I’ve been wanting to try one of these ever since they launched, so when one surfaced on eBay the other day I snapped it up. Only just plugged it in but I love it already. The branded braided USB cable is sheer class. 
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It really is a fantastic little device. The amount of control you can get with it is wonderful, and the layout is deeply intuitive. I’ll be really interested in what you do with it.
-Frank
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I could not agree more…a wonderful contrivance. I have rather reluctantly played it less in the past couple of months because of concerns about its future production and delivery. Piers Titus, if you are reading this and can share ideas or a plan, I’d love to hear. It is clearly the right device for many of us: isomorphic, expressive, amazingly compact, fairly priced…what more do we need, save maybe repairable/replaceable/supported for the long haul…?
And, am always curious to hear what folks do with it, so BJG145, what have you?
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…hah, you’ll have to give me a bit of time to learn it first. But yes, the layout is v interesting, my first exposure to Wicki-Hayden. 
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Fair enough! I’ll wait to hear. Thanks, and welcome to Wicki-Hayden. I don’t think there’s a more accessible pattern than this, so you’ll take to it right away.
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I’ll admit I share your concern about it long term, but haven’t let that stop me playing it. I’ve been playing it in public recently and have gotten more than a few asks from people about where they can get one, so there’s at least interest if not demand.
I really need to get around to doing a demo video of my variant of the software to get some feedback on it. I have to admit it doesn’t make it more approachable for initially picking it up, but (in my opinion) gives you more expressiveness after a few hours of playing it.
-Frank
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Thanks, Frank! You (and BJG145) have given me what I needed–a simple reminder–to get me back on the Striso. It is a phenomenal instrument, IMHO. And, can you refresh my memory about your variant of the software?
David
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Sure,
I’ve tweaked it just a little since the last time I posted on it. But the central innovation is actually inspired by @pierstitus 's original paper on it. When you tap one of the buttons it will act like a plucked string with a high attack and longer release, as opposed to when you press it it acts more like a bowed string. I’ve also done a fair bit of playing with the timbre and made it more dynamic based on how quickly your pressing down, how hard your pressing down and, like with Pier’s original design the Y-axis has the most influence.
If you’re interested, I’d love feedback, the latest release is here. Honestly the main reason I haven’t done a video yet is I’ve been exploring techniques that maximize what you can do with it, and I keep finding new things. It’s a terrible kind of procrastination.
Lately what I’ve been playing with is holding it at a slight (say 15 degree) angle so I can relatively easily play lower notes with my left hand and higher with my right, and just playing the base note of a chord for accompaniment. I’ve also experimented (with reasonable success) with playing it like a finger picked guitar using the plucking technique.
-Frank
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Well, if you want my wishlist:
- Striso Box
- Hand-agnostic
- Glow-in-the-dark buttons from the Kickstarter campaign
FranklyFlawless,
Shows you what I know! I’d like the first and third, and don’t care so much about hand agnosticism, but can imagine for those who actually use their left hands it might help a lot…Now that I think about it, I guess the Box version needs a left hand, too? I am always amazed by what Didier does with a pair of boards…
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Well, I am left-handed and constantly deal with a right-handed world, so it would be nice if there were tools and instruments that were more accommodating to my workflow.
I am not asking for a left-handed version of the Striso though.
I will have my PC friend help me…As an iPad musician, I can barely load the codes/whatever for the Striso, and then can’t do anything but use it on the iPad…nothing changes in IOS, near as I can tell. But when I get help or figure it out, I’ll gladly give it a try. And I agree with the notion of playing on the angle; my left hand can get a note or two in down low using that strategy; I think I don’t need a whole second Striso for my simple folkie/Americana/world music asperations.
BTW, when you use your mods, do they come through to any MIDI voices you plug into, or is this all in relation to the piano-sort voice that comes from the Striso itself? Sorry to be so ignorant about the tech stuff…
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This is purely for the sound that comes out of the Striso when you plug into the mini-plug, it doesn’t effect MIDI at all. So if you just plug into a power source and plug in a pair of headphones it will work that way. The voice is distinctly different from the default Striso voice. I’ve made the tambor shift a lot deeper.
No worries about not knowing all the tech details, the best way to learn is asking.
And you and I are in the same music area. I’m a life long folky, so it entertains the heck out of me that in my circles I’m known as “the guy with that weird synthesizer.”
-Frank
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The main thing for me would be to be able to change the built-in sound. I find the preset too ‘buzzy’ on the headphones I’ve tried, and I’d prefer it to be more like the pure sound you get by bending downwards.
An editor would be ideal. In the meantime I’ll try looking at fkberthold’s tweaked version. I don’t suppose there’s a pre-compiled copy of this new firmware I could simply drag-and-drop like the regular updates…? 
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Hey FranklyFlawless,
I’m not left-handed so take this with a grain of salt.
In my quest to be able to play with both hands I spent a while experimenting with holding it at a 45 degree angle, so the ‘bottom’ of the board was facing my left hand. I found I was able to chord very effectively with my left hand while still being able to easily reach notes for a melody line with my right, and without either hand tripping over the other. I don’t know if it will help to make your life easier.
I ended up dropping it as a method of play because:
- Mostly because I play mostly British Isles folk music which tends to have weaving melodic lines and I found in that position I kept getting my right hand fingers tangled up so it wasn’t easy to flow to the next note.
- And because I play mostly in my lap, which because of the diamondish position made the board tilt forward and back (in reference to me). I could fix it by bracing a corner in my crotch, but honestly found that a little weird.
I hope this is helpful,
Frank
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Thank you for the advice, but I do not own a Striso, and considering the right-handed design, I cannot justify acquiring one.
While it isn’t entirely trivial, if you get familiar with even a bit of the Faust language you can have a lot of control of the built-in sound, I amused myself for a while using a physically simulated violin… it sounded terrible but did work.
I’m reasonably proud of what I came up with. About a year ago I told a Cellist acquaintance that my plan was to make the Striso comparable to a violin in expressiveness. I showed it to her 2 weeks ago and she felt I’d hit the mark. I still have things I want to work on and improve, high on the list is being able to change some settings via the Striso’s buttons, but I just haven’t had time to figure out how that interface works.
And as @FranklyFlawless has kindly pointed out, you can just download striso_control.uf2 from latest release and it will install the same way Piers’ releases do.
I’ve made a couple of tweaks I’m excited about that I’ll be publishing later this evening as release 2.1. I figured out if you could turn it so the x-axis was up/down, and the Striso was facing away from you, then you could play it like a drone, pressing one or more notes ‘from behind’ while tapping the side and it would be fun for drum circles and the like.
… and yeah, I really need to make videos since these things just don’t work well in verbal description.
-Frank
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@fkberthold thanks for posting up the firmware file. I ought to know how to compile stuff by now but I still find it slightly daunting, and despite spending a fair amount of time messing around with DIY MIDI controllers I’m still clueless about programming synth engines. So I’m really impressed that you’re got your head round this. The ‘pluck’ concept with longer sustain doesn’t really work for me personally, but, is anyone else even looking at it? Kudos. Is there any chance of making things like sustain, and the cutoff point for vertical key bending, accessible to users, in a similar way to the other web-configurable parameters?
I would have thought there’s probably a fair bit of untapped potential in terms of creating different sounds for this device. (?) I’ve only had it a couple of days but it’s growing on me; I like it a lot. I’m particularly impressed with the layout. I’ve only dabbled in isomorphic designs, starting with the Dualo, then looking at the Axis-49 and the Exquis, but this one seems very well laid out and intuitive. I’m aware that it’s loosely based on Wicki-Hayden, but slightly different, Wicki-Hayden being hexagonal for a start (haven’t tried that yet). It’s a really impressive piece of design though.
The whole thing feels nice in the hand, fun to play, and I’m even getting used to the buzzy preset. 
I’ll be dedicating my train commute time to this for a while.
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Ben,
At this stage, after spending nearly a year of my life perfecting it, I honestly have mixed feelings about the ‘pluck’ functionality. There’s a lot to be said for playing it like a finger picked guitar, and you can get some interesting effects by gently pressing a couple of lower notes as a base harmony, then plucking over them… but I’m honestly not sold on how much I need it now that I have it. I’m still playing and learning though.
Regarding the layout, one of the neatest experiences I’ve had with it so far is I managed to crib a music theory lesson from a musicologist acquaintance who was kind enough to lend me her time. She would start describing a harmonic pattern, and after she told me two notes, I’d cheerfully rattle off the rest of them because the Striso makes it obvious. From that then there are all sorts of ideas that are remarkably easy to reason about once you know the basics. Just for that alone the Striso is an instrument worth learning.
-Frank
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