This video, via bar|none explores controlling a modular synthesizer with an Eigenharp. It’s meant more as a technical demonstration than as a performance, and addresses some of the technical challenges of the setup.

This is a technical demonstration, meaning, I finished the technical coding, hooked it up, patched the simplest thing I could on the modular and started noodling.

The way this works is that since EigenD (eigenharps platform) is now open source, we’ve (with the help of eigenlabs) been able to crack it open a bit for hacking. We now have an OSC agent which pumps an insane volume of raw data out of the harp ready for some experimental harvesting.

In this demo, I have a MAX patch which sanitizes the data, and makes it expressly fit for translation to control voltage of a modular.

Some data points here. EigenD sends 2000 events per control point per second. Per note there are 3 high res control points per note (pressure, yaw, pitch). So that is 6000 events per sec translated over the wire into voltage. 2 more control points require voltage which are pitch and cv. That means using an audio interface for cv, you need 5 audio outs per level of polyphony. 5 outs for monophonic, 10 outs for duophonic, and up.

Luckily, monophonic is pretty amazing, duophonic is an incredible luxury and 3 levels is showing off.

After I have prototyped this, I could see writing an EigenD agent expressly to do this directly, making the eigenharp modular friendly out of the box.

I however have to mention that this would not be possible without Expert Sleepers Silent Way plugins as the OSC to CV bridge. Nor would it be possible without MAX in this prototype stage.