A new Craftsman of Musical instruments
If I was to visit a luthier, I have a preconception of the encounter; I would expect comfortable rooms and spaces with white plaster and the outside whitewashed and a garden of olive trees. Uber-Luthier Roger Linn certainly did not disappoint; both in dwelling*, and in himself; he is both a gentleman and master crofter of new instruments. Be clear, Roger does not build exotic musical toys: his products are aimed at giving professionals and high-level amateurs more ways to express themselves.
* The trees weren’t olives, but they were close enough.
Last April (yes, yes, I know; I am dreadfully tardy in posting this) my wife and I were in the Bay Area and presumed upon this busy man in asking for a visit and demonstration of his new instrument, the LinnStrument. Following are my thoughts, as a serious part-time music student and instrument maker, for what they are worth.
First: this is a wonderful instrument. It's the best on the market, both considering the low US$1500 price tag, and the instrument’s musical flexibility, expressiveness and built-in craftsmanship. The term "craftsmanship" is usually applied to hand-made instruments, but believe me, designing a musical interface takes great care; the devil truly is in the interacting details and seemingly endless, endless refinements required. Five dimensions of expression, three more than a piano allows, are not easy to enable.
For proof, here are some demos of the LinnStrument. In particular, see Stephen Barnard’s "Wee Small Hours"
Second, MPE (Midi Polyphonic Expression) is finally maturing (I gather Roger had a hand in this process). The MPE extension to the now ancient MIDI standard worked well: the polyphonic synth sounds I heard were clean, vivid and lacked noticeable latency. Just as important, the synths seemed to be easy to set up, and run.
Third: this new instrument is about as good as can be created with current technology. Roger spent considerable time explaining the LinnStrument to my wife and myself, and I had the chance to experiment with his instrument, focusing on its ergonomics, finger placement and its differences from the instruments I know. He knew of, and obviously understood well, the jammer keyboard layout I favor. Roger gave succinct reasons why the LinnStrument could not easily use the jammer layout. His "LinStrument" layout spreads out whole tones to enable glissando and pitch-bends. The jammer layout squeezes the semi-tones off t0 the sides, and puts the most used notes under the fingers, enabling greater fingering speed.
Fourth, the LinnStrument is an excellent keyboard for Bass and guitar players.
One favoured layout for the LinnStrument is Fourths String; ascending fourths along the y-axis and ascending semitones on the x-axis. This matches the layout of guitars and many other stringed instruments. Unsurprisingly, guitar-playing the reviewers and early adopters report the LinnStrument is easy for them to pick up.
Fifth, the same may not be true for some pianists for 2 big reasons:
- Adding other dimensions to movement, especially vertical movement, may be quite a challenge
- Over the last half-year I’ve been learning the piano, and I’ve spent three years learning an alternative, the jammer keyboard. I found the traditional musical score spoon-feeds finger placement to pianists to an amazing degree. If a pianist relies on automatic transcription (and many do), switching to a LinnStrument will be tough indeed.
However, other pianists “play by ear”; they read a score, and translate the score to mental musical notes and chords. For them, I expect the LinnStrument will be easy to learn.
Sixth, I am frankly surprised that the instrument has not gotten a lot more buzz: all the reviews I’ve seen are positive, if not laudatory. The instrument is easy to use, is getting more so as the software is tweaked; it gives access unique expressiveness and allows good musician to diversify, to become a good-or-better player of many instruments, and it’s not expensive (only $1500), less than a decent guitar or Yamaha keyboard.
Patience may be needed here, although a good 1,400 units have been sold to date, implying sales of $2.1 million, a quite decent level for a new instrument sold solely by word-of-mouth and magazine reviews. This level of sales also implies that the LinnStrument is a commercial success and will be available for years.
My Last Note
If you are looking to diversify beyond the musical mainstream, and especially to get ahead and distinguish yourself from the musical competition, the LinnStrument is the instrument I recommend. It’s open-ended, flexible and undergoing continual innovation, easy to use, expressive and sounds good.
Also, it will give you new, fresh views of music and you will have fun with it**. ‘Nuff Said
Ken Rushton
** speaking from personal experience with the jammer keyboard.
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Notes:
- Good support has been reported by early adopters
- The LinnStrument does not make sounds on its own
- it hard to see this as a concern when an iPad or one’s cellphone can be a better synth than the best one could buy 10 years ago
- Not available yet, but only a matter of time, is Midi MPE apps for smartphones
- The LinnStrument gives you multiple and much better / intuitive “views” of music theory than a standard keyboard – very handy in composition
- My fingers could adapt from the “jammer layout” to the LinnStrument
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A sample of reviews (I've yet to see a negative review) of the LinnStrument:
- Why Is It So Hard for New Musical Instruments to Catch On? William Weir Feb 7, 2012, The Atlantic. The reviewer calls LinnStrument “one of the best”
- Jordan Rudess on Alternate Instruments; Keyboard Magazine: Stephen Fortner/Jordan Rudess· May 26, 2015 The LinnStrument is Rudess’ favorite
- Read this tribute to the LinnDrums by Todd Rundgren, that Roger received when getting a Technical Grammy Award in 2011: “My first LinnDrum fascinated and frightened me…”
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