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Comment by 8f2ab37a-ed6c | Hacker News Reader

I recommend people check out the Linnstrument, it combines aftertouch with a touch strip with an additional y axis for each key. Made by Roger Linn of the LinnDrum fame. The only quirk is that it’s not a keyboard, but more of a guitar layout with each row tuned in fourths, which has its pros and cons.

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Roger came to our music hackspace in Shoreditch to show us how he made it. Inside was guess what.... a RPi. Loads of cool ergonomic/haptic ideas that make it very playable.

Not a Raspberry Pi but an Arduino Due, a much less powerful CPU with much less RAM and storage.

I think I misremembered it as a Pi Zero. But that's even more impressive!

Now I remember the conversation went on to "efficiency" and Roger definitely comes from the "optimise for glory" camp. Told a story about how the Linn Drum machine was really less that 8 bits and used some trickery to squeeze out quality at a time when cheap 8 bit DACs were not a thing.

Also the ROLI Seaboard, which is a traditional piano layout but with a squishy continuous silicone surface with raised “keys” which track x, y and z movement

I guess I’d say it feels like a cross between a guitar and a keyboard. I love mine; it’s my favorite electronic instrument.

Agreed, it feels like a good trade-off between those two instruments, something that fits right in between. I haven’t gotten used to doing chords on mine, but for melodies it is amazing, if you need MIDI. The keyboard can’t compare. Slap a Vangelis brass preset on it and you’re golden.

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