I really can't tell you how amazing I think this is. I mean, literally: there is so much amazing stuff going on here - but it's so subtle and nuanced -- maybe I just can't tell you how amazing I think this is without sounding like a horrible audio snob. But a lot went into making this sound so naturally expressive and "easy".
I can't help name-dropping: I knew Lippold Haken -- the creator of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard -- back in college. He (and some other people, like Bill Schaeffer) was active in the PLATO Computer Music lab at UIUC, which was some pretty freaking amazing stuff back in the early 80's. I should post something here about PLATO sometime -- I understand it kind've faded away over time, which is a damn shame, because back in the 70s and 80s it was seriously, monumentally, unbelievably kick-ass. When I left school and got a job at [a monolithic multinational corporate entity], I was shocked at the primitive state of computing out in the Real World. A lot of stuff we take for granted today -- like pixel graphics, or computer audio, or text chat, or real-time MMORPGs -- got started with PLATO. I look back and wish I'd been more cognizant of just how privileged I was to be able to stay up all night playing Empire with 29 other people around the globe - in 1978.
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