I’m far from a professional musician, but I have used and experimented with synths and MIDI on and off over the years. The creativity in the homebrew synth scene never ceases to amaze me, and Le Grand Strum is another remarkable device. This MIDI controller allows you to have a more physical interaction with your electronic instruments; you can strum it like a stringed instrument, or “pluck” individual strings to get a range of different sounds. There’s also a circular pad input for doing repetitive inputs like arpeggios.
The interface reminds me of an accordion — you hold down buttons with one hand to indicate the chord(s) you want to play, then you “strum” the gold-plated pads with the attached stylus to send notes to any attached MIDI devices. The pads start tightly bunched together to make strumming easier and then widen out to allow individual “strings” to be activated. The microcontroller on-board will use these inputs to generate MIDI instructions which can be sent to anything that accepts MIDI input: keyboards, synths, an Atari SI, drum machines, or even a MIDI input box for your computer. Customizing what the strum pad does is easy, with multiple built-in modes for different chord voicings and scales.
Le Grand Strum will allow you to create note patterns and arpeggios that would be difficult to create using a traditional keyboard MIDI controller. The ability to strum quickly while holding down many notes results in some very organic-sounding rhythms, giving a whole new dimension to your music. The entire design is open-source and extensible, with possibilities such as adding a second stylus, more “strings”, or just about anything your mind can come up with! If this device piques your interest, make sure to check out the rest of Sixty Four Pixels’ store as they have a range of other interesting MIDI input devices to play with and hack on!
