What’s Roger Linn’s Coolest ‘Vaporware’ Gear Design?

Saturday Synth Porn: Pioneering electronic instrument designer Roger Linn this week released a collection of renderings for instrument designs that never made it into production.

Above, Linn’s LinnDrum controller – a drum-oriented control surface for use with computers.

While these designs, for various reasons, never made it into production, Linn’s rejected designs manage to be cooler than most gear that actually does make it into production.

Below, the LinnDrum controller built into a Windows-based computer system:

Next up is Linn’s design for a Modular Control Surface. Modules could be mixed and matched and rearranged to create your ultimate MIDI controller:

Linn also created designs for a Modular Guitar Amp & Effects System. The system would have been made up of:

  • a tabletop effects processor;
  • a floorboard effects processor and
  • a portable integrated guitar amplifier.

The MetroGnome is a lost drum machine design:

Finally, here’s an early design for his LinnStrument control surface:

Did some of Linn’s ‘lost’ gear designs deserve to make it into production? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

17 thoughts on “What’s Roger Linn’s Coolest ‘Vaporware’ Gear Design?

  1. So did Nukai jack the idea of the touch sliders from the Linn Drum controller? I wish RL would make a new Sampler/Midi Production Center with 4×4 Pad setup and integrate the synth engine of the Tempest.

      1. Actually, Amazon has lots of patents on that technology. Roger Linn even published an open letter to Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) asking his permission to get some parts for the LinnStrument. It’s somewhere on Roger’s site. (rogerlinndesign.com)

  2. Modular Control Surface looks like something I’ve been asking a company to make for years now. Hopefully this makes it into full production, as we need a better way to build our own MIDI controllers.

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