Having seen the current Eigenharp Google+ hangout video with John himself, suggesting to give a short demonstration of the Workbench in a few weeks - what hopefully means that a first release isn't too far off anymore, perhaps it's time to start collecting some ideas what we could do with the Workbench - perhaps Geert is still looking for inspriration for a Workbench howto demo to show in the hangout? :P
Addi(c)tive Synthesis
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* The keyboard is split into three keyzones: The first is just playing notes as usual. The playing sound is a sine wave initially (per key assignement: right left: pitch bend, up down: volume for horizontal layouts and 90° turned for vertical ones)
* In the second keyzone initially only the upper left LED is on - the first harmonic. By pressing additional keys you can add or remove partials, each auditable partial is indicated by a glowing LED. The contribution of a partial can be changed by bending a key right and then up or down (the volume of the partial only changed when the key is bent to the right at the same time in order to be able to fix the volume by going back to the horizontal middle position if the desired volume level is reached). Tapping the key again disables the partial again.
* The third keyzone essentially works like the second one but it defines the sound of the first keyzone when the keys are fully pressed down while the second defines the sound when the key is slightly touched
* The tuning up/down+ record keys of the second key group don't have their normal functionality. Instead the first two increase and decrease the attack and the third and the second modify the sustain time
Additionally one could define a fourth keygroup that covers the full keyboard that can be switched to via mod key when the sound should be played over a bigger range.
Horizontal cello
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The normal cello is reconfigured in a way that
* vibrato works horizontally
* up and down control volume
* pressure controls brightness
* the bow can be controlled either with the
- touch strip
- breath
- or by moving the upper drum key up and down
Instant Tea Sub-O-tractor
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Two split keygroups:
* One for playing
* One for acting as knobs to control parameters of a substractive synth. The concept is like for the additive synth: Parameters can only be changed (by moving up and down) when "unlocking" the key by moving it to the right first. E.g.:
- filter parameters
- morphing between oscillator shapes
- relative oscillator tuning
- envelope settings
- amount of distortion, delay and chorus
etc.
Sample-Summer
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two keygroups:
* one for playing
* one small with only four keys:
1) when pressing the first a sound is recorded via the microphone until the key is released. This sound can then be played with the keygroup above. (Up-down controls volume, right left vibrato). When additionally pressing a key at the upper keygroup the sample is "bound" to that key. Each key always plays the sample that is bound to the closest key.
2) when pressing the second keya second sample can be recorded. The primary and the secondary samples are blended by pressing down the keys in the play-keygroup
3) the third key deletes the primary sample(s)
4) the fourth key deletes the secondary sample(s)
Subspecific Expectations
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a (more or less) simple synth setup, most parameters slowly automatically adjust themselves according to average-over-the-last-seconds evaluation of e.g.:
* playing speed (e.g. effect on envelopes)
* key pressure (e.g. effect on filters)
* vibrato intensity (e.g. effect on effects like delay)
* and some random factors that have a slight uncontrollable effect on everything
Ideally it should be possible to drive the thing from pitch correct almost pure voices over strange oscillating drones to pure chaos - when going back to melody parts you have to wait or play gently until the system has calmed down again :)
Practice Lights
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Incoming pieces on midi in are visually represented by lighting up the appropriate keys that have to be pressed. Green is used for orientation markers, green and orange for channels 1 and 2 (can e.g. used to display the two hands with different colors)
Eigenharp Hero
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A game :) In the middle of the keygroup is a green separator. Incoming midi is analyzed and moves down the four(Tau)/five(Alpha) columns via LEDs on the course where the key has to be pressed. It hits the green line when it is audible. If the key is pressed in time then a "score" is increased - at the end of the piece the whole keygroup is lit with orange and green lights - if everything is green you hit every key.
This could be a fun practice scales for 4xn layouts (original layout, Geert's 4x4 split layout, horizontal 4x16/4x24 layout etc. - you just have to imagine that for real playing you also have to switch row ;) )
If you have other interesting ideas it would be nice to hear some! Perhaps some/many/all can be realized at some point
Greetings,
NothanUmber
UK
