How is Lumatone Different from the Linnstrument?

We often get asked what makes Lumatone different from the Linnstrument, another popular alternative MIDI controller. While we think Linnstrument is great at what it does, Lumatone is really in its own category when it comes to innovation and functionality, and it really isn’t anything like a Linnstrument.

First, let’s talk about some of the similarities. Both instruments allow you to program your own custom mappings, and they both share one of the most innovative features: the ability to program LED colors. They both feature a matrix, allowing you to program patterns into a permanent and familiar grid.

And of course, they’re both controllers. This means they’re not meant to generate sound themselves, but control other sound-generating devices like virtual instruments and external sound modules or synthesizers.

But that’s really where the similarities end!

One of the most important differences is that our keys are… well… keys. While the Linnstrument is a flat surface, Lumatone has opted to retain the familiar key travel that you’ve grown accustomed to on traditional keyboards and pianos. This has a number of advantages:

• It allows a more traditional kind of expression when it comes to playability.

This is combined with the most non-traditional side of Lumatone: it’s large, hexagonal, isomorphic layout. This is a modernized, customized recreation of an age old idea for a music interface, and couldn’t be more different in nature or purpose from a Linnstrument or Continuum.

While you can program other controllers to simulate the isomorphic experience — or even permit microtonal tunings — no controller currently on the market does so with such flexibility and playability, and with that as its primary purpose. Lumatone is built specifically to enable these experiences, and provide a familiar kind of key surface as part of that experience.