IN DEVELOPMENT

Midimech is an alternative musical note layout system for next-gen grid controllers like the LinnStrument and LaunchPad X (and your computer keyboard). It uses an isomorphic layout that I discovered years ago. I was surprised to find out this layout and its variants were not in common usage, despite being incredibly easy to play. I used to map this layout to my mechanical keyboard and just play it like that. Because of this, my friends and I referred to it as "playing the mech", but you could also call the layout Diagonal Wicki-Hayden, Wholetone, or whatever you like. I prefer mech. 😎

Unlike the layout of other instruments, notes that sound good together are closer together, and notes that sound worse are furthest apart.

This project intends to bring the layout to more people and since it appears to have many advantages, I consider it a good proposal for next-gen musical instruments.

Midimech supports:

• Usage as a MIDI controller in your DAW of choice
• Bigger range than the default LinnStrument layout
• Synthesia/DAW visualization for learning songs
• Diagonal split, which fits great even on the LinnStrument 128
• Transposing and Octave shifting
• LaunchPad X support (more devices coming in the future)
• And it's great for playing piano runs ;)

Please read the instructions and important notes before usage. Have fun!

License: MIT

Copyright (c) 2023 Grady O'Connell

This project is not affiliated with Roger Linn Design.

LinnStrument Community Discord: https://discord.gg/h2BcrzmTXe

Launchpad Support powered by: Launchpad-Py

• Notes that sound good together are closer together. Notes that sound worse are furthest apart. Mistakes will be less likely and less obvious!
• Like the LinnStrument's layout, it is also isomorphic (the same chord and scale shapes can be played anywhere)
• Chords and scales are far easier to play than other layouts.
• Extended range compared to standard +5 tuning, making room for using a split.
• Unlike piano, instrument splits can overlap.
• Less finger stretching than other layouts when playing chords, which may help ergonomically.
• Piano runs are quite smooth, as you're simply walking stacked shapes.

So far, this has mostly been tested on the LinnStrument 128 version. If you own the 200-note version, please feel free to test it and let me know how this works for you.

This program is in development, so some things may be buggy. If a device persists in a different state after ending the program (such as if a crash occurs), simply reconnect it. The LinnStrument also has a reset feature you may find useful.

And since this is experimental, as with anything that sends commands to hardware, please use it at your own risk and prepare to do basic troubleshooting if something goes wrong.

That being said, I hope you enjoy it and have fun!

• Download (Win)

Alternatively, you can use the process below to run it from the repository.

• Download the project by typing the following commands in terminal:

git clone https://github.com/flipcoder/midimech

• Switch to the new project folder:

cd midimech

• Install the dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

• Run the program

python midimech.py

• First create a midi loopback device. You can do this easily with LoopMidi on Windows or using "Audio MIDI Setup / MIDI Studio" on Mac. Then set your DAW to use this device instead of the linnstrument. Make sure the virtual device you set up has "midimech" in its device name, since this is how its detected by the program.

• If you're using the LinnStrument 200, set size=200 in your settings.ini. If you don't have one, copy it from settings.ini.example.

• Run midimech. You should see a window pop up with the layout.

• Your Linnstrument or LaunchPad X should show the colors of the layout and be playable in your DAW.

• To enable the split, create another midi loopback device called "split" and click the SPLIT button. One side should turn blue.

Each row consists of a whole tone scale and each row is separating by a fourth. This has a number of advantages you'll see below.

The major/minor scales are shaped with the "3-4" pattern. 3 notes on first row, then 4 notes on next row, then repeat moving over 1 space, making runs fit across the fingers easily. Here's what it looks like:

4567
123

All the modes for this, (such as lydian, dorian, etc.) are accessible by picking a different starting note.

For example, if you start the scale on 6, it becomes a minor scale.

Similarly, the pentatonic scale modes fit the "2-3" pattern:

345
12

Melodic minor has a "2-5" pattern:

34567
 12

Once you become comfortable with this layout, you can introduce the harder scales into your playing:

Here's a fun one. Depending on the virtual instrument used, I prefer to visualize the blues scale as a 2-3 pattern and bending into the "blue note".

The shape in that case is this:

345
12

The '2' in this shape is the tonic of the blues scale and the blue note is accessed by bending between 4 and 5. When playing the scale, start on the note position labeled '2' above. Note that the numbers here are just the numbers inside the shape in order, so they do not correspond with actual intervals.

To hold the blue note, simply wiggle your finger between 4 and 5 in the shape above or bend up from 4. That usually sounds cool.

If you're playing an instrument without bend, the blues scale looks like this:

4 6
 235
  1

Or:

 6
235
 1  4

This is the same 3-4 pattern, but the 6th note is flat:

6
 45 7
 123

Or:

 45 7
 123  6

This one is a little tricky at first:

 6
345 7
 12

Or:

7
 6
 345
  12

You might prefer to think about this as a mode of Ionian Augmented intead, which is the 3-4 shape but with a sharp 5:

5
 4 67
 123

Or:

 4 67
 123 5

A benefit of this layout is the ability to identify and switch key signatures easily based on position. As you shift to the left, you add flats. To the right, you add sharps. You walk these in a zig-zag motion between both whole tone scales. Follow the shape of these numbers to see the pattern (from 1 to 7).

 2468
1357

If note 1 is C (no sharps or flats in key signature), moving to 3 adds 2 sharps to the key signature. Simiarly if you're moving from 3 to 1, it adds two flats (or subtracts sharps).

Since the layout resembles the circle of 5ths, the further right you go from your tonic, the brighter than sound. The further left, the darker the sound. This is because the layout resembles a staggered circle of 5ths which corresponds with musical brightness.

If you take the 3-4 pattern described above and shift your tonic inside of it, the further the tonic is to the left, the brighter the mode, from lydian all the way to locrian (left to right). This happens with other scale shapes as well.

Using this program, you can visualize the midi playing in your DAW on both the screen and LinnStrument. You do this by creating another device in LoopMidi called "visualizer" then use a Midi Out plugin on the track you want to visualize and set the plugin to use the visualizer midi device.

To use the visualizer with Synthesia, create a new MIDI loopback device called "visualizer". In Synthesia settings, set it as an output device for note lights.

• Scale integration
• Touchscreen support
• Find a way to adjust vibrato sensitivity without affecting slides. Roger Linn has indicated that this is probably impossible, but I have a few ideas to try.
• Better velocity curve settings (right now its only basic options in the settings.ini).
• Better GUI and integration with the settings file.

I'm on the LinnStrument Discord at https://discord.gg/h2BcrzmTXe. Come hang out!