Linnstrument - anyone used one or got one for sale?

mrkb

Hi,
I think a Linnstrument would be just what I need to get drums, baselines and keys/organs added to my recordings - as a non keyboard player the layout and chromatic layout looks aligned to the way I think. Has anyone got/had one? How did you find the reality of using one for creating music?

anyone got one for sale?

https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument

mrkb

@goldtop - I see you sold one last year. How did you find it for making music? Any musical reason why you sold it?

goldtop

No musical reason at all, I just simplified my setup. I decided that it was quite a lot of £££s tied up in something I liked but didn't use that much. 

I liked it for the layout and the way it broke my normal muscle-memory habits. You can definitely learn the layout if you want to perform, and you can swap to a guitar-like layout (G-B strings 4 semitones apart). Being able to scale two octaves with one hand lets you create a lot of unusual inversions and widely spaced chords that I don;'t think you'd try on a keyboard.

I never did use the sequencer, though, so can't say how useful that might be for programming drums (all of which I now do on an Akai Force).

Note that some users did not like the fact that the pads are solid (hard) and do not move as you hit them. 

mrkb

Thanks! 

Snags

I'd have thought for drums, given you can drum, you'd be better off with some decent pads.

For bass lines, you can play guitar, so a cheap bass and a DI box, or a standard midi keyboard - you'd quickly get the hang of one-finger poking at a keyboard, and it's also chromatic, strangely enough ...

Chords for synth/organ parts, that's just a question of knowing your intervals, and at least you can physically see it in front of you on a keyboard.

brucegill

Have you looked at a Launchpad from Novation? That can give you a more “guitar” like view of notes etc. No MPE though. I’d love to try a Linnstrument one day but they’re pretty pricey. 

hollywoodrox

I’d never heard of these only the linn drum, what a clever idea 

personalnadir

I would say that there are a lot of midi controllers that let you lay out notes as you please. Arturia Keysteps let you specify the scale, so everything is forced into it and the controller on the Polyend & Dreadbox Medusa lets you specify how the notes on the grid are laid out. I imagine those Novation controllers & groove boxes would let you do the same