mrmormon's Recent Posts
Hello, everyone (and Randy, particularly). I recently bought a half-size Continuum Fingerboard (it's shipping right now), and even more recently I discovered the Soundplane. Both seem to be the cutting edge of continuous pressure-sensitive multi-touch for music right now (congrats!). There are a few reasons why I don't regret my somewhat expensive decision, but I still have some questions/suggestions:
When will the next batch be ready? Just kidding, but you should expect that question from a lot of gear-heads in the future. :)
I read this page (http://madronalabs.com/news/40) to say that x and y position have 12-bit precision, just like pressure. Is this true? Because 30 keys lengthwise with 2 ^ 12 x-values in continuous surface mode is sub-cent resolution, just like the Continuum.
I'm not a tuning grid person, so I see the Soundplane A as being limited to a 30-key range, or 2.5 octaves with the default tuning. Do you have eventual plans for a model that's much longer, to rival what the Continuum has to offer? Would the additional data overtax the USB connection? Of course, interfaces and protocol tech marches on. Could the price still be lower than that of a half-size Continuum? Because the growing combination of capability and accessibility might be the key to more widespread interest and experimentation with 3D continuous music controllers.
I'm going to ask the Continuum inventor the same thing, but how improvable do you think sub-semitone-interval finger sensing is? Maybe small spherical finger attachments could create a mathematically optimal solution? I know it sounds silly, and it would remove the element of really feeling the instrument, but sillier things have been done with music interfaces with much less potential, and perhaps finger attachments could enable more noise reduction.
While still maturing, the Soundplane is a serious competitor to the Continuum. Thanks to discovering the Soundplane, I see that music-worthy pressure-sensitive multi-touch technology is already progressing further. I believe that this type of technology, in addition to motion sensing, is what's beginning to give electronic instruments truly expressive potential. So thank you.
/rant
Nope, good answers! I'm good to hear you do have some vision for this instrument category. As far as I understand the Linnstrument, you can't really slide between sensors like you can with the Soundplane or Continuum, so it's a little behind the curve right now. The Eigenharp is the same way, and those are the only notable instruments in this category that I know of.
By the way, I don't know if you or someone will want to respond to this thread, but it'd be nice if the forum had email notifications. My email is 0joshua.olson1@gmail.com if anyone has something to say to me. I don't think I have anything else to say here, though, since I'm satisfied with the Continuum. So goodbye and good luck with all Soundplane-related projects!