Haken Audio today launched a crowdfunding campaign for the ContinuuMini synthesizer and it has already reached its funding goal.
The ContinuuMini, introduced at earlier this year at ContinuuCon 2018 in Paris, is a smaller, 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.
The ContinuuMini shares many the same powerful 8-voice polyphonic synth engine as the high-end Continuum, but pairs it with compact a monophonic/duophonic controller.
The key feature of the ContinuuMini is its expressive capability. Here’s what the developers have to say about it:
“The Mini’s playing surface can respond to incredible light touch, which leverages an underused aspect of human control, the ability of the hand to deliver delicate light touch finger input. Lighter than playing a piano, or strumming a guitar, or even lighter than the action of modern Midi keyboard controllers.
Every nuance of finger movement is captured and translated into sound through interaction with this highly-optimized playing surface. And complete control of the fully programmable EaganMatrix sound engine opens up a world of sonic possibilities.
Due to it’s robust bidirectional implementation of MPE and MPE+, the ContinuuMini can control external synths or be played by external MIDI controllers.”
You can also connect a sustain pedal to it or even a Haken Audio CVC or Evaton Technologies microCVC, which will let you use the ContinuuMini to expressively control analog and modular gear.
Here’s an example the ContinuuMini in action:
Pricing and Availability
Production of the ContinuuMini being funded via a Kickstarter project. It is available to project backers starting at
Cool to see how well this is doing. A rare intro that lives up to the hype of being a game changer.
Wowza!
This is the most interesting synth in ages.
I ordered one of these things the minute I heard the KickStarter was live. This will be a great performance instrument and the ultimate travel synth. The EaganMatrix is an incredibly deep and powerful engine. When I first looked at the Haken website and read about the capabilities, I was blown away. Having the same power in a more affordable instrument was such a great idea.
Looks like it’s worth between $50 – $100, not $900! I don’t get it?
Clearly you don’t.
You might want to try reading up about it and then trying to find any electronic instrument with comparable expressive and synthesis capabilities. It’s got one of the most deepest and most powerful synth engines around and the Haken controllers are the most sensitive and lowest-latency ones ever designed.
Obviously I don’t, at the end of the day the synth engine sits on a $20 arm chip, the sum of the parts in this is super cheap. Maybe you’r referring to the development costs but from a shear parts to price ratio, I’m sorry it’s a bit of a joke IMHO.
Are you aware of any hardware synth engines as deep as this or any controllers that are faster or more sensitive?
You can throw out random numbers, but they are really meaningless. What is meaningful is whether a company can figure out a way to manufacture a great, expressive synth that actually pushes the envelope – which Haken has definitely done and something that almost nobody else in the synth industry is seriously attempting.
The Continuum’s sensitivity and expressiveness is WAY beyond what MPE can do – and who is even making actual MPE instruments yet?
Yeah, it might be the most expressive hardware synth out there, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth $900. The Dixon Ticonderoga is the nicest pencil I know, but I wouldn’t pay more than a dollar for one. In any case, you can disagree with the OP, but no need to get so defensive about it. It’s a fine synth, and anyone can see that it’d be worth good money, but I would guess $6-700, not $900-1000. If you think it’s worth it, buy it; I and the OP will likely not.
It’s $599 on kickstarter. I find it unlikely that they will actually go as high as $900 for the final retail price.
Its a specialty instrument with a good pedigree, so you are either drawn to that particular form of expressiveness or you aren’t. Its not for instant gratification. My $900 would go in the pot because I was prepared to play the thing for several years, period. I like some of the MPE work I hear, but its also requiring me to retrain my ear a little. You have to learn a new language to really appreciate it and twice as much if you’re going to seriously play in that yard. It’ll have to become a little less avant-garde for me to trade keyboard time for MPE time. I do appreciate the small form because to me, the system speaks more clearly as a solo voice. Haken exceeded the Kickstarter goal, so dissing it, like a BnB in Yemen, is pointless.
Well “Bob”(If that is, in fact your real name sir!),
Have you ever played a Haken Continuum? Maybe if you had, you might “get it”. A good friend brought one over for several days and I was hooked. The $3,400 price tag for the 37 note version made it quite a stretch for me. When I saw the Mini version I was all in.
But I had actually touched and played it’s larger cousin. As was suggested above, go on the Haken Audio website, study up, maybe watch some YouTube performances, and THEN see how you feel about it.
Hope this helps.
I think for just a tad cheaper and some creativeness with a poly synth.. you could get some pretty nice expressive with the Touché E. I know how these aren’t exactly the same. But both of these would be marvelous.
Monophonic kills it. Still a little pricey, too.
I think there’s a thing called recording that lets you make monophonic input devices work for more than one sound at once
Monophonic and monotimbral are not the same.
This is an interesting test on creating the perfect price point for an item.. For instance, at $1195 you might sell 500 of them over the next 5 years, at $895 it could increase to 850 units, $499 might sell 1300 and $299 could sell 2500 of them. While the numbers are probably way out of line, the concept is true. You then graph the cost into the equation and find the maximum profit over the long haul. Personally, for the hobbyist (I play a Jupiter 80 at home), an item like this is fun but merely a neat tool to create new sounds. Thus, at $295 I would be “tempted” but even there not sure I would purchase. At $900 it is competing with so many other products that I suspect it becomes a product for a limited market. Wish you well and would enjoy comments on my analysis.