in Electronic Music
Flashy instrument fans rejoice!!! The Pink Pico is here and it looks awesome! If you’ve been wanting to buy a Pico but felt that the metal and black finishes felt a bit too conventional, you’re in for a treat … just take a look at it!
Kayla Kavanagh is already standing in line to get hers so that it fits in line with her other pink instruments 🙂
Posted in Controllers.
– September 24, 2010
CreateDigitalMusic posted an article that I co-wrote about how the early Eigenharp Alpha adopters are playing and using this new instrument:
Novel instruments come and go; futuristic ideas appear in demos, wow crowds, and then vanish just as quickly. In order to really become part of musical practice, they require practice. And with something as unusual as the Eigenharp – a digital music controller that looks like the love child of a bassoon and a fretboard and connects to a computer – they even necessitate new techniques and strategies.
Enter musician Geert Bevin. As the creator of the fan site Eigenzone, he’s been a tireless champion of the instrument. He’s been compiling videos revealing player techniques and ideas for putting together a practical performance setup. And even Geert concedes that making music takes time.
“Six to nine months seems to be the time required to become confident enough to play the Eigenharp Alpha in front of an audience,” says Geert with a smile.
Here, Geert explains in great detail how he played the instrument in a recent video – one that should make Galactica fans happy. (You may have seen the video making the rounds, but we have some additional technical specifics.) And he shows us some of what other players are doing. They’d better be practicing, because the instrument shown, the flagship Alpha variation of the Eigenharp, costs £3995 and up. (Fortunately, if that’s out of your price range in this tough economy, there’s a cute, more portable version with many of the same features at £449. The Pico actually winds up being a pretty good deal for this kind of unusual product.)
Inventing the technology is only half the equation: it’ll take players, and time, for that creation to come into its own. Guitars and drums and flutes have had millennia. Here’s what a few months have done for the Eigenharp.
Posted in Controllers, Demonstration, Live, Song.
– September 24, 2010
Dave shows off the different Eigenharp models: Pico, Tau and Alpha.
He plays different musical pieces throughout this video. They range from triggering and manipulating electronic loops, to playing a Beatles song on an acoustic bass and guitar, to shredding with aggressive synth lead sounds with live filtering.
After the performances, he explains what the unique Eigenharp elements were for each performance.
Posted in Controllers, Demonstration, Live, Tutorial.
– September 14, 2010
Paul Harriman told me last week that he’ll be traveling to the US to participate in the Electro-music 2010 Festival from September 10-12. He’ll be performing some of his musical pieces on his Eigenharp Alpha and will be lingering around for the whole duration of the festival to jam with anyone who’s interested.
If you’re living nearby New York, US and have been dying to check out an Eigenharp Alpha in the flesh, this could be the perfect occasion.
Here’s the complete press release as sent out by E-M 2010:
Continued…
Posted in Controllers, Live.
– September 7, 2010
I’ve been studying the Eigenharp Alpha for a few months and have been looking for a nice song to cover until my own compositions are finished. I accidentally stumbled into the melody of the Battlestar Galactica Cylon theme while jamming and thought it could be a perfect fit.
The theme is heard in the series by the final five Cylons and it’s a melody that Bear McCreary composed on top of the chords of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’. I continued improvising off of the piano song that the series’ character Kara Thrace is trying to remember and made my own version of it.
This arrangement on the Eigenharp Alpha features Tonehammer’s Emotional Piano, the Eigenharp’s natively modeled Cello, Orange Tree Samples Evolution Electric Guitar Strawberry, Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro and FabFilter Twin 2. The drum loops are part of the extensive collection that ships with the Eigenharp.
At the end of the song it seems that I’m taxing my two year old MacBook Pro a bit too much and there’s some crackling since the CPU has trouble keeping up. It was fine while rehearsing, but recording at the same time seems to have pushed it over the edge, sorry about that. I should have expected this as these Kontakt sampler instruments are so detailed that some computers have trouble even playing them by themselves.
I hope you enjoy this performance nonetheless, do tell me what you think of it.
Posted in Controllers, Live, Song.
– September 6, 2010
The first Tau videos are appearing, notably with Albine Iseli who explains how to use the Eigenharp Tau’s arranger, recorder and scheduler.
I have to admit that I was initially skeptical about the looks and form factor of the Tau, but seeing him play it, I now think it actually looks very cool!
Posted in Demonstration, Tutorial.
– September 6, 2010
Eigenlabs managed to catch up with Jean-Michel Jarre to ask him what he thinks of the Eigenharp.
The Eigenharp is completely unique and I am won over. It is not a gadget it is a real instrument and you have to approach it in the same way as if you were starting to play the violin or piano.
Head over to the Production Room Audio blog to read the full interview.
Posted in Controllers.
– August 26, 2010
Dino Soldo, Leonard Cohen’s keyboardist and wind player has been spotted playing an Eigenharp Alpha on tour. Here’s a picture of last month’s concert in Zagreb, Croatia. It’s exciting to see established musicians pick up the Eigenharp as it will make it better known to the masses.
Posted in Controllers.
– August 16, 2010
It’s been quiet on EigenZone for various reasons. The most important one being that as of tomorrow I’m joining Eigenlabs as a software developer. For almost twenty years I’ve been looking for a way to combine my passions for programming and music into my main activity, but I’ve always had to choose to focus on only one of them. This dream has finally come true!
A month ago, Eigenlabs posted a job opening for a senior software developer. I applied, we talked and decided to continue our roads together. I’m extremely excited to be able to work full time on the Eigenharp and help it become the instrument of the 21st century from the inside out. Â I’ll be working four days a week for Eigenlabs and the fifth day I’ll be free to dedicate my time to non-work related occupations, like my own music.
What does me joining Eigenlabs mean for EigenZone?
Not much! I’ll actually have more time to post and will be creating Alpha tutorials soon. EigenZone will remain my personal outlet about the Eigenharp from a musician’s perspective. Of course, there’s a lot of inside information that I will not be able to post about, but I’ll try to remain as impartial as possible and shift my perspective when posting here.
Eigenlabs, here I come!
Posted in Controllers.
– August 15, 2010
The Eigenharp is starting to appear in retail stores all over the world. Just a few weeks ago, the Australian distributor Crossroad Guitars opened up the Eigenharp world to the Aussies. This seemed like a good occasion for an interview with the people that are at the complete opposite of the globe and see how the Eigenharp is experienced by them.
My name is Remco Mayer from Crossroad Guitars. We are a small distribution company in Australia, carrying mainly guitar products.
This year I went to the MusicMesse in Frankfurt, Germany to find new products. After two days of walking around the trade show, trying to find something interesting and innovative for the guitars, I was bored since I couldn’t really find anything exciting. I walked up on the Eigenlabs stand on the last day of the show and was blown away by what I saw. The Alpha looked like the Star Ship Enterprise, I couldn’t find Mr. Spock, but the Eigenharp had already caught my attention.
Posted in Controllers.
– July 15, 2010
