Eigenharp Alpha - Incredible New Musical Instrument

[braincell]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8294355.stm

Here is another video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcVqJh0q ... L&index=55

[Fluxpod]

Pretty awsome.But the pricetag is offturning.....8500$.....

Liked the james bond tune played on those.

[garyb]

more useless than an XITE-1 and more than twice as expensive.... some might ask "who can afford this?".
pretty cool still....

[netguyjoel]

$8,500 bucks for this? I'll take XITE-1 x 2 ANY DAY!

[siriusbliss]

Yes, this is cool.
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/ ... eigenharp/


I've been tracking this one for a little while now, since it parallels other developments that are happening here (mid-air freespace controller that's not wireless, and not a wii).

It harnesses all the typical interfacing to instruments done up to this point (strum, blow, slide, push, shake, etc.). It's more of an interface that becomes an instrument rather than an instrument that is forced to become a controller.

Cost includes all the years of development - plus you still need the computer

Greg

[braincell]

They have a model that's less that $600 called the Pico. I think I might get it if they get a distributer here:

http://www.eigenlabs.com/pico/

[kensuguro]

yikes 3 dudes with "new" instruments playing old music that nobody would care about. That's definitely not a good sign. Brain, get the thing while you can! I'm curious to see what you'd be able to do with it.

It's actually not bad if it's $600.. a breath controller, bendy keys, and drum pad in one. I want a breath controller to do string lines.. but hey, I guess I can just get a regular breath controller right.

I can't believe they bundle it with sampletekk's stuff though. It's good, but sampled libs aren't the best to take advantage of high res controllers..

[braincell]

You could get a wind controller but it would be more difficult to learn the fingering and it won't have bendy keys. I have a Yamaha WX5. I like it. It has pitch bend in the mouth. It's best for legato oboe. I have used it on solo strings too. I map breath to Cubase quick control of the volume. I am sad that isn't a perfect solution. I don't have control of the tone other than velocity which isn't as realistic and VSL doesn't have pitch bend because they said they couldn't do it without it sounding fake. I tried mapping breath to pitch bend with the new Cubase pitch correction module but that sounds bad.

It's hard to say how the Pico compares to my wind controller without trying it. The Pico looks more sturdy though. Like you said, it can be used as drum pads which is very different from what I have.

[kensuguro]

have you looked at synful orchestra? The sample style isn't fashionable like VSL, but the technology it uses is pretty cool. It's sort of like concatenative synthesis of speech, where an input (typed words) is analysed, and bits and pieces of sounds are chosen from a diverse database, and then patched together to create continuous speech. So the synful guy did simething similar, combined with some sort of spectral resynthesis, and the strings have a strange liveliness to it that I've never heard before.

Only problem is that the "style" of the sound isn't stylish like VSL or EWQLSO. It's more like Garritan's classic sound. Anyway, worth checking out. The strings are more animate than anything else.

btw, have you tried playing physmod violins with the wx5? I wonder how that works out.

[braincell]

I hadn't heard synful orchestra in a long time but I just listened and it sounds great. They really raised their price a lot. They should sell individual instruments. The look ahead feature is great and something VSL should have for articulations. Maybe they have a patent on it. I haven't tried the demo with the wind controller. I don't know of other physical modeling violins do you? Synful would have been better for the wind controller. I guess I wasn't thinking or I thought it sounded kind of fake before. The ability to create "Imaginary Instruments" sounds cool and fun too. It's going to be a while before I get anything new because I have to get my credit card back to zero.

[siriusbliss]

I would like to know more about Eigenharps' software interface (pre-MIDI) that runs on the Mac.

Greg

[braincell]

I'm thinking the software will be functional but not spectacular.

[eric]

I have a WX5 and use it very effectively with the VL70M.
Eric.

[braincell]

I have the VL70M but the VSL sounds way better.

[siriusbliss]

It's already happened - Jordan Rudess demos the Eigenharp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47oiNlkKPtA&feature=sub

<notice the unique bong method>

Greg

[braincell]

Never heard of him but I like his go for broke technique. That clearly was the expensive model.

Windows software support expected January 2010

[siriusbliss]

Never heard of him but I like his go for broke technique. That clearly was the expensive model.

Windows software support expected January 2010

He's the keyboardist in Dream Theater, and is famous for demo'ing EVERYTHING that hits the market.
He's all over youtube. A monster technical player. (I'm not a big fan though).

G