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Hi Everyone
My name is Nick Allott and I just recently started testing
out the Eaton Prototype for Thumbtronics (I’ve had it for about ten days). I
primarily a piano and synth player, but I also sing, play guitar a bit and used
to play the clarinet a bunch in high school. I currently play in Cherry the
band (see www.cherrytheband.com.au)
and am also working on some other side projects.
My work in Cherry has pushed me to be quite expressive as a
synth player. Whatever parts are not covered by the rest of the band are down
to me. Subsequently, I’m often jumping between sounds or playing many sounds at
once. I currently use a Korg Oasys (please note that the sounds on the website
are from my old Casio WK3500).
I really liked the idea of the Thummer from the get go. A
more expressive alternative interface to the keyboard is something I think many
synth players would love to have (as long as the benefits gained are worth the
investment). Some interesting ones have been released over the last few years
(including the Continuum Fingerboard, Music Pole and Morrison Trumpet) but none
quite like the Thummer. The combination
of having a digit permanently available for expression in addition to a very
logical button interface is quite tempting (I made a Thummer chord and scale
sheet excel document that you can download from http://www.box.net/public/g6v2ubkvp3
).
The button interface of the Thummer makes more sense visually
than any other interface I have seen. The piano is also a very visual interface
but the Thummer betters it by making every type of interval look and feel the
same in every key. This means that you have in effect only one key to learn
instead of 12, which is a great saver of brainpower and time (which could be
better put towards musical expression). You still need to remember where every
key is, but after that it’s all the same.
I also like how the button layout is symmetrically opposite
for each hand, making every pattern the same in both hands. This is great
because you can then have your stronger hand teach your weaker hand (which is a
very effective way to learn). This way of playing is quite different to both
piano and guitar (which have higher notes on the left and lower notes on the
right). With the Thummer, it’s more a case of lower notes are towards the
centre of the body and higher notes are away from the centre. I am still not
used to this way of thinking, but I can see logically that it will make more
sense over time.
I reversed the pitch bending on the joysticks to reflect
this. The default had the pitch getting lower away from the body, which didn’t
make much sense to me.
The finger patterns
needed for the Thummer feel quite different to those needed for the keyboard.
As it uses only the four fingers, a horizontal and vertical pitch interface (as
opposed to only horizontal for piano) and can involve playing multiple notes
with one finger, it actually feels a lot more like a guitar than a piano (in
terms of layout). There is this strange “finger walking” sensation that you
have to develop when moving up and down scales and arpeggios.
The variety of hand shapes needed are also quite more varied
(and need to be more precise) than those on piano. On the piano, I generally
have most of my fingers slightly to moderately curved. On the Thummer though, I
might have some fingers curved in heaps and others out almost straight ( if I’m
trying to use the full pitch range in one hand). You may also have all your
fingers bunched close together or spread wide apart (in different instances). However, while your fingers need to be more precise and
dexterous, you never have to move your elbow or body to reach certain notes, so
the notes are always in the same relative position under your hand. Only time
will tell wether this proves to be better or worse, but with practice this
system could probably work for anyone.
The bar across the front prevents
you from playing Barre style three octaves chords with one finger. It might be
a good idea to remove that bar for that reason.
Developing thumb independence is actually more tricky than I
thought it would be. I’ve been trying to play chords and scales while keeping
my thumb still (in various positions in its axis) with varying degrees of
success. Teaching my thumb to respond (or not respond) to what my fingers are
doing is going to take a bit of time to develop and frankly, I haven’t yet put
in that time. So I’ll have to get back to you all on how easy or hard it is to
do.
It did start me thinking about what the best level of
joystick resistance might be though. My left hand Thummer joystick is
completely busted (and so has no resistance) while my right joystick has a fair
bit of resistance (it snaps back to centre quite quickly, just like a regular
video game joystick). Both of them had their advantages and disadvantages.
With the broken one, if you wanted to leave the joystick at
a certain point on the axis it was easy. You just put it where you want it and
then leave your thumb hovering slightly above it. With the other joystick
though, you had to fight against the resistance while trying to play note with
the other fingers. So it tended to move from that point a bit and sometimes
slipped off my thumb.
With the resistant joystick though, it was much easier to
stay in tune for pitch bending. If you wanted to return back to centre pitch,
it’s just a matter of taking the pressure off and the joystick moves there
automatically. Also the joystick never moved away from the centre on its own.
The default Y axis on the left joystick was set to volume and I’d often find
that I’d have no volume because the joystick had move all the way to the
bottom.
I also found the joysticks to be a bit slippery after my
hands got a bit sweaty. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the joystick tops to be
concave rather than convex? That way the thumb would always has something to
push against, slip less often and would probably respond better.
I also don’t think the joysticks should be at a ninety
degree angle. Its position should better represent the default angle at which
the Thumb meets the joystick, which would probably make it more comfortable. It
might also be a good idea to raise it a bit higher (but changing the angle
might negate the need for that).
I would have also liked the
joining cable between the left and right Thummers to be a bit longer. That way
you could have each Thummer sitting nice and comfortable on each side of your
body when playing piano style. Does anyone know if that chord will eventually
be a USB?
Now I’m finally ready to get to the most critical issue regarding the Thummer prototype: Button
pressure sensitivity and feel. I’d like to say outright that I do not like how
these buttons respond and without a good button response, all the other
benefits do not matter. In comparison
to my synth action Korg keyboard (which is a bit lighter and more uniform than
the action of an actual piano), the drum pads on my Korg, or even this keyboard
I’m typing on, the Thummer does not cut it.
As the primary point of expression, these buttons should be
high precision machines specially calibrated to suit the pressure range of the
human hand and designed to help prevent injury. I don’t think the Thummer
adequately meets any of these criteria.
My biggest gripes with the buttons are that they do not move
or cushion impact, they require too much effort to get a response and the
effective velocity response range is quite low. A pianissimo on the Thummer is
equivalent in pressure to a mezzo forte on my keyboard for the most responsive
pads. For the least responsive, it is well beyond fortissimo.
The big question is “Would I buy the Thummer and use it as
an alternative interface to the keyboard?”. For me, it all depends about whether
you are referring to the prototype I am currently using, or the expected
finished product.
If you are referring to the prototype I am currently using,
I’d say “definitely not”. This button sensitivity issue makes the Thummer less expressive in comparison to my
keyboard, and therefore holds no real advantage (apart from giving me some
interesting new melodic ideas (which I would then probably play on the
keyboard)).
If you are referring to the final product that will no doubt
be more responsive and consistent, look better and won’t require any software,
then possibly yes. I would as long as
the buttons feel very comfortable to play (this is the big thing for me). I
wouldn’t stop playing the keyboard though; I know it too well as a tool to just
give it up entirely. For someone who hasn’t invested years in playing the
keyboard though, it might be a great complete alternative (provided these bugs
are fixed).
There are also some other initial thoughts that I had that I
emailed to Jim but I haven’t put here. If you like Jim, you can post them in
the forum somewhere.
I’m very interested in finding out what other Beta tester’s
experiences have been with this prototype and whether they are quite similar or
different to my experiences. If some of what I said has or hasn’t been the same
for you, let me know. All the best.
- Nick
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