Eigenharp Pico - anyone??

[Jay Vaughan]

> Im half tempted by the Pico.  At £400 (440euro) its kind of  
> affordable,
> unlike the full product which is 4,440 euro!!
> http://www.eigenlabs.com/pico/
>

I have to admit to being very, very tempted as well.  But the idea of  
having to have a computer to use it is super meh .. just absolutely  
the wrong direction imho.  For me, personally, anyway .. I want fewer  
computers and more instruments.  This isn't quite working that way for  
me.

The Eigenharp experience *does* look pretty bad-ass, though, and the  
flexibility and control - and design of the flow of the process in  
using it to do something big - is something I've been eager to see  
happen in electronic music for two decades.

>
> Annoyingly it is Mac only until April 2010 – why do companies do  
> that?!!  I
> don’t know for sure but my guess is that for someone who is going to  
> buy a
> £400 instrument, the majority will be PC based..?
>

Could just get a Mac Mini for an extra 300 quid or so .. no, you're  
right: still very meh.

> So, is this just an itch/novelty?  Can you imagine it being a  
> constructive
> and inspiring electronic instrument?  Anyone got one or used one??
>

I can definitely imagine it, but its a bit like how I see the Chapman  
stick: quite a novelty for not much gain for me personally.. I mean,  
no offense to the Chapman fans on the -bar who are quite fulfilled  
with their instruments, I really respect that, but its still just a  
fancy bass guitar in my eyes, and well .. I don't like much bass  
guitars, so a super- one isn't a big hit and I'm just not impressed  
with it.  Perhaps the same thing would happen to me if I got into  
Eigenharp ..  Or maybe not, after all, it would be a pretty fantastic  
thing to hook up to my 19" rack and let loose ..

Get a big fat modular system and a bad-ass theremin instead, would be  
an alternative, or get involved in the Metalab multitouch UI group and  
build a sense-ui table for it all - not the same costs, though, I bet,  
but in my opinion just as sexy.

Would be really neat if *you* got it and blazed the trail so I could  
stop vacillating!  :)

;
--
Jay Vaughan