Techknow Thursday: Beat It, Stroke It, or Play It Any Way You Want!

Despite what the title of this week's installment of Techknow Thursday might conjure up in your head, this post is about a truly remarkable development in the world of electronic music.

Remember back when synthesizers were large, bulky and cumbersome objects of musical oppression where the musician was forced to stay in one place, often hidden from most of the audience? Technology has made vast improvements since then, and this is the latest and greatest!

The Eigenharp, by Eigenlabs in the UK, is finally here.


After eight long and exciting years of development, the Eigenharp is an amazing all-in-one instrument that you can strum, stroke, beat, and blow. It's still undergoing developments on the software end, but it can already pull off some amazing feats of musicality (is that even a word? who cares.). It's so great that I've decided to stop yammering and have included several videos below of the various features, but the best video I wasn't able to embed. It's over at Synthopia.com. Enjoy!

This first video is basically a quick overview of physical development of the Eigenharp. Think Science channel's How It's Made.



This next video shows how the arranger feature of the Eigenharp functions. It's pretty nifty.



And now, your wonderful patience has paid off. For your audible enjoyment, a little 007 action by Davek and Mark on the Eigenharp!