it:
http://www.elektronauts.com/t/do-the-a4-work-well-with-linnstrument-et-al/12271
Thanks for the link! I read through that thread - it’s good to know it’s working well together but would still love for someone to make a vid of it all. I’m very close to picking one up and think the A4 and it could be a great combo!
oldgearguy has one
i want one
some of it should have gone in the tempest seq
but RL held it back for his own thing, and rightfully so
I want one as well. Seen some tasty videos, got some great and detailed insights into it from an owner, who is also on this board as well and might chime in later, and the whole thing just looks “fun”
Thinking of selling my Linnstrument. It’s great and I’ll probably pick one up again down the line, but I need the money… PM me if you’re interested in a deal on one of these!
Did you connect it to the rig to make some experimental things, as you planned?
never got one.
I have a Linnstrument and a Digitone (used to have A4), it’s a great combo. Elektron gear supports pitch bends of +/-24 semitones like Linnstrument does, as well as aftertouch. If you sacrifice tracks, you can use DN/A4 as ghetto 4-voice MPE synths. It’s quite easy to get really expressive sounds by mapping aftertouch and modulation wheel to operator modulation amounts on the DN for example.
Two of my biggest issues with the combo:
- Digitone has no legato mode, i.e. there’s no way to disable retriggering of envelopes for overlapping notes
- Digitone doesn’t seem to support polyphonic aftertouch
AMA
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Sorry - I made an error)))
Did you connect it to the rig to make some experimental things, as you planned? Please et us know. Thank you
I recorded a bit of linnstrument x digitone, if it’s of interest to anyone.
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It’s working out pretty well for me using BFD3’s stereo 64-velocity layer acoustic kits. Here’s my layout:
Blue = kick; red = snare hit, drag, and rim (plus a few isolated cymbal chokes); cyan = ride and bell; magenta = toms; green = crash and cymbal; orange and yellow = small percussion 3-4 articulations each (bongos, djembe, timbales, high pitched tympani); white and clear = various hi hat articulations. Some of the colors you can’t tell apart in the photo.
I double up on many things diagonally to play rolls because it’s difficult to trill two fingers on one of those small LinnStrument keys. I group 4 for a cymbal crash so that I can palm it. I reserved the bottom row for LinnStrument functions, so the stuff I’ve put there isn’t strictly necessary, though it’s nice to be able to lay a thumb flat against those three blues to play a loud kick without ever missing. And I’ve still got 7 empty columns (49 keys) leftover.
My layout is symmetrical to play with left and right hand at the same time. It’s one-handable, but for more intricate playing, I dedicate one hand to bass/snare and the other to hi hat and ride, then different mixes of the rest–that’s just the approach to fingerdrumming I’ve developed from years on Zendrum controllers. In fact, if I can make this substitute for the Zendrum, that would free up space and funds because the triggers-only Zendrum can only do one single thing even if it’s the best at it. I have to say at this point that I think with a few weeks’ work, I can get this LinnStrument drum controller up to the level of my Zendrumming. I think, though, that standing with the thing strapped on guitar style will be too hard to control compared to the Zendrum because it’s just plain harder to see what you’re doing, and you can’t play strictly by feel as you can with a Zendrum because the LinnStrument has so many little targets. I’m also concerned that its lighter weight will make it move around much more than a Zendrum. These things will makie it impossible to stand and still hold down drumming duties reliably. It’s amazing what you can get used to with practice, though, and I rarely play standing anyway because I don’t like the weight for ergonomic reasons. It’s very possible, then, that my beloved Zendrums will get liquidated in the next few months.
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Just picked up a Linnstrument and I’m already super stoked that my guitar and bass knowledge are translating to shredding on my synths with confidence…
What’s the best hardware synth out there to pair with the linnstrument?
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