Eigenharp is a brand of
electronic instruments made by Eigenlabs, a company based in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
,
UK. The "instrument" is in essence a highly flexible and portable controller, with the sound being actually generated in the software it drives.
History
An Eigenharp Alpha-model
Eigenharp was invented by web entrepreneur and musician John Lambert. As a member of the ambient trance group Shen, Lambert felt that the electronic instruments were not as emotive or expressive as guitars or human voices. After selling his internet company, Hyperlink, he founded Eigenlabs in 2001 and began 8 years of development that resulted in the Eigenharp. The Alpha model was introduced in 2009, followed by the Pico in 2010 and the Tau in 2012.
Models
The instrument comes in three models: Alpha, Tau, and Pico, in decreasing order of size. Each has a breath-pipe, a key matrix (120, 72, and 18) and a ribbon controller. The Alpha and Tau also have 12 percussion keys each and a headphone output. The Alpha also has
microphone preamplifier with an input on the instrument as well as a second ribbon controller.
Characteristics
Characteristics of all of the instruments are:
* A matrix of
velocity sensitive multi-expressive keys, each of which act like a 6-way analog
joystick
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...
. This allows the simultaneous
pitch bend
In electronic music, a pitch wheel, pitch bend or bender is a control on a synthesizer to vary the pitch in a continuously variable manner (portamento).
The first synthesizer with a pitch wheel was the Minimoog, in 1970.
Alternatively, pitch ben ...
and
modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...
(or other parameters) of each played note individually.
* A stick-like vertical form factor akin to a
sitar for the larger models or a
flute in the smaller ones.
* A built-in
wind controller, giving the larger versions of the instrument an appearance similar to a
bassoon.
* One or two
ribbon controller strips.
* The software is available as open-source under the GPLv3 and runs both on
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
and
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
.
Additionally, the larger models have:
* A series of
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
keys
* A built-in
step sequencer with indicator
LEDs for each key.
* A
headphone amplifier with an output on the instrument
References
{{Reflist
External links
Articles
Do you drum it, strum it or stroke it?- BBC News, 8 October 2009
Eigenharp Article on CrunchGearEigenharp News, Tips and TricksIn-depth Eigenharp Alpha review after three months- EigenZone, 21 June 2010
Example Videos
Battlestar Galactica Cylon theme on Eigenharp AlphaJames Bond theme on Eigenharp AlphaLive performance with Eigenharp Alpha of the band Flytecase
Keyboard instruments
Synthesizers
2009 musical instruments
Electronic wind instruments
