Looks like Aodyo, French company and makers of two hardware physical modeling synths, the Anyma Phi and Anyma Omega, as well as the Sylphyo electronic Wind instrument controller, just launched their Kickstarter for their MPE MIDI Controller, “Loom”:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aodyo-anyma-phi/loom-multidimensional-mpe-midi-controller
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Hi,
If you have any question about it, feel free to ask.
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looks good… would be very complimentary to an Osmose 
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There are a lot of short video demos but I’m not really getting a good sense of what the pressure sensitivity is like on the main surface.
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Looking at the video, I would almost guess that it wasn’t based on pressure, but size of pressure point, looking at the way they lay their finger down on it to increase the amplitude.
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Yes I was wondering along those lines too, but am not sure. That sort of is my suspicion though.
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You mean capacative touch with a contact area based velocity detection similar to GeoShred or Musix Pro on iPad?
Yes, would be interesting to know! (On the positive side, capacitive touch would mean that it could react to the slightest touch - or even the finger hovering over the board?)
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yeah, the issue with these videos is you can never really understand the sensitivity and accuracy of touch … and we have seen a huge differences in these areas between mpe controllers - and at the end of the day, touch/feel is the most important part of a controller (not feature set 
)
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I noticed the Kickstarter page references the lists of MPE on Poly Expression instead of KVR Audio Forum:
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I guess you have some point here. It seems to be a mixture of technologies. That’s the most I could get out of them: “The multitouch surface uses a mix of capacitive touch and piezo technologies (no FSR) and outputs at around 200 Hz”
Sounds actually promising, using capacitive touch to have very low threshold initial touch. Will have to be seen how well the piezo part works for actual pressure sensing though. Or we’d have to adjust, learning to change contact area to get different z-levels, as shown in the video.
Also fingers crossed that we will still get some infos up front regarding minimum finger distance.
And I really would prefer a five-six octave version…
Just a short poll, who else would prefer a 5/6 octave version (for lets say +$200/+$300 compared to the 3 octaves version) if they would offer it? I have a feeling that this would be popular - but I could be wrong(?)
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interesting…
I think it all comes down to what resolution / accuracy they can achieve.
5-6 octaves - I think the issue is, yes, there would be demand once the technology is proven… e.g. I think many would like a 61 key Osmose.
but I think 3 octaves is a sweet spot on price/usability for an unproven technology.
(imho, I think the 2 octave will be a little limiting)
what Id love to see, is surfaces which promote modularity… so you could combine multiple. Id not even mind limitations, e.g. a deadzone seam at the join,
rather just get over the multiple power and usb connections… and seeing as one device on the computer (etc)
this modularity makes a lot of manufacturing sense… probably the market for 6 octaves is quite small, so hard to cover the extra SKU and all that entails, but selling as 2 x 3 octaves… means no extra stocking etc, just more sales of the same unit
(I do think roli were on to something with their blocks ecosystem)
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I’ve always found 61 keys to be the ideal size for two handed keyboarding, or 37 for one handed.
But that’s mostly for providing more space between independent melodic lines, which I don’t know that I could confidently play on a continuous surface anyway.
(Three octaves should be enough for any single melody that I want to play.)
That said…
- I plan on scripting a “scale mode” which will extend the range of my three octave unit to five octaves (by commandeering the out-of-scale spaces).
It’s a harsh compromise if bending smoothly across large distances is a priority, but I’m more interested in short polyphonic bends between scale tones, so whatever.
- they can’t change their reward levels mid campaign.
A larger version may be possible later, but it would be a logistical nightmare (and a PR disaster) to introduce one before the campaign rewards are shipped.
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Right, if they want to offer such an option before the rewards are shipped it would be good to offer an upgrade path - then I think everybody would be happy.
Just promising it before the end of the campaign, without even one prototype might be risky though, I see that. Apparently going from 2 to 3 octaves seems still to be ok regarding scan-rate. Not sure whether that would also still be the case with 5-6 octaves - perhaps they’d need faster hardware for that?
I guess the scan rate is pretty important, particularly when capacitive technology is part of the solution and they want reliable velocity detection. The good thing with capacitive touch is that it can detect the finger way above the actual playing surface. But it also means one needs high enough scan rate to actually have enough measurements, particularly when the finger comes down very fast.
Still hope that they at least consider the “lefty” version they talked about, so you can put two side by side without the usb-cable getting in the way. There it’s probably not a question of technology, just of demand. (Or, if still possible, they should move that usb-connector away from the side to the top…).
Edit: On second thought, having two “normal” ones below each other, also physically overlapping by one octave could actually be nicer than having them side by side - the gap will be there anyways.
Playing with two, having one octave overlap would probably be an ok compromise.
P.S.: Got more infos regarding minimum distance: “Yes, you can play adjacent semitones. More than that, I can’t say, because we’re not done with this part yet.”. That would be similar to Linnstrument&Co, sounds ok on that front.
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looks like semitones are spaced at 13.75mm… thats getting pretty small to go below that.
ofc, still resolution is a question, for usability for microtonal.
as is, how much they use quantisation to ‘aid’ accuracy, which is a pretty common practice.
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Played around with Paint a little:
Even a seven octave version wouldn’t look as unwieldy as I initially thought. But starting with a 3 octave version that can be “extended” by one or two later on doesn’t sound too bad either.
Needs a USB-hub (and a synth/PC/phone that supports usb hubs…) though.
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Raw X position has a resolution of 14 bits/octave, but in practice it’ll be less than that due to noise. Regarding quantization, you’ll be able to configure that.
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“Looooom” or “Loooooom” are not very marketable as product names.
SuperLoom? But that’s an existing designer lamp apparently…
Or just Loom-2/3/5/7 as in octaves, Loom-24/36/61/88 as in “keys”/semitones or Loom-2400/3600/6000/8400 (make it 7.5 octaves to have a Loom 9000! ) as in cent? Loom, Looom, Loom 6000 and Loom 9000 would sound good, imho
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cool, even with noise that’s pretty high… esp, considering an octave is only 165mm.
what that something like 10uM (0.01mm) at 200hz?
whats the minimum ‘pressure’? or rather how lightly can you touch to register?
I say pressure, as if its capacitive touch its not really pressure - I guess this comes down to minimum touch rejection / minimum surface area before a touch is reliably registered.
similarly whats the maximum ‘force’ for registering a max Z?
basically, I guess Im going for whats the range on Z?
a reference point…
the Erae Touch mk1, claimed 100uM (0.1mm), at 2kHz. (no numbers on mk2)
and Z is (mk2) 60g to 1600g. (though configurable in this range)
obviously, very different tech, how that translates to actual usable detection, and also de-bounce time will be very different.
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Go pitch it to Aodyo Instruments then.