The Roger Linn LINNSTRUMENT

New product from Roger Linn, a multiexpressional pad based instrument. Kinda where Push2 should be

Also, a full interview.

not exactly new - hes been pushing this for a few years now. one interesting thing is it has a note-repeat function that kinda can make it feel like yer playing an mpc.

He should make MPC3000 clones but with bigger RAM and smaller with OLED touchscreen.

I've had mine since 2015. I have yet to do the updates for the step sequencer. Overall it is a good controller. I use it mostly for the analog keys and prophet 6.

Now that I've dusted off the maschine studio I will use it in maschine to control pianos and strings in kontakt. The temptation and discipline I need to work on with it is playing standard chords and not getting too crazy with the playing. Push is easy to play standard chords but the linnstrument it's easy to **** bend a lot of your playing.

Ill-Green wrote:He should make MPC3000 clones but with bigger RAM and smaller with OLED touchscreen.

i'm gonna go ahead and bet that he would never do that. talking to him about mpcs, he gets really exasperated and tired of it. he told me that 'you cant be expressive on the same kind of machine a secretary uses to input data'. i was like, roger, yer breaking my heart - people can be and have been expressive with those machines for years, it just looks different than on a traditional instrument.
point being, he really seemed done with, even bitter about, mpcs.
really smart guy.

I am also using the linnstrument in Maschine 2.6 software and it it's nice to have a pad bank where you control a bass guitar in kontakt 5 with the linnstrument. The only thing is you can use the linnstrument only on the active bank. I will test out if i can change the midi channel on the linnstrument and control group B. The beauty of linnstrument is when you're trying to play a guitar like instrument and you have your chords down you will zone out and play for an hour losing track of time.

tapedeck wrote:

Ill-Green wrote:He should make MPC3000 clones but with bigger RAM and smaller with OLED touchscreen.

i'm gonna go ahead and bet that he would never do that. talking to him about mpcs, he gets really exasperated and tired of it. he told me that 'you cant be expressive on the same kind of machine a secretary uses to input data'. i was like, roger, yer breaking my heart - people can be and have been expressive with those machines for years, it just looks different than on a traditional instrument.
point being, he really seemed done with, even bitter about, mpcs.
really smart guy.

Sorry if I came off as negative. Maybe you caught me on the last day of a trade show.
Probably what I was trying to say was that most electronically-generated music is currently performed on MIDI keyboards or drum pads, which are not too much more than on/off switches. And on/off switches were designed for data entry and aren't very good at expressing musical performance. As an example, when was the last time you heard an instrumental solo on a hip hop or electronic pop recording? Previous musical styles always had an instrumental solo but now it's gone. I think the reason is that we're all playing music on on/off switches. That's why I made LinnStrument, an new musical instrument that captures your subtle finger movements in 3 continuous dimensions, bringing the beautiful performance expression of guitar, sax, violin or human voice to music synthesis. Or more importantly, permitting new artists to create entirely new musical genres. In the same way I believed drum machines were the next big thing back in 1980, I believe expressive musical control is the next big thing now. As a bonus, it's incredible for making beats. You can see videos at http://www.rogerlinndesign.com.

v00d00ppl wrote:I am also using the linnstrument in Maschine 2.6 software and it it's nice to have a pad bank where you control a bass guitar in kontakt 5 with the linnstrument. The only thing is you can use the linnstrument only on the active bank. I will test out if i can change the midi channel on the linnstrument and control group B. The beauty of linnstrument is when you're trying to play a guitar like instrument and you have your chords down you will zone out and play for an hour losing track of time.

It's simple to change the MIDI channel: press PER-SPLIT SETTINGS and select your desired MIDI channel. Or turn on the SPLIT button to split the 200-pad playing surface into 2 zones with a different MIDI channel for each.

roger_linn wrote:Sorry if I came off as negative. Maybe you caught me on the last day of a trade show.
....

its all good man - those things wear us all out, but i do sincerely appreciate the opportunity to talk with you and thank you for your time.

i get what you are saying about on / off switches, buttons, data entry, etc, but if i may sneak in a compliment here, what sets the design of the mpc apart is that even with such a focused, non-musical even workflow, if you put in the effort, it really holds up as an instrument that begs to be played. for me at least. combining all elements of the sequencer, note repeat, velocity->parameters, envelopes, etc, i have and do 'solo' with that thing all the time.

the linnstrument is a shining example of, and i think yer right, 'expressive control' is kind of the new thing...i mean namm this year almost felt like the roli show what with their army there. also, since so many instruments are aiming to allow people to hit the notes between the notes, continuous pitch yada yada, it has been sounding a little more cacophonous the last few years.

welcome to the forums.

Thank you for your kind welcome, tapedeck, as well as your kind compliments about the MPC. Regarding my good friends at ROLI, I must say it's a very nice validation of the value of expressive control that in comparison to my one-person privately-held company, my main competitor has 120 employees and $50 million in investment. It seems that quite a few investors are betting on the future value of expressive control. If you haven't seen LinnStrument's beat-making capabilities, check out 4:35 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STz__28Scwc

Thee one and only Roger Linn, and in my thread?! Holy Cow! What an honor to have you here sir

Ill-Green wrote:Thee one and only Roger Linn, and in my thread?! Holy Cow! What an honor to have you here sir

Wow he is really in here. What an honor

Hello Roger...

Loving your Linnstrument 128....still play it every day in my studio....

Btw...latest firmware update is also solid.

I found this vid on YouTube demoing the Linnstrument being played like a very expressive drum machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSeobqtCz4k