The ContinuuMini Is A Powerful, Affordable Expressive Synthesizer

At Superbooth 2018, Haken Audio introduced announced a new instrument, the ContinuuMini.

The ContinuuMini is a smaller and less expensive version of Haken’s Continuum Fingerboard. Continuum Fingerboards are designed to combine the power of modern synthesis with the expressive capabilities of acoustic instruments.

While the ContinuuMini shares many features with the larger Continuum keyboards, there are also some design differences to help make the instrument more affordable.

Here’s a hands-on demo from Ed Eagan, who has developed the internal sound engine of the Continuum.

Pricing and Availability

Production of the ContinuuMini is going to be funded via a Kickstarter project, which is expected to launch in late summer 2018. Pricing is expected to be US $549 for early backers (with an eventual MSRP of $899 US).

12 thoughts on “The ContinuuMini Is A Powerful, Affordable Expressive Synthesizer

  1. Looks like fun but not at that price point. I think 499,- max would’ve made more sense for this type of controller. What makes this so expensive, don’t they loose like 75% of potential customers making it this expensive?

  2. They removed the Y axis essentially making it much less interesting.
    Not to mention that it looks hard as hell to play and you cannot use your thumbs.
    As much as I always wanted one this isn’t a good effort to make them cheaper in my opinion.

    1. I kept saying just make a single octave version (keep components and key size the same) that way it would give people a taste of the board but also let them effectively play certain instruments on it still like a guitar, bass, violin, ect….but nope they did not listen to that and just made this…….ugh.

  3. I don’t know why Haken didn’t just make a two or three octave version of the original Continuum, and then offer that for this new price instead? This latest offering just looks too compromised for the player.

    1. They already make a half-size continuum, but it’s 3k+.

      The original Continuums are hand-made and have very tight tolerances in order to achieve their accuracy. That’s why they completely blow away things like the ROLI Seaboards.

      Unfortunately, Haken hasn’t figured out how to do something as accurate, but using more affordable technology. But NOBODY has – not Roger Linn, not Roland Lamb, not Geert Bevin. There are a lot of brilliant people thinking about this stuff, though, and there’s finally a developing market for professional controllers, so more options are on the way.

  4. It still sounds pretty expressive, but the catching point for me is the monophonic. He says that the internal synth is polyphonous, but that the controller isn’t. Which is also probably why he’s demoing almost exclusively with plucked instruments. So you can do arpeggiated chords with this, be there is no actual ‘chord’ playing of any kind.

  5. Still boutique for the mass market (most of us) :-/

    There’s impressive smarts under the hoods of these but the hardware isn’t worth the price.
    As for – “The original Continuums are hand-made and have very tight tolerances in order to achieve their accuracy. That’s why they completely blow away things like the ROLI Seaboards.”
    … if they used mass-production, they could achieve tighter tolerances not possible with humans.

  6. Why, oh why am I still surprised that people miss the point? Complaint about the price point? Check.

    Complaints about the features? Check, check and check.

    More complaints about the price point? Check and double check.

    Yes, by God ! We would all buy 9 of them if they had all of the features of the full sized ones and cost $50.

    Oh Synthtopians, why do you make my eyes rain?

  7. They are from Earth. They are trying to make a more affordable version of a very complex, hand built instrument. The early adopter price for the Mini version is said to be somewhere just north of 500 bucks. That’s around $3,000 less than the 3 octave version of the full sized Continuum. Even at 900 bucks, it’s still a deal. The synth engine is the same as the full sized version. It has deep and powerful patching system. I urge everyone to check out the Eagan Matrix on the Continuum website. Get some perspective.

    I think I will get two.

    1. The fact that they made one doesn’t mean they did it right.
      It’s not a price point issue. It’s legitimately not very playable.
      You get some perspective mate. Cheap doesn’t mean great necessarily.

  8. This is great. Wow, the physical modeling sound engine is built into the SHARC processor engine included in the instrument. Amazing.

    It’s like a $5k VL7+++ with a way more sensible controller and vastly superior sound engine.

    Yeah, ignorant people don’t get it. What can you do?

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