Perfect Layout

[Fannon]

Thanks, Roger!

Exactly! I find that approaching the same thing from different perspective or means is often very rewarding! For sure, I'll keep exploring and try to have an open mind

[Equiton]

Welcome, Fannon. Most people use the default 4ths tuning, but those in the thread you referenced prefer the tritone tuning. My feeling it that it's fun to explore both ways and see where each one leads you musically. The reward is in the journey.

I've tried different offsets in relation to microtonal scales, to see what makes sense for each scale. All I wish to say here is that I want to thank Roger and the team for providing this functionality - for what the Linnstrument makes possible. (Including this discussion )

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks for the kinds words, Equiton. And I must say that LinnStrument seems to find some of the smartest and most creative/curious people from around world. I enjoy these discussions on the forum.

[ajlangley]

I prefer the fifths tuning with the pitch inverted, (right to left notes get higher in pitch) so I can play the linnstrument with my left hand. The memory muscles from playing violin with my left hand allow me to really express a synth. I am going to experiment with setting the split to a few vertical rows to fourths turning, since chords are a little too spread apart for me in the left hand fifths tuning side. I don’t want to lose the upper register on the left because I like to slide up to notes though. Right now I’m experimenting with the question - How should synth modulation elements be redesigned for expressive control?.

I have an udo super 6 desktop that I am creating some patches for and I am enjoying the polyphonic aftertouch. The pressure (channel pressure or note pressure) doesn’t seem to be automatically mapped to anything useful so I set it to velocity at one point and an lfo. I wish I could set the pressure to the filter cutoff but it seems to be hard coded to cc74 or y axis. It is an experiment.

I really enjoy the swarm iOS viola app and want to create a patch that has the same sort of expression as that. The mpe is pretty fantastic on that, I felt like I was playing a real stringed instrument with the linnstrument as my controller. I’m going to look at the surge xt settings to learn more.

Just thought I would share my experience as a violinist / mediocre guitar player

[FranklyFlawless]

I do not think a perfect layout exists, but I do know that the tritone layout (offset +6) is the most compatible with my understanding of music theory.

[Dirk Diggler]

It's all about personal preference, the perfect layout is the layout you choose.
For me it's the default 4th's across the whole device.
Music theory has nothing to do with the perfect layout, music theory is a constant.

[FranklyFlawless]

Sure, feel free to believe there is no connection between the two.

[John the Savage]

Believe?

Sorry, but Dirk is absolutely right.

Otherwise, we'd need a different language for every instrument.

Just pick the layout that speaks to you, learn your ABCs, and play.

Anything else is a distraction or an excuse.

Cheers!

[FranklyFlawless]

Sure, I appreciate your opinion regarding this matter.

[Rune_7s]

The layout very much affects the way information on the instrument is visualized; like the obvious advantage of the tritone layout having octave intervals directly above each other instead of being offset. Music theory itself isn't affected by an instruments idiosyncrasies or layout, of course, since a note is a note. But ones relationship to music theory can certainly change depending on the instrument and layout one plays, though I'd say that the KIND of music you play will have a FAR more significant affect on how you utilize music theory.

These last few months I've just been sticking to the straight-up stock Guitar Row Offset and really enjoying it. I'm not even considering going to another layout at this point. Being able to tie my fretboard knowledge to the linnstrument has been a huge reason why I don't go exclusively to guitar, especially now that I'm getting into playing jazz. I think if I had to learn a different layout besides guitar, I'd call it quits on MIDI until there's decent MIDI guitars or whenever audio-to-MIDI ever gets fast enough for my taste (doubt it ever will).

My opinion on layouts in general is that one should pick something that makes sense to YOU and just stick with it, but you can also make the process less painful by using any existing knowledge if you play a stringed instrument. The important thing isn't the layout but its your ability to make music on it, and as any instrument that just involves time and learning the fundamentals: note names, arpeggios, intervals, and scales. If one is switching layouts semi-frequently then you'll never truly get the muscle memory needed to use these tools to create music, which is why I recommend just sticking with one (after a short bit of exploration, of course).

[John the Savage]

^This... 100%

Cheers!

[Dirk Diggler]

Well thanks for at least allowing my opinion.

[FranklyFlawless]

All contributions are welcome towards the development of the LinnStrument in order to realize our fullest potential.

[Phil B]

I’m pretty new to the Linnstrument, but seem to have settled into Tritone tuning with just the octaves, fourths and fifths lit up (sometimes add one more to fill in the empty space)

What I like about it:
- I find the fourths and fifths most ergonomic to play this way, and octaves visually easy to find
- I use the fourth and fifth as a symmetric/visual home base for any note, whether above or below
- Not unique to TT tuning, but again ergonomic, scales are patterns of two notes above the root (eg a whole step a whole step above the root for major and dominant) and two notes above the fifth (eg half step a whole step above the fifth for minor and dominant). Makes for faster runs for me
- This second/third + sixth/seventh approach to visualizing scales works below the root and fourth as well so it lays out sort of symmetrically
- Tritones for dominant chords are super simple to remember, including sliding down a half step to get the tritone for the IV chord and shifting vertically to move the interval up, etc
- Right now I’m finding less lights less distracting … I definitely was tending to play lit up notes too much!

Anyway, will keep experimenting. I’m coming from a keyboard background so all of this may be obvious to guitar players

[FranklyFlawless]

Thank you for sharing your perspective. If you are interested in resources for the tritone layout, I have created multiple documents in the following thread:

My Tritone Layout (+6 Offset) Resources - Roger Linn Design Forum - KVR Audio