LinnStrument

The LinnStrument was designed by Roger Linn, the legendary electronic instrument designer best known for creating the LM-1 Drum Machine (the first sample-based drum machine) and co-designing the Akai MPC60. Linn developed the LinnStrument as an MPE controller to address the limitations he saw in traditional MIDI keyboards for expressive performance.

MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) is a MIDI specification that assigns each note its own MIDI channel, allowing independent pitch, timbre, and pressure control per note. The LinnStrument implements this through a grid of touch-sensitive pads that detect finger pressure (Z-axis), left-right position (X-axis for pitch), and forward-backward position (Y-axis for timbre) for each individual note.

The LinnStrument is available in two sizes: a 200-pad version and a 225-pad version, both arranged in a grid where notes are laid out by semitones horizontally and by perfect fourths vertically. The note layout is inspired by the same isomorphic grid concept used in instruments like the Yamaha Tenori-On.

The LinnStrument is designed to work with any MPE-compatible synthesizer, including software instruments like Apple Logic's Alchemy, Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Bitwig Studio's Polymer, and hardware instruments like the Sequential Take 5 and the Haken Continuum. In standard non-MPE mode, it can also control conventional MIDI synthesizers, though per-note expression will be limited.