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Music

The LinnStrument Brings A Symphony Of Sound To Your Fingertips

Roger Linn’s latest prototype is cool to the touch.

Current musical instrument trends have reflected our increasingly playful and portable tendencies. Now, a new prototype shows that the future of music is really in our capable hands.

Roger Linn’s latest venture, the LinnStrument, is poised to be the next big thing. The prototype, which has been in development since 2006, uses a touch screen interface similar to the iPad (though much more sensitive), allowing one person to generate the sounds of complicated musical instruments, with no previous musical experience needed.

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The sleek, multi-touch, pressure-sensitive interface of the LinnStrument combines the layouts of pianos, guitars, violins, drums, and wind instruments, but with none of their cumbersome structural mechanics. The product’s design hinges on the technology of the equally cheekily-named ‘InGRID’ (after his wife and co-designer), which is a fingerboard that allows the player to strike a broad range of musical octaves while barely stretching his or her fingers. A LinnStrument player can manipulate the music’s pitch, timbre, and expression by varying the degree of pressure applied to the screen’s surface.

“I’m interested in the idea of new musical instruments that overcome the limitations of traditional mechanical instruments,” Linn says on his website. The LinnStrument, he reminds us, never needs tuning–ever.

Implementing the technology will be simple, as we’ve now been tapping away on touch screens for the past few years. Linn shows us that we won’t need to sacrifice quality for portability and ease. Even so, what will this invention mean for classically trained musicians who will now have (even more) amateurs riding their coattails?

Linn is a veteran in the field of musical innovation. His drum machines and guitar pedals have shaped the sounds of artists as diverse as Prince, Dr. Dre, and John Mayer. Surely his LinnStrument will pave the way for legendary, though maybe novice, musicians to come.

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