The velocity and pressure-sensitive instrument costs $999.
Akai MPC60 designer Roger Linn has released a smaller, more affordable version of his unique LinnStrument MIDI controller.
The LinnStrument 128 is a more compact version of 2014’s LinnStrument, which Linn designed to give electronic musicians more expressive control over hardware and software synths.
As with the original LinnStrument, the smaller model features a grid of note pads capable of sensing five different parameters: strike velocity, pressure, left-right motion, front-back motion and release velocity.
Instead of being arranged in a standard piano formation, the notes are laid out like with evenly spaced semitones like a stringed instrument, making it easier to perform pitch bends and slides.
The new model features just 128 note pads instead of the original’s 200, and costs just $999 as opposed to $1499. A recent firmware update to the LinnStrument means that both models can now be used as a polyphonic step sequencer.
Linn’s LM-1 was the first drum machine to use digital samples, and he was called on by Akai to help design the iconic original MPC60 sampler. Since then he’s created devices such as the Tempest drum machine.
Roger Linn’s pair of controllers aren’t the only MIDI controllers on the market to offer expressive control. London-based startup ROLI has a similar take on the concept with a more traditional layout, the Seaboard RISE.
