have you seen this
It seems like a beautiful instrument. I’d be interested to know if it sends CV out. It would be a brilliant controller in addition to its other uses.
Keen
I want it.
2 Likes
As the owner of a Etherwave Theremin who used to love it and play in little theremin workshops (though never got that musical with it due to it being very hard to play), and someone who’s been saving up for a Haken Continuum this is totally amazing.
With all the MPE stuff going round and this I feel we’re finally at some point (again?) where classical and electronic instruments might mix and share the prestige and virtuosity, with composers coming to write stuff for them where it’s not just texture but melody and form. And musicians get good at playing, rather than just sequencing again.
But as someone who knows the classical music world I don’t quite think we can get there until we build speakers and batteries into all of them. Not MPC Live 2 speakers but something like those La Voix du Luthier wooden soundboards (https://www.la-voix-du-luthier.com/). That way someone can just hop on a stage and play. It seems silly to us but it’ll have a giant impact when this happens properly.
Kinda strange that we didn’t arrive at an Ondes Martenot / Theremin hybrid or even a horizontal theremin with frets earlier. Like decades eariler. Are their prior experiments in this? The bits where it goes polyphonic are just stunning.
I absolutely love this. Will still probably get a Continuum probably due to liking the idea of physical feedback.
But… because this is touchless, I feel a huge part of this could be in education. You could put them in plastic boxes very close to the surface and pop them in museums, schools and all sorts safely. They could replace pianos as the thing that sits in railway stations for people to jump on and play. If built well they could last for ages without servicing.
Either way this could be the start of some golden age of expressive electronic music. Or we’re back in 1938 (yeah, I know this video was recorded in 1976, that’s just because no one recorded Clara Rockmore earlier for some reason). I’m surprised SOMA didn’t just recreate this in tribute for this video.
Her tone still probably sounds better than anything I’ve ever heard out of an electronic instrument. If we get more like her with this, the world of music is about to get to a whole new level of electro-emotional.
8 Likes
If I would be SOMA Labs, I would reach out to Carolina Eick. Her performance for The Ecstasy of Gold is one of the most captivating I have seen, and I keep coming to it over the years.
5 Likes
This is one of my favorite videos on the internet.
2 Likes
What a beautiful expressive instrument! I learned to play music on the cello and have had a hard time transitioning to keyboard interfaces, so something like the flux seems really compelling to me. I’ve considered getting theremin but find the sound palette to be a bit limiting (far more than a cello for instance, not to mention a synthesizer). The timbral on the Flux being controlled by the left hand seems really natural.
I’m not crazy about the magnets that you need to grip between your fingers; it looks like it could be tiring to grip them for long periods of time. Maybe they’ll have a few different options for playing it (a wearable ring perhaps?). I also could easily see myself misplacing the little magnets which could be a pain if it was before a performance. Not as easy to replace as a guitar pick, that’s for sure.
1 Like
Astounding. Love Morricone.
1 Like
I see only one real advantage of FLUX over a Haken Continuum: being able to play on the core of the synth (as on Soma’s TERRA) by modulating 16 parameters in real time would be really cool. No knob turning or screen reading means you can do things in musical time naturally, and you don’t break your flow by shifting into the cognitive mode where you read stuff and set knob positions.
On the Continuum, you have X, Y, and Z to vary synth parameters on the stock patches, though sometimes no Y. The Continuum benefits greatly from adding pedals to control the macros, which mostly have straightforward, vanilla pedal presets. They work well, but I like the Continuum so much that I rarely hit the pedals I have hooked up. If you want to get creative with the pedals, though, you have to go into the Eagan Matrix to tweak the patch, which is cumbersome and computer-based. I expect Soma will provide the FLUX with a quality set of left hand modulatables, though I’m guessing at the cost of creating your own in a closed-box synth (like the TERRA).
That may not be enough to inspire me to even try out the FLUX, given the Continuum. I expect FLUX to come in at $1200-1500, which is a lot less than a Continuum, but I still don’t see that it would offer enough beyond a Continuum for me to try it. I mean, FLUX is basically monophonic and won’t be able to play nearly as nimble melodic lines as a Continuum, which also allows you to throw in polyphony at will. FLUX’s Theremin-esque technique is neat and uniquely impactful in performance. I expect Soma will make it much easier to play than original-type Theremins (I used to have an Ether Wave), but it will still demand even more of your eyes’ attention, focused concentration, and hunching over (fatiguing posture) than Continuum. With Continuum, you can fidget your body a bit and safely take micro-breaks by leaving your hand position stationary on the instrument. FLUX, on the other hand, stays demanding 100% of the time as you maintain floating hand positions.
The bottom line is that, when it comes to expressive monophonic lines, I still see the FLUX as not necessarily more desirable than a Continuum, neither soundwise nor playing-wise. 50/50 I buy it anyways to A/B and to find out if I get pleasantly surprised. I’ve never regretted a purchase from Soma regardless of how long I’ve held on to the gear.
1 Like
Doesn’t he say that it has duophonic and polyphonic modes?
I’m sure by nature of its design the Flux can’t do a lot of what the Haken controllers do, but will probably help one develop a new styles of playing that takes advantage of the unique features. It does seem to encourage modulation of longer sustained notes versus melodic lines, but I imagine creative players will figure out ways around that.
1 Like
Yes, I think it’s real use hinges on this, at least to make it stand out from a Theremin or a Continuum played monophonically. He mentions 16 parameters that you can control with your left hand, which sounds really cool. TERRA has 4 parameter touch sensors per patch, and they’re key to the fun of playing it.
Yeah, he mentioned duophonic, but given the overall limitations, it’s looking like essentially a monophonic instrument to me. I don’t see how you could have a real polyphonic mode because parts of the hand would cross into the play zone in uncontrollable ways, if you see what I mean.
My other concern is that, when it comes to playing leaps, it’s going to be clumsy to lift the hand up out of the play zone then fly over to the other note. A lot of motion to accomplish something musically basic. That leaves the music always sounding Theremin-y, with slides between every note played, and I fatigue on the Theremin’s character rather quickly, which would make the FLUX too niche for me. If it competes in price with the Ether Wave, then maybe a lot of people interested in that will want to try a FLUX.
2 Likes
Thinking about this sort of thing I think this would hugely benefit from piano like pedals. Maybe even different pedals linked to different magnets so you could slide one and hop another.
Got an email about the Flux; A breakout box is being developed alongside the Flux for those who need additional connectivity from the instrument.
1 Like
This plus the CV / MIDI interface, will make an awesome performance instrument.
Yes there are some challenges to learning how to play, but the interface also reduces the barriers too.
Seems a very good price, especially put side by side with alternatives, like the Rise 2, Continuum, Osmose, other poly-aftertouch keybeds, etc.
There is a definite resemblance to the Ondes Martenot, and the modern versions of that, such as the Therevox ET-5 with the right hand / left hand functions.
Will there be a left hand version, someday ?
2 Likes