Lumatone

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#21

Yeah, I think there are enthusiasts deeply concerns with the subtleties of TET, EDO, etc. but I don’t have the time to become one of them. After years and careers, they can hear and identify tone relationships that I can’t possibly, which only goes to prove that tunings are cultural, not natural, but you need a long time before they feel natural, like speaking your native language.

I’m glad I went for the full-size LinnStrument because I’m quickly finding uses for the extra keys. I see no advantage at all to the LS 128 unless you need to save the money because the weight and size differences don’t make much difference to this already-light and compact controller.

For 19 EDO, I space the rows 5 microtones apart, as I do for the 12-note chromatic scale, i.e., spaced in fourths, like a bass guitar. In fact, I always tune my guitars in all fourths because I’m a bass player. The LS’s spacing choices are only 3, 5, 7, and NO OVERLAP. Then I customize the lighting to light up C in cyan and the remaining notes of C major in green. An extremely close approximation of the Western major scale is contained inside 19 EDO. This scheme provides landmarks all over the keyboard, feels kind of natural, and is the same as your idea about highlighting strategic subsets within EDO 55. I think it’s just luck that 19 EDO works out so neatly with the LS’s rectangle of squares. Other EDOs would take a lot of experimentation on the Lumatone to see what works best. Here’s a pic from the lighting controller app I use because I can’t take a photo right now:

LLC-19
LLC-191419×720 133 KB

You can see that every 5x4 block comprises an octave, with the bottom left note exactly an octave below that block’s top right note. This works out well for visually keeping track of what the hell you’re doing.

“Isomorphic” simply means that chords and intervals have the same geometry across the entire keyboard. This rectangle of squares is isomorphic. My guitar in all fourths is practically isomorphic because chords have the same shape across the fretboard, it’s just that the frets get narrower. I think guitarists are wacky for not doing as I do. :grinning: There are other isometric configurations that have nothing to do with the Lumatone’s hexes. The piano isn’t isomorphic, but the advantage there is that you don’t have to watch your hands 24/7 to track their location. If you look at YouTube videos of LinnStrumentalists, you’ll see their eyes are locked on their hands 100% of the time, and that’s an issue and substantial downside that I expect the Lumatone to have as well.

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#22

I have to admit that my previous posts, if read a certain way, make Linnstrument’s layout looks non-isomorphic compared to Lumatone. And of course that’s not correct - the Linnstrument layout with the C major scale indicated is a legit isomorphic layout. And by extension, other grid-based layouts (Ableton Push, Novation Launchpad, etc.) can also be isomorphic.

While Terpstra failed to bring hardware to market, he seems to have at least put up a website for trying a variety of hex-based layouts. Too bad grid-based layouts are not available so we can compare relative merits of grid vs. hex layouts.

https://keyboard.snelgrove.science/

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#23

Maybe when Lumatone goes live, the devs will be available on their own forum for discussion. Meanwhile, Starr Labs includes 1 hex-job out of its 4 big controllers, indicating that this longtime manufacturer doesn’t consider one isomorphic design to differ much from others. There are probably other more important factors that are totally personal to the player, such as the button size compared to hand size or personal sense of ergonomics.

I used to have a Starr Labs controller, and unless they’ve totally revamped their construction, their keys are just not good enough. Their performance was really limited back then, and I expect they can’t compete with the likes of Linn, Lumatone, Keith McMillen et al.

#24

I met Harvey Starr when I applied for a job at Starrlabs. I was never very good at C or C++ programming but back then I was fresh out of university, C++ was the language I worked with the most there, and thus I was stronger with C++ back then than I am today. He was willing to give me a chance to come onboard and up my coding game on the job, but said he couldn’t afford to pay me for more than part-time work. He shortly called later and said he found an experienced coder to to the work on a contract basis or something.

Anyway, he said the Microzone started out as a custom order from a composer in Hollywood. It was the first time anybody requested a honeycomb-like/hex type of layout. He didn’t say the composer’s name - from what I recall - but that composer sounded like somebody who has a pretty good idea of what he’s doing with microtonal music.

Southern California produced several influential microtonal composers/theorists in the 20th century: Erv Wilson, Harry Partch, Ivor Darreg. Any one of them could have influenced that Microzone customer.

One Erv Wilson layout:
http://www.harmonics.com/lucy/lsd/hexboard.html

Erv Wilson home page:
http://www.anaphoria.com/wilson.html

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#25

Wait a minute: I think we’re wrong and the LS cannot be played in a continuous manner after all.

When you turn off quantize, the LS will let you play a horizontal continuum within a pad. The center of the pad is the note, but if you strike the pad off center with quantize off, you’ll get a continuum in either direction. But when you reach the groove between pads, there’s a discontinuity, whose size depends on how you’ve set bend range. The options for bend range are ±2, 3, 12, and 24. I tried them all, and none of them continues the continuum into the neighboring pad. I would think that setting the bend range at some precise fractional amount would result in a continuum, or something much closer, but there are no other bend range options.

Here’s what the manual says about the quantize option:

  1. QUANTIZE If on, striking a new note anywhere within the note pad will result in the same perfectly quantized semitone.

Then after you strike the note, moving your finger will produce unquantized pitch slides or vibratos. This is the equivalent of having frets when you strike the note but no frets (permitting vibrato or pitch slides) while holding the note after the initial strike. This permits fast play in perfect tune, yet with the ability to perform expressive pitch gestures at any time.

If off, striking different locations within the pad will produce different pitches. For example, striking exactly between 2 note pads will produce a 1/4 tone that is exactly between the center pitches of the 2 note pads.

I fooled myself in my quick test the other day by tapping around, both short distances and longer ones and not paying close enough attention to whether I was sliding or re-actuating a pad. The short distance re-actuations were truly continuous (because they remained within a pad), then my longer leaps to the non-center of another pad were sufficiently out of tune to make me think it was continuous. I probably mixed in some longer slides, but as the manual says, the slides become continuous after you strike the note. The sum total was that I gave myself the illusion of total continuity. As I said, I’m a doofus. If you think I’m still missing something, let me know.

#26

if I understand you correctly… that was the limitation I was referring too…

as I didn’t have a linnstrument… I wasn’t sure if the interpolation could handle the gap when you initially place your finger… if i understood correctly, what it does when you slide is ‘predict’ you’re going to slide across the gap.

anyway… I think this kind of thing (emulating other things on a linnstrument) would be better discussed on the Linnstrument thread as, its not really about the Lumatone.

It be nice to discuss things the merits of the Lumatone here.

back on tropic:
been getting emails apparently they sold out of batch #1 , and I think have moved onto batch #2, seems each batch, increases the price a bit.

good to see people have been buying/supporting it.

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#27

This is worth a listen: her rhythms differ from her other YT tracks:

It’s good to see the firmware updated as recently as a month ago. I wonder how many they’ve actually sold, which you can’t tell because they’ve been on the 4th batch where “they’ve been selling fast” for more than six months.

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#28

I feel a similar way to you. I don’t really see many advantages to the larger keys on the lumatone compared with the linnstrument. Also, going by the videos I’ve seen I’ve noticed that the linnstrument facilitates more creative modes of expression and the result ends up being more musical in a way. I generally find that examples on the lumatone are quite musically square and almost solely focused on incorporating microtonal tunings, although this isn’t necessary a problem in of itself, it just depends what your goals are. But 1,500 for the linnstrument compared with 4,000 for the lumatone just so you have physical keys and the whole hex layout really makes it a hard buy for me. Something also feels a tad scammy about the way they are promoting the lumatone. I wasn’t impressed by the page on their website going on about how much better it is than the linnstrument. I’m not seeing any of that on Roger Linn’s website. That guy seems pretty down to earth.

#29

Me neither but they do have financing available now at least (up to 24 months/ “as low as $167 a month”)

[EDIT: Only available in the USA]

#30

This video might help some people understand the appeal and value of Lumatone (and microtonality) from an intuitive, musical perspective. Lots of jamming, no math :slightly_smiling_face:

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#31

Any Lumatone owners here on Elektronauts? Would be curious to hear “real world” feedback on this unique controller.