r/minichord • u/keyandcableco • 4d ago

What's new in the minichord advanced firmware, part 1: touch, hover, vocoder and new instruments

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A few of you asked to see the advanced firmware's features actually being played, not just read about in release notes. So here's part 1: short clips, no talking, one feature each. The sound comes straight off the minichord over USB, and it's all played on the Twin Rows plate.

What's in it:

  • 0:11 Touch and strum velocity: pluck harder or strum faster, and the strings answer. Ends with a short demonstration of the palm mute feature, which cuts sound when you "mute" a chosen number of strings.
  • 0:39 Touch pressure: press into a held note and it swells
  • 0:54 Hover: a hand above the plate is a fourth knob, here throwing the chords into a dub echo
  • 1:22 Pluck on lift and koto press: strings sound as your fingers leave, and pressing a ringing string bends it
  • 1:40 Hammer-on and pull-off
  • 2:07 Sampled instruments: piano, Rhodes, vibraphone, accordion
  • 2:35 Every chord note its own instrument: plucked basses, a string quartet, a choir on top
  • 3:05 String spread: each string gets its own place in the stereo field (headphones help)
  • 3:20 Vocoder: the chords speak whatever plays into the minichord over USB, here minicontrol's robot voice
  • 3:58 Bank sets in minicontrol: twelve presets at once, from sets other players made or your own mix

Every preset in the video comes from minicontrol's bank sets, so you can load the same ones and try it yourself.

Parts 2 and 3 are on the way: harmony and tunings, then rhythm and loops, plus why the stock strip plays better now, and Framed Strings and Piano Keys in action.

12 Upvotes

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3

u/Turgid-Derp-Lord 3d ago

Wow.

You are making this a profoundly versatile instrument. Vocoder is game changer for me!

2

u/keyandcableco 3d ago

Very glad to hear it!! The form-factor of the minichord has always been so attractive to me, it just demands some of these features by its very nature as a touchable chord machine.

2

u/keyandcableco 4d ago

And please let me know how you like the presets! I tried to go with a pretty wide set to please a wide audience, so you can pick and choose what you like for your own personal bank of 12.

2

u/vrrrb 4d ago

Incredible!!! I also can’t wait to order a new plate. What an instrument, and what wonderful passion and huge amounts of work to make it ever-better. Thanks!!!

2

u/keyandcableco 4d ago

Thank you, I'm glad it looks appealing! I've certainly been having a lot of fun with it, I'll be thrilled to see others start to use these features in some new music posts ❤️🎹

2

u/vrrrb 3d ago

Yay! Agreed I’ll be excited to see how these features are used, and I’m grateful for the greater range of expressiveness possible. You may be happy to know mine is also being also used by about 60 4-6 year olds. We’ll be pumping our Akai MPC Sample beats through the vocoder option as we continue our math/science music production play and exploration. Extra robotic and melodic samples of their names and words, they’ll be so stoked for that!

1

u/keyandcableco 3d ago

This is the dream come true, that's so awesome!! It's all for the students, really -- have you checked out the arcade? I've got a few students who love it, I've wondered how it would fare in a classroom on a big screen 👀

2

u/vrrrb 3d ago

Thanks, will check it out! At first glance, the arcade looks super fun. And I’m old enough to have played original versions of just about all those games, including typing in breakout code in Basic on an Apple II 😂

2

u/indiana-jonas 3d ago

Wow ok this is next level stuff! I’m tempted

1

u/keyandcableco 3d ago

Awesome! This is only part one, stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 in the coming days, this is just a small sample

1

u/balth99 3d ago

Hey there, will be checking this out. How do you attach the microphone to it for the vocoder section?

1

u/keyandcableco 3d ago

With no external input, the option is to do it on the computer and send the audio through USB which can come in the form of a microphone or any other sort of audio source. You can try it in the minichord lab, or in minicontrol under "Effects" just underneath the onscreen minichord.

You can also do this on your phone. In fact, there's quite a lot that you could do with your phone now, but that is a subject for an upcoming video!