Continuum (instrument)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The full-size Continuum Fingerboard

The Continuum Fingerboard is a music performance controller developed by Lippold Haken, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, sold by Haken Audio, located in Champaign, Illinois.^[1]

Technically a MIDI controller, the Continuum features a touch-sensitive neoprene playing surface measuring approximately 19 cm high by either 137 cm long (full-size instrument) or 72 cm long (half-size instrument), with a pitch range of 9350 cents (about 7.79 octaves) for the full-size instrument, and 4610 cents (about 3.84 octaves) for the half-size instrument. The instrument has a response time of 1.33 milliseconds.^[2] Sensors under the playing surface respond to finger position and pressure in three dimensions and provide pitch resolution of one cent (one one-hundredth of a semitone) along the length of the scale (the X dimension), allowing essentially continuous pitch control for portamento effects and notes that aren't on the chromatic scale, and allowing for the application of vibratos or pitch bends to a note. While pitch bend and vibrato are standard features on most MIDI keyboards, sliding between half steps, as permitted by the Continuum, is not. A software "rounding" feature enables pitch to be quantized to the notes of a traditional equal-tempered scale, just scale or other scale to facilitate in-tune performance, with the amount and duration of the "rounding" controllable in real time.

An illustration of the Continuum Fingerboard's axes.

The Continuum also provides two additional parameters for the sound: It is able to transmit the finger pressure on the board as a MIDI value, as well as the finger's vertical position on the key. These parameters can be used to enrich the sound even more, and are independently programmable. For example, a standard configuration is where position on the X-Axis (lengthwise) on the instrument corresponds to pitch, position on the Y-Axis (widthwise) corresponds to a timbre shift, and position on the Z-Axis (vertically) corresponds to a change in amplitude. The Continuum is capable of polyphonic performance, with up to 16 simultaneous voices.

The Continuum does not itself generate sounds. Rather, it must be connected to a sound-producing source that will receive MIDI input, such as a synthesizer module.

Perhaps the most famous player of the Continuum in contemporary music is Dream Theater's keyboardist Jordan Rudess. It can be heard in the songs "Octavarium" and "Sacrificed Sons" from the album "Octavarium", and in the end of the song "The Dark Eternal Night" from 2007's Systematic Chaos. He is also seen playing the Continuum on Dream Theater's 2006 live DVD Score, such as in the previously unreleased song "Raise The Knife".

The Continuum is also played by Jordan Rudess on John-Luke Addison's Multiple Valences album in the song "Unimaginable Charismatics" and, Behold... The Arctopus's most recent album Skullgrid on the song "Transient Exuberance". It can also be heard on a cover of Tarkus by Jordan Rudess from his album The Road Home from 11:31-11:55.

The Continuum was used by John Williams for his score to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.^[3]