The Eigenharp Alpha allows you to connect a compact lavalier microphone directly to a dedicated mic preamp next to the breath pipe. This has to be ordered through Eigenlabs since it needs some custom wiring. Sadly the one I ordered seems to be in back-order at their supplier and there’s no ETA. I thus figured out another way in the meantime to be able to sing and play the Eigenharp Alpha without having to position myself in front of a fixed microphone stand.
I was able to attach a Heil Handi Mic Pro dynamic microphone with a Heil HH-1 drum mount to the shoulder harness and thus have a relatively small microphone moving around with me while playing the Alpha.
This might be useful for other singers that are playing the Eigenharp Alpha, even though it looks kinda dorky.
Here’s a little video demonstrating this in all its dorkyness 😉
The one on the right is the one made by K&M that Eigenlabs provides as an option. It is very sturdy and, as a result, quite heavy. The upper support is large and has a flat surface that is as wide as the back of the instrument (a good thing). However, if it is at the wrong angle, it is possible to have the metal touch the instrument.
bar|none created a group for Eigenharp users at Vimeo. This allows us to easily exchange videos, ideas, experiments, sketches, … and other stuff in a cosy little corner where nobody will be judged 🙂
For the past three months, Eigenlabs has loaned me an Eigenharp Alpha. I’ve been playing it every day, discovering the instrument and working on my technique. This has allowed me to write this review from the point of view of a musician that has already spent quite some effort on it. During this time I worked closely with Eigenlabs and related all my gripes and pain points so that they could be improved upon, and they have!
The instrument that I had at my disposal was the final prototype before the actual production models that are being sold now. Many things were different and now that I’ve actually bought my own personal Alpha and sent the review model back, I clearly see how much better the final version is, even though I already found the prototype amazing.
The Eigenharp as a whole
Every Eigenharp has to be seen as two parts that intimately work together: the physical instrument that you play and the software that runs on a computer to generate the sound.
While Eigenlabs could have combined both inside one shell and embedded a chip, they purposely didn’t. The power of the software is closely tied to the power of the hardware that it runs on and computers evolve rapidly, doubling their performance every couple of years. Since the Eigenharp is an instrument that is very deep and versatile, you can easily be playing it for the rest of your life, like a guitar or a piano. Being limited by the power of an embedded sound module during all this time would obviously be a shame.
That being said, Eigenlabs recognized the limitations of existing protocols like MIDI and developed the standalone EigenD software to exchange data in very high resolution with the Eigenharp itself. EigenD is required to use the Eigenharp and has to be seen as an inherent part of the instrument that happens to be virtual and outside its physical body. Inside EigenD, everything benefits from the full expressiveness of the Eigenharp in all its detail, with some caveats as I’ll explain later. EigenD also configures the Eigenharp’s keys and controllers by sending a model of their behavior and interactions to the instrument itself. Just turning the Eigenharp on without running EigenD results in a lifeless instrument that simply does nothing.
I thought I’d let everyone know that I’m working on a detailed review of the Alpha with picture highlights and possibly some video fragments. It’s looking like the text alone will be around 20 pages long, without any of the media. I should be done with it in a week or so, I’m currently about 80% through.
In the meantime, are there any topics that you would like me to cover? Is there something you’ve been wondering about and that you would like a real user to answer? Do you have any particular questions that you would like my point of view on?
Faithful to my Eigenharp Pico unboxing video, I also recorded one right after I received my Eigenharp Alpha. I hope you like it!
Until now I haven’t been able to find an unboxing video that showed what I personally always wanted to see about the Alpha and its accessories. I hope this video satisfies the drool-lust of people like me now 😉
I received the Eigenharp Alpha I ordered a couple of weeks ago. As far as I know, it’s currently one of a kind: ebony finish, golden trim and ebony keys. Here’s a quick picture, but there are many more to come, including an unboxing video … stay tuned!
Eigenlabs has announced that EigenD 1.2.0-unstable for Windows has been released for download.
Here’s a quote from the announcement:
This is our first release, and we expect some problems with it, so don’t use it
for performance just yet! We’ll be continuing work on the port, and should be
delivering incremental improvements as we make them.
At the moment, It’s solely for the Pico, and we’ve only tested it on Windows 7
(32 and 64 bits) There are a few known problems, which we’ve detailed in the
accompanying release notes.
These are the bugs and known issues from the release notes:
Click within the Sampler instruments
The EigenBrowser has issues with redrawing and resizing
EigenBrowser and EigenCommander fonts incorrect
Icons are not currently supported in the EigenBrowser
A little birdy told me that Eigenlabs is putting all their development efforts into the EigenD windows version at the moment. There’s a good chance that a beta version will be released very soon now!
Those who are waiting for it, keep your fingers crossed!
