Soma Labs Flux - Highly Expressive New Instrument - Sonic LAB Presentation
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- Soma Laboratory's unconventional design is a major factor in why their instruments are so unique. We take a look at the latest instrument Flux - which takes a lot of inspiration from the no touch approach of the original Theremin. However with the use of small magnets in each had there are five control axis per hand and up to 16 controllable parameters.
The instrument is loosely based on the Terra synthesis concept and features 37 digital algorithms which are treated like individual instruments with their own timbral characteristics.
The right hand controls the pitch, dynamic, octave and tilt (for timbral control) and the left hand controls more of the timbral character with a considerable amount of tonal range possible.
We talked with Vlad Kreimer who gave us an over view of how Flux works.
The first batch of production units will be going out later this year and the price they are aiming for is in the region of 1000 Euros + tax
More information at
somasynths.com/flux/
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00: 00:00 start
00:00:28 Playing example
00:01:31 Overview
00:03:20 synth engine
00:07:30 Pitch and dynamics
00:12:54 polyphony
00:18:28 external control
00:19:45 bass
00:20:40 UI
00:24:52 the magnets
00:25:38 percussive mode
00:26:40 other sizes?
00:28:09 price
#soniclab #somalabs #flux
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Props to the spider at 13:36
haha! Excellent
just in time for the most eerie part! XD
I swear Vlad ate it
The world is a better place with people like Vlad in it. Such a huge fan of his and Soma's work
Agree to 100%
Love this man. His instruments play a major role in my life❤
Vlad is a genius. He's done so much to push the envelope of expressive electronic instruments. This looks absolutely amazing to play.
Im glad that things like this exist and there are people like Vlad who have the know how to bring their artistic vision to life.
Kind of disappointed this isn't housed in a log 😊. Kidding aside, props to Vlad for forging his own uncompromised creative path! I do agree with those concerned about the magnets. Seems solutions would be pretty simple.
Log version is an extra 2 bills.
Looking so beautiful, and sounding great! Can't wait to get one of these into my studio to start learning it!
Wow man. Clap clap clap.
That flip gesture brilliant. The whole thing looks amazing.
I love seeing new instruments - any new products, in fact - from Soma. The creativity and depth of thinking here about instruments, performance, and art never fails to inspire me.
Vlad is going to bankrupt me. I'm still saving up for the Terra.
Terra is incredible. It fast making all my others look so limited. I get beautiful expressive tones from it. It’s the first synth to make me want to ditch my vintage synths.
@@Ben_______x Cheers Ben. I look forward to getting one in the not too distant future.
I think they should also make quantization to a scale tones instead of semitones for the rest of us so too speak - or did I miss him mentioning this feature?
Owning a Lyra-8 and an Enner ... crazy, weird but wonderful instruments 👍
He is a magician...but he just uses music instruments !
Instruments build to last forever.
Thank you Vlad...thank you for giving me those opportunities.
You managed to change my view on music.
I own two RoATS and one Lyra - 8 ...and i really want to play with them everyday.
I love this guy, and I wish I had the cash to be able to justify purchasing one of his instruments. This and the Pulsar 23 both seem very immediately playable, fun, interesting, and rewarding instruments.
Also, that spider dropping down for a visit is pretty funny.
The musical boundaries this instrument can singlehandedly annihilate is flat out awe inspiring. I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these.
Amazing instrument! wow
It looks amazing. But I personally much prefer to be able to touch the surface and be able to control the parameters with touch pressure, with x-, y-and z-axis movement, etc. Why? It gives a perceptible feedback about what you are doing like with any other instrument except the theremin. A theremin is often perceived as one of the hardest instruments to learn, because you don't have a haptic feedback.
The advantage of the theremin and this is of course that it looks beatiful to play the sound by moving your hands in the air.
But here you actually can have contact with the surface.
When playing lap steel for instance the hand holding the bar is "split" with the non grabby part anchoring the hand for more controlled vibrato (and muting the strings behind the bar). I guess a similar way of playing would be possible here.
Part of the fun with these MPE devices is that you can invent your own gestures of expression.
As another example how import haptics are: It took Apple a long time to figure out how one should control the user interface of Vision Pro. All the methods they tried were missing some haptics (and they didn’t want to use controllers as these are impractical in many usecases). Many other VR glasses were also using some hand gestures that are hard to learn, give no feedback and aren't recognized that well. That’s why they ended up with selecting elements by looking at them and the user tapping its fingers. By tapping your own finger you have the important haptic feedback. - Even the pinching/zooming of pictures/websites works like that by tapping the fingers on both your hands and moving them apart.
Many describe the interface so easy to learn that they managed it in like 5 minutes and that it felt as intuitive as using your smartphone.
More important is to actually try things before having such a substantial opinion about them, but it's an empty suggestion to whoever prefers to be right.
@@jamaharon You are absolutely right. Im talking about my opinion of having haptics vs. playing something in the air (which I tried with theremine).
This looks and sounds wonderful. I imagine I'd really be interested in editability though - that said I've made just the one patch for Osmose so I may well overestimate my appetite for complicated patch editing these days
Amazing
Vlad must get one of these to Gregoire Blanc, who for me is the best theremin player in the world. Pretty handy on the Continuum as well.
So glad there will be a breakout box for external control. Amazingly elegant control solution for a whole bunch of continuous parameters at once. Looks awesome. Didn't catch if he said when they expect to have it ready for sale?
So much fun!
Stunning
This is a gorgeous sound machine
Bravo!
Have you ever seen an interview between a genius and a hero?!. A big hope to heard Soma in Classical and Jazz. Also Happy 800th, I ll tell you one day what you Nick mean to me, or us, it was a long way, enjoyable, and an ouverture to the world.
I love people that want to try new things; not just at the high high end of boutique pricing; but at a middle ground of "alright it's not entry level, but if you save up for a while you could reasonably get one perhaps" - all the while just loving with that do. This is stuff built by people who love sound and creation. Not the bottom line and quotas and such.
I'm sure there'll be a lot of stuff added to my text file of wishlist things, some I may never get - but on the list this goes! I just bought a Pulsar 23 on sale recently so Soma is definitely a brand of interest to me.
Love this thing.
1000 euros is just insanely affordable for such cutting edge technology. Even if it isn’t quite that cheap in the final production run, it’s so generous of Vlad to even aim for that price point. He really is setting the standard way above the mainstream. Vlad has already become a legend. I think he might be the greatest modern synth engineer. And depending on what instruments he produces going forward, he could really surpass all the Greats. I know this is a big claim. But he could create the greatest synth of all time. I’m so excited to see where he goes from here on out. This journey is just so inspiring.
I disagree, it's a piece of wood and some metal pieces/sensors, and a raspberry pi equivalent processor. Cool, but I could buy a real obx clone for less.
@@kimbopslayer562 this instrument clearly isn’t for you. Because all your criticisms are hollow, aesthetic, and pedantically technical. The interface, expression, and most importantly sound is what a musician considers. For pure sound design, of course this isn’t the kitchen sink of unlimited possibilities. But it’s quite ignorant to obsess over a hardware synths computational power. They are not PCs. They’re programs. They don’t need excessive power, they’re efficient, designed to do exactly what is intended and nothing more. If you don’t like the sound or interface, totally fair. But many of us are impressed with this very unique and enthralling style of performance and expression.
@@aqueous5099 keep drinking your own kool-aid
I completely agree. I have pulsar Lyra and terra and they are all great. Terra in particular is one of the best synths I’ve ever bought / played. Vlad and his team are amazing.
Vlad is already in history and we are so lucky
In terms of inventiveness and design, Vlad Kreimer has once again proven with this instrument that he is in the top league. I don't think anyone would want to play a simple theremin now. I also find his philosophy and statement about the display very interesting. The disadvantage is, of course, that you need a computer for editing, but in principle he's right: an instrument shouldn't need a display.
TY has one on order of course...
Nice cameo by the spider on the black drop sheet. 😬
I could not NOT look at it. RIGHT BY HIS HEAD.
This would be a godsend to people with arthritis
Can’t wait to play the Jurassic park theme on this in the style of the classic recorder rendition.
looks promising. I have a DIY ribbon controller that I like but I fear this would end up tiring to have to hold your hands in the air with precise movements
this must be midi2 out, otherwise how to capture the range of expression? incredible
DOPE
I need some sort of pushback, that’s why weighted keys are preferred. Dynamic haptic feedback may scratch that itch. I guess it’s all in the settings as the gestures could in theory provide that feedback. I think I would need to try it in a creative context to make any kind of meaningful critique.
Amazing work.
For the price this is really good... and midi and cv out this is....
I don´t know what to say.
I know what I need to buy now.
25:53, like when you hit the bar on the Ondes Martenot
in fact this instruments looks like a cross between that and a Theremin
Beautiful & so innovative & €1000 ?! Even as a non-performer I am tempted.
This thing will sell! Soma = Amazing.
Q. spare magnets? .. i can see these getting lost very quickly.
Very cool.. But to me it just sounds like drunk Elephants.. 😂 I like that Vlad is doing his own thing though great for the experimental and sound track people.
This dude is not ....from around....here.... 💫😉
Like that a spider decides to drop down and join the party at 4:10.
Johnny Greenwood enters the chat
€1000. I’m surprised and so was Nick 🤪.
I thgt it would be inthe €2.5 K category
This guy is too much of a genius and a gentleman.
Playing it would be a challenge though
No promises I know, but the kind of price area he's aiming at is quite amazing. Vlad is a bonafide genius and appears not to be a greedy man. This is so impressive.
My jaw dropped a bit when he said 1000 Euro.
great instrument!
I can see Hans Zimmer buying serial #0001
When I heard their target price my eyes nearly popped out........ in a good way for a change haha ;wow;. Can't wait to get one ugghh :)
Like it or not, it definitely takes some balls to play this.
Lol why
It's a nice piece of art to have in a high end home. More practically it's much better to use 3D cameras and vision processing similar to Kinect. I did some experiments a couple of years ago to prove the concept works. That was using a Luxonis OAK-D module. Sure, it would need quite a bit of work to turn into a solid product, but it is cetainly doable. That way you dont need any magnets and every finger and orientation can take part in controlling CCs. Don't get me wrong. I do like it and it's great to see people working on these kinds of human interface devices.
Haken already makes the Continuum with independent CCs per finger, but using Hall effect sensors instead of visual tracking. It's not 100% perfect - for example, if 2 fingers come within about a semitone of each other, they combine into 1, as far as the sensors are concerned. So, a visual tracking system could have some playability advantages over these other types of sensors. FSR arrays are another technology people use for this purpose (for example, in the Embodme Erae Touch). There have also been IR and sonar sensors used for such a purpose. I think the technology for polyphonic optical sensors is just getting there. Resolution, without errors, is important to the player. Good luck to any developers who are considering this route.
@GizzyDillespee Great comment! Right. I've seen examples with Hall sensors and a wearable glove before. I don't know if that is what you are talking about. In any case, thank you for the overview of the things you are aware of. With the vision system, it may be that you need multiple cameras. Although having said that, I don't know if you have seen some of the recent experiments using machine learning models that are able to extract 3D information from regular cameras. They are exceptionally good. I'm sure skeletons would be no problem. Ultimately I think we will need a pretty high framerate. Maybe 100Hz could work. That was another problem with my experiments. It was good enough for CC controls but it wouldn't be good enough for playing a piano for example. I'm fairly convinced that a model that trained specifically for reconstitution of the end effectors (fingertips) could get quite speedy on relatively low end hardware. Well anyway, exciting stuff that the future holds. I am very much looking forward to seeing it all as well.
This and the Eagan Matrix and Bob's your uncle
The magnets are black. And small. And I am a clumsy idiot.
Please can we have a loop or something to go round my fingers? Seriously Vlad!
Vlad the impaler!
I will not buy this, because I'm not an instrumentalist and it'd be a complete waste under my inept hands, but I'm very happy that it exists.
The demo sounded painful.
Horrible.
very arachnophobic video))
You have to applaud the innovative interfaces Vlad creates…but I have one major problem with all his products…the SOUND! Thin, brassy, odd sounding…most products have the same kind of whiny vibe. Tried a load of them. They’re not for me.
there is a big difference when you listen to this video without looking at all the flare and sorry, love his stuff but this one has more cool factor than musicality or even ambient range. pass
No haptic feedback = Gimmick!
Sounds... bad.
Also those magnets are perfect for a child or pet to accidentaly choke on.
Sound is subjective. And a guitar plectrum can also be choke on. And many parts of other instruments.
@MrVoonix I remember this one time at Bandcamp
All the better reason never to have children.
this is a russian product! enough to support russian business! shame!
imbecile, what is your Russiaphobia actually based on? Mainstream media is absolutely full of shit, do yourself a favour and investigate what's really going on it the world, it's never been easier to actually decipher facts from fiction.
@@jameshodson3450Russophobia is a Kremlin created propaganda term, gtfo🤦♂️
sonicstate department... lol!
Everything moved to Poland shortly after invasion.
Clown
The world is a better place with people like Vlad in it. Such a huge fan of his and Soma's work