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Continuum surface


technobreath
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Yo,

A long time ago I had a look at the continuum controller - the one that Rudess uses from time to time. It got me really puzzled... Does anyone know how it work, and what material he (Haken) uses for the surface? This is a really cool controller, and it would be cool to have some kind of similar surface on a diy controller. :)

Anyone have any idea on this?

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Is it that ?

continuum.jpg

There is a dedicated website :http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/

And a really expansive and non DIY project.

But as we can see, the "control surface" is in Nylon, Horinzontally there are diffrents notes and vertically there are i think pitch for each notes :

Red nylon with no markings

Solid red color, no surface markings on the playing surface. This surface is suitable for the Continuum player who doesn't require any sort of tactile pitch reference.

http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/html/pricing/Surfaces.html

We can download the latest formware but the core code isn't public.

Edited by damnit
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Yes, that's the controller. Omg the stand for it is sexy. And yes, it's really expensive. But I am pretty sure that it is that expensive exclusivly because there is no volume production, and it is handmade all the way. I don't think it has too much to do with the components or materials. iirc I saw a vid interview with L. Haken, saying that he and his fater in law were building them in the basement :shocked:

But the touch technology would be very cool to find out more about. And what materials is used. I suspect it will be relativly cheap materials, but what makes it so expensive is the time it takes to put the things together.. Well.. This is only me putting the finger in the air, no facts to base these assumptions on...

If I were to build one, I wouldn't be very interested in a lot of it's features, like different tunings and stuff like that. I like compatibility with other musical instruments hehe. But what really makes me like it is the whole concept with the touch - One thing is u can play it stepless in both axis with pitch on one axis and filter settings on the other axis, but also the polyphonic aftertough with this touchboard makes it really interesting.

Ahhhr, I really want one, but unless I win a million bucks in the lottery wich I never play anyway hehe, I won't be buying one of them, ever. :). But building one with similar features :D yes. I'm sure it can be done if Haken build them in his basement. I don't say it will be cheap, but I am 100% sure it will not be anything near Haken's price.

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Specifications

Full Size Half Size

Pitch Range (with conventional pitch scaling) Nearly 8 octaves (9350 cents) Nearly 4 octaves (4610 cents)

Pitch Resolution (without rounding)

Better than 1 Cent

Maximum Polyphony

32 simultaneous notes for internal sounds, 16 via Midi

Scan Interval

0.65 ms typical, 0.35 ms minimum

Interface

Midi, headphone, AES3, i2c for CVC

Audio Output (Analog)

24 bit D/A, up to 5.1v p-p, 100 mW power

Audio Output (Digital)

24 bit AES3, 48 or 96 khz sample rate or sync to AES3 input

Audio Input (Digital)

24 bit AES3, sample rates from 32 to 192 khz

Power 50 watts, 110 or 220 vac 40 watts, 110 or 220 vac

Continuum Size [length/width/height] 137/19/7.5 cm (54/7.5/3 in) 72/19/7.5 cm (28.5/7.5/3 in)

Regular Case Size [length/width/height] 150/28/16.5 cm (59/11/6.5 in) 86/28/16.5 cm (34/11/6.5 in)

Heavy Case Size [length/width/height] 150/28/20 cm (59/11/8 in) 86/26/20 cm (34/10.5/8 in)

Weight 10.2 kg (22.5 lbs) 7.3 kg (16 lbs)

Weight with Regular Case 17 kg (38 lbs) 11.2 kg (25 lbs)

Weight with Heavy Case 23.3 kg (52 lbs) 14.8 kg (33 lbs)

32 Polyphonics voices,if we compare with SID, does it means 32 sid chips ?

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I can safely say using a Continuum to control some of my Kyma sounds over OSC was one of the most fun afternoons of my multitouch sound making life :) Unfortunately I was just using it in a friends studio. Personally I didn't think much of the built in sounds, but I know others who use them happily. As high bandwidth multitouch controllers go, I've not used anything more expressive yet.

Lippold has good detailed explanation of the inner workings here:

http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/html/overview/MecDesign.html

I thought about some experiments with hall effect sensors and so on, but in the end for my DIY efforts to get a similar effect, I'm experimenting with force sensitive resistors. You should also keep an eye of Madrona labs sound plane and what Roger Linn has up his sleeve..... oh and http://openmtproject.sourceforge.net/ are doing some interesting things as well.

These are interesting times in the field of NIME :)

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Heh nils, i never visualized hall fx sensors as part of a musical instrument... The only application I have used those in, is pneumatics. But that is long time ago. I wonder how it works...neoprene surface, but what is under it then I wonder...

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