Mike Milton has written a very informative post with some recommendations of how to approach the Eigenharp as a new user.
Here’s an excerpt:
There seems to be a process that most new (or even potential) Eigenharp players go through that they find challenging and or upsetting. This is quite unfortunate and unnecessary. I hope this post helps.
The first thing is: Don’t PANIC
This is a big purchase. You did your homework. You have a list of ways you want to use it in many applications. You’ve been told, yup, that is possible. Now you want to know how and you keep being frustrated. Don’t PANIC
Here are some thoughts and suggestions that might make you much happier and let you have some fun.
Playing live with a computer opens up a whole realm of exciting possibilities thanks to all the applications, plugins and software instruments that are available. However, taking a laptop on stage with a band always felt too fragile and too expensive to me. It’s difficult to securely fasten the laptop, there’s a risk of it falling down, people might spill beer on it and it’s got a screen that’s bound to grasp the attention of people in the audience.
Since I’m a Mac user with Metric Halo interfaces I’ve never had much of a choice since the other options involved taking a huge iMac or Mac Pro along, and I really don’t want to add to the amount of large gear that we’re dragging around.
Nowadays though, since Apple has moved everything over to the Intel platform, it’s possible to get your hands dirty and build a computer yourself from off-the-shelf components while checking beforehand which ones are natively supported by OSX. Since I had built some Linux machines quite a few years ago, I decided to take on this project and build a 2U 19″ rack-mount computer that’s capable of running MacOSX without any kernel patches or custom drivers.
John S. Nolan has been steadily developing his wonderful Eigentab application, reaching version 1.0.10 with Pico, Tau and Alpha support of all splits. It also sports custom scales/chords and configurable orientations.
The highlight of this release though is his usage of EigenD’s remote programmability to automatically configure your Eigenharp based on what you’ve set up in Eigentab.
John S. Nolan posted a great YouTube video, demonstrating how he configured his Pico to be able to play bass, harmony and melody all at once on 16 keys without having to switch between instruments or record loops. It a great testimonial about the Eigenharp’s configurability, enjoy!
As you can hear, it has a lot of per note expression. Each key controls, velocity, pitch, timbre (reresonation of the strings), volume. phase, pick sound mix using roll, yaw, pressure, velocity of the keys, each key sending all this information INDEPENDENTLY!
There is a bit of bowed cello added which comes in only when I use the strip controller, everything else is one KYMA sound.
He’s playing a sound designed by Edmund Eagan for the Continuum that he adapted for the Eigenharp.
As you can hear, it has a lot of per note expression. Each key controls, velocity, pitch, timbre (reresonation of the strings), volume. phase, pick sound mix using roll, yaw, pressure, velocity of the keys, each key sending all this information INDEPENDENTLY!
There is a bit of bowed cello added which comes in only when he uses the strip controller, everything else is one KYMA sound.
Today marks the first EigenD release on Windows with Alpha and Tau support, get it from the Eigenlabs download page.
It is built from the GPL source available on GitHub.
In conjunction with the 1.0.6 version of the Windows Driver, which you need to download separately from the Resources Page, it supports the Alpha and Tau instruments on Windows. At present, Audio support is limited to the Alpha’s Microphone. Headphone support for Alpha and Tau will be added in subsequent releases. You may still use older drivers for the Pico.
The EigenD 1.4 branch also sports a whole series of performance improvements that have been done while EigenD 1.3 is being stabilized. I personally have been using 1.4 for several months now and find it much lighter on CPU. So, Mac Eigenharpers, do give 1.4.1 a try!
This is one of the original instrumental piano pieces that I’ve been composing on the Eigenharp Alpha. I’m still contemplating on adding vocals over it and turning it into a song, but I’m not totally convinced yet.
However, after many months of keeping this under the wraps, I though it was time to record a video with the factory piano sound since I think it’s stunningly beautiful and responds wonderfully well to dynamics.
Hope you enjoy it.
I you like this performance, you can download the lossless audio file from SoundCloud for free.
“New Musical Instruments” event at UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) on May 6, 2011, showcasing the Eigenharp, LinnStrument and SLABS.
The first thing is: Don’t PANIC
