Eigenharp
I’m going to go ahead and criticise the Eigenharp alpha, after I just read this post on createdigitalmusic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing step forward for digital instruments, away from the predominantly keyboard-based synthesisers of the 80s and 90s. The key + knob + slider combination has been going stale for a long time. There have been a huge number of experiments to date on different formats for new digital instruments, and there are more ideas out there than there is time to learn properly. It’s definitely the subject of another post to list a few major developments in that field. However, it’s been discussed frequently that there are a number of factors which a digital instrument needs in order to have staying power.
Learnability:
Beginner to Advanced – There has to be a learning curve in the instrument, tending towards virtuosity. By this I mean anyone should be able to pick it up and make a sound out of it, but it should also provide reward for someone playing it. The Eigenharp provides this, something which, arguably, the Monome doesn’t.
Intuition:
Did I just play that? – Both beginners and professionals use intuition every time they play an instrument. Violinists ‘just know’ where their hands are, they don’t need to look, but there’s no restive state for a rotary encoder, it’s in the position you left it last… which was? Eigenharp has a restive state, which makes it easy to be intuitive, but it has a shortcoming, which I’ll come to later.
Repeatability:
Where’s that note? – You have to be able to repeat that sound that you made earlier. Simple, but it’s amazing on how many new digital instruments that’s (near) impossible. Take hacked wiimotes, for example. Try playing a tune, it’s more difficult than on an Ondes Martenot. The Eigenharp solves this by having individual keys for each ‘note’.
Stage presence:
Get ready to rock! – Most digital instruments aren’t pretty. Check out the Buchla Series IIe. Looks like a working station from a 1970s nuclear power station. Is that really what you want to look like on stage? Keytars nearly solved this problem, but you’re… a keyboardist who wants so desperately to be a guitarist. Eigenharp is an instrument in its own right, looking a bit like a bassoon shafted on to an electric upright bass, with a number pad glued on the front, but a bit sexier.
Ensemble playing:
Collaboration for geeks – You have to be able to play with other people, and them know what you’re doing. It’s often the case that a so-called ‘laptop performer’ has no place being on stage, since he has zero interaction with the audience, as in this example. You might be mistaken for thinking the laptop performer on the right was booking his return flights. With the Eigenharp you can see everything the player is doing. The performer action—sound connection is immediately apparent, and makes it a viable and flexible ensemble instrument.
Criticism:
You might be wondering why I’ve just praised the Eigenharp so far, when I stated at the beginning that I was going to criticise it. That’s because it goes so much further than other attempts at performer interaction, and it’s a valiant attempt at creating a new way at expressing your musical intentions that has never existed before. Also, the possibilities of sound control and manipulation are ten-fold what you’d have in a key-knob-slider configuration, without losing the repeatability discussed above.
The major shortcoming is the grid-style keypad. If I close my eyes, how do I know where I am without looking at the lights on the keyboard? I don’t! What acoustic instrument has a regular grid-like arrangement of keys? Shape is everything on a tactile instrument, like the width of a guitar neck is subtly different the further up you get. The piano has a distinct arrangement of black and white keys so you know what note your hand’s on before you play. You should be able to play a real instrument blind-folded, and this is where the Eigenharp is not worth its $4000 price tag.
True, this isn’t a major shortcoming, and I expect to see virtuoso Eigenharp players very soon. I truly respect and admire the desire to create a genuine musical heritage for digital music performance, and this development really expands the possibilities for live music performance. However, this isn’t the holy grail of New Interfaces for Musical Expression, but it is a very large stepping stone on the way.
Eigenlabs page for the Eigenharp Alpha
New Interfaces for Music Expression
