Playing the #Eigenharp Tau like a Guitar with AAS Strum GS-1

Geert Bevin put a video on YouTube of him playing his Alpha with the Orange Tree Samples Evolution Acoustic Guitar. Having just received my Tau and having a copy of Applied Acoustic Systems Strum Acoustic GS-1 I thought it was a good exercise to learn about the Tau and get an alternate playing style/sound which was more guitar-like. I also had an idea about using the Arranger to do strum/pick patterns....

You can see from the picture on the left (that's not me, it's Dave(?) from EigenLabs playing at NAMM 2010) that the playing stance of the Tau is generally around the big keyboard on the right in the picture. The keys on the lower-left are usually set-up as percussion keys with drum sounds, but being an Eigenharp they are entirely configurable. So why not set the percussion keys up to strum/pick the instrument like it was a guitar? (a la Geert)

Play It Like A Geertah
Strum, like some other Guitar VST/AUs, allows you to use a section of the notes (C5-C6) to control the strumming/picking action of the synthesized guitar. For example, holding down a G chord does nothing (if you turn Auto-strum off!) until you hit C5 which gives you a down-stroke. D5 gives you an up stroke. E5-C6 give you string picks of the 6 strings (well, kind of E5/F5 gives 'bass' and 'alternate bass' which is not the same as strings 1/2). Black notes give you other things like palmed strings, muffled strokes, etc. So using Strum with the Eigenharp percussion keys was a matter of configuring them to be C5-C6.

Now there is a little Eigenharp subtlety here: You can configure the Eigenharp to split the big keyboard into sections, or keysets. I wanted to have the Tau configured so I could play chords with top 5 rows, strum/pick with the percussion keys and use the remainder of the large keyboard with a different voice. So that means using keysplit2 (for the Tau players out there) and configuring the voice for the top keyset and the percussion keys to be the same. This meant I needed to use Audio Unit 3 (AU3) as it is the only one as standard shared between a keyset and the percussion keys. Handy.

Next I needed to configure the percussion keys to start at C5 and be in the major scale (so I'd get the white notes for control). This meant I needed to do some Belcanto (the configuration script for EigenHarps). Its not the most accessible language/tool I've ever come across and I'm a geek! But I persevered. Eventually, I ended up with the following script which configures the percussion keys:

description
    Set up percussion keys to work for AAS Strum GS-1 as strum/pick keys
script
    percussion kgroup hey tonic to notec set
    percussion kgroup hey octave to 5 set
    percussion kgroup hey scale to major set

This can be saved into ~/Library/EigenLabs/Scripts and accessed through User Scripts in the EigenBrowser. Or alternatively, you can type the bits below 'script' into the command line of the EigenCommander. (Or if you're really adept play it via the Eigenharp itself - not figured this out yet!)

Once run, configure AU3 to use AAS Strum via the EigenBrowser (switch Auto-strum off in the Strum UI). Select keysplit2 and assigning AU3 to the voice of keyset2. Then set the voice of the percussion keys to AU3. Then play!

This set-up provides for up/down strum on the first two keys of the percussion section and picking on the next 6. You get a much more guitar-like stance and style to your playing (plus proper picking opportunities with your right hand) and a great selection of guitar sounds. I believe this should work with the Electric Guitar version, too.

(NB: careful when changing scales not to do a "global" scale change or the Strum set-up on the percussion keys may not work as you think)

So what's it like to play? Really good! You get a very natural, expressive guitar playing experience. Because you have such control with the Tau in combination with Strum it possible to not only get nice bends, slides and hammers but also you can control the effects with lateral movements of the keys. I have one set-up where I control the WahWah this way - fascinating to play!!

One thing I wasn't sure of, but turned out just to work, was the recording of strum/picks with the built in Eigenharp scheduler. But it works beautifully. You can lay down a nice guitar strum/pick sequence to a drummer track then swap to an alternate keysplit where you can play two different parts with your now free two hands.

Making Arrangements
The other idea I had was to use on of the Tau's Arrangers to define a strumming/picking sequence. The Arrangers are step-sequencers which you configure by using the large set of keys to define a pattern - usually of drum or rhythm samples. So why not use it to fire the C5-C6 in an appropriate pattern? This way I could play chords with left hand, get a fancy custom strum/pick sound and play melody/lead with right hand in another keyset? (think arpeggiator)

Strum does have a built in arpeggiator which uses MIDI loops, so I could just use that. But that would mean having to create/load a MIDI loop any time I wanted to do an arpeggio. One of the main things I like about the Eigenharp is its 'liveness' and not having to go back to the computer keyboard to endlessly edit loops/sequences. No - I wanted to use the Arranger!

But I hit a speed bump: Arranger 1 on the Tau can only use AU4, but you can't access AU4 via any of the keysets !?? This means I can't have the Arranger firing C5-C6 and a keyset playing the notes for the chord. This is surprising to me given the flexibility of everything else on the Eigenharp. I have asked a question about how to change this (I presume some clever Belcanto script might do it) but with a standard set-up it just not possible :-(

But...

Maybe I can send MIDI from Arranger 1 and from the keyset to Strum running outside EigenD ? I'd loose some expression but I'd get my combination of arranger and keyset.

Hmm...not obvious. Nothing in the config seems to let me send MIDI from the Arranger....arrrrgh

So I ask the Twitterverse for inspiration - and hey, presto!! @MikeMilton sends me a reference to a snippet of Belcanto he got in a reply to a similar question.

Again after some twiddling with EigenCommander I got it working. Here's the script:

description
    Set up Arranger 1 to work with AAS Strum GS-1 as strum/pick control
script
    arranger 1 listen
    clear
    midi rig 1 recorder listen
    note 15 with velocity 1 when 1 play
    note 16 with velocity 1 when 2 play
    note 17 with velocity 1 when 3 play
    note 18 with velocity 1 when 4 play
    note 19 with velocity 1 when 5 play
    note 20 with velocity 1 when 6 play
    note 21 with velocity 1 when 7 play
    note 22 with velocity 1 when 8 play
    all join

This sets up Arranger 1 to send out C5-C6 to the MIDI. (as before save as a User Script or use EigenCommander). Select MIDI in your keyset. Run up Strum as an application. Set MIDI to Omni (simplest approach). Swap to Arranger 1, set-up a strum/pick pattern (course 1 is down stroke, 2 up-stroke, etc in chromatic order). Swap back to keyset. Start metronome and hold a chord pattern down. Voila!

Haven't quite got used to playing it 'live'. Still not got start/stop smooth. I've only had the Tau 2 days, though! There's definite value in the approach. I've found myself being quite funkadelic with it. Hopefully some EigenharpBelcantoMeister will help me out so I don't need to do this via MIDI.

The combination of Guitar synth and Eigenharp is incredible. The ease of playing and expressiveness is stunning. It leaves you in that zone of playing where you listen to the instrument rather than concentrate on the mechanics. You can play manually or you can get some CAP (computer aided playing) - your choice. But one way, or another, you get to play expressively, sound great and enjoy.

I love the Eigenharp (sigh)