Linnstrument (My Review)
Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 5:40 am
So I took a chance and bought the Linnstrument without actually trying it first. At this price I was expecting it to be a little more perfect which it is not, however I do not regret my purchase. There are a lot of things they could have done better but as it's a small company, it's a great first attempt.
My big complaint is that the velocity is not very dynamic, in fact, you can not even use the full MIDI spectrum of 0-127. The lower range works better if you set it to "High" velocity but then you will get less range in the upper end, also I had to use MIDI compression which is not included in the hardware. The compression helps me avoid most of the sudden unexpected loud notes when playing hard and fast. Not sure why this happens. I can edit the notes in my DAW of course but this is not ideal!
Having all the menu items on the hardware is great, however there needs to be software for this and I would be willing to pay for it. Apparently developers have access to the code, however I am not aware of any dedicated software. It could do way more with good and creative software.
Something that could be fixed and I find quite annoying are the braille dots on the tonic notes and the grooves between the pads. Please a smooth, fretless version for me!
Also bothersome is you can't make the pads any color you want or any pitch you want, let alone custom scales. You can't import scala scales. I would have loved this! It's designed to work in a certain way. Roger Linn never imagined that I might want to use colors for my own purposes (trust me Roger, I have good reasons for this). One might be using this for non-pitched samples in which case the current color scheme would make no sense whatsoever. That's just one example. Roger Linn, says pianists are able to transpose with the colors staying the same. He says "Pianists got that right." No Roger, you got that wrong!
Lastly, you will have to practice a lot if you want to use this to its full potential which I plan to do. It's easier than a keyboard because the notes are closer and you don't have to wait for them to bounce back.
I am posting this for potential buyers, even outside of our forum.
My big complaint is that the velocity is not very dynamic, in fact, you can not even use the full MIDI spectrum of 0-127. The lower range works better if you set it to "High" velocity but then you will get less range in the upper end, also I had to use MIDI compression which is not included in the hardware. The compression helps me avoid most of the sudden unexpected loud notes when playing hard and fast. Not sure why this happens. I can edit the notes in my DAW of course but this is not ideal!
Having all the menu items on the hardware is great, however there needs to be software for this and I would be willing to pay for it. Apparently developers have access to the code, however I am not aware of any dedicated software. It could do way more with good and creative software.
Something that could be fixed and I find quite annoying are the braille dots on the tonic notes and the grooves between the pads. Please a smooth, fretless version for me!
Also bothersome is you can't make the pads any color you want or any pitch you want, let alone custom scales. You can't import scala scales. I would have loved this! It's designed to work in a certain way. Roger Linn never imagined that I might want to use colors for my own purposes (trust me Roger, I have good reasons for this). One might be using this for non-pitched samples in which case the current color scheme would make no sense whatsoever. That's just one example. Roger Linn, says pianists are able to transpose with the colors staying the same. He says "Pianists got that right." No Roger, you got that wrong!
Lastly, you will have to practice a lot if you want to use this to its full potential which I plan to do. It's easier than a keyboard because the notes are closer and you don't have to wait for them to bounce back.
I am posting this for potential buyers, even outside of our forum.