Professor Emeritus in Engineering Lippold Haken has been constructing and improving upon his life’s work, the Continuum Fingerboard — an electronic musical instrument with a continuous pitch — for over 30 years.
Haken comes from a musical family. When he was in first grade, his mother had him and his five siblings take violin lessons. He would wake up at 6 a.m. to reluctantly practice the instrument.
“I never got to be a very good musician,” Haken said. “But I got good enough so that I knew, you know, I could hear things. I could tell what was good or what wasn’t. And more importantly, I knew what I didn’t know.”
While Haken wasn’t as musically gifted as his siblings, he developed an interest in computers. In high school, Haken was interested in his school’s PLATO terminals and popular ’70s computers and would program games on them.
“I got suspended from school once or twice by getting caught climbing into the school on weekends just to use the computers,” Haken said.
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Haken’s interest in computers stuck with him when he attended the University in the ’80s to study electrical engineering. He worked with his adviser, Donald Bitzer — a former faculty member in the College of Engineering — in the PLATO lab, building mainframes for computers.
Around this time, Haken began developing the Continuum Fingerboard in its early stages. Inspired by his violin experience, he wanted to create an electronic instrument that would have a continuous pitch and emulate the performance of an acoustic instrument.
“We really wanted to do something where we had more continuous control, but it took a long time to do it,” Haken said. “It turns out it’s pretty hard to make something that feels good to your touch and super accurate. So it took me longer — took me a lifetime — and now we’re getting there.”
Haken jokingly calls the Continuum Fingerboard a “fretless piano.” Although it looks like a keyboard, the Continuum Fingerboard doesn’t have individual keys. Its smooth rubber surface has red markings that act as a reference for where the player’s fingers are supposed to go.
Underneath the Continuum Fingerboard’s surface is a system of springs and rods that create music by tracking the player’s fingers across the board. It makes different sounds and pitches depending on the pressure of your fingers, according to Haken.
“In some ways, it uninvents the keyboard,” Haken said.
As a busy college student, Haken said he continued to work on the Continuum Fingerboard on the side. He became even busier as an electrical engineering professor in the ’90s.
During his professorship, Haken felt like “the odd man out” due to his interest in building musical instruments in an engineering-focused department.
“My interests were so different,” Haken said. “In the end, what I really want to do is be an instrument builder.”
As Haken became swamped with work as a professor, he decided to retire early in his teaching career to continue to tinker with the instrument.
“I retired earlier than I really needed to because you never know how life will go,” Haken said. “Now I have the privilege of actually spending all the time I need on it, so that’s actually been really fun.”
When you set foot into Haken’s basement, you are entering Haken Audio, where the construction of Continuum Fingerboards takes place. There are boxes of materials and hardware to build the instrument, along with a metal frame that holds trays of Continuum Fingerboards waiting to be tested by Haken for audio.
Haken Audio is unlike a traditional synthesizer company. It does not take place in a corporate environment, according to Chief Engineer Cameron Fuller.
“It’s different from someone getting a job as a recent graduate, like at a huge, giant company, and having all these different levels of bureaucracy to work through,” Fuller said. “We don’t have cubicles. We exist in his house.”
Despite retiring, Haken continues to teach and mentor alumni of the University employed at Haken Audio. Dearborn Plys, alum and primary engineer at Haken Audio, also aspires to start their own company and continues to learn from Haken about the instrument and the company’s inner workings.
“I see him investing in me, talking about all of the aspects that go into being an engineer and running a business and being in this industry,” Plys said. “He’s investing in our careers.”
What makes this musical engineering venture enjoyable for Haken is collaborating with other engineers and musicians, such as Edmund Eagan, a Canadian film and TV composer, and Christophe Duquesne, a developer and sound designer at Haken Audio.
“I work with really good people, and it’s really fun,” Haken said. “I work with really smart graduates from here. They know things I don’t know, and vice versa.”
Every year, musicians and sound designers meet at the international Haken Continuum Conference to view presentations of unique electronic instruments like the Continuum Fingerboard.
In last year’s Continuum Conference, Indian film composer A. R. Rahman participated in the event and is one of many notable players of the Continuum Fingerboard.
Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and The Who’s Pete Townshend have also played the instrument, according to Haken. The Continuum was also featured in soundtracks of TV series and films like “Game of Thrones,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Dune: Part Two.”
To Haken, one of the most notable uses of the Continuum Fingerboard was when it was featured in the online game “World of Warcraft.”
“It was interesting because it really melded with an orchestra that was so neat to hear,” Haken said. “Normally, you don’t hear synthesizers with orchestras because it’s hard to get them to mix.”
After decades of working on the Continuum Fingerboard, Haken still views the construction of the instrument as a passion project.
“Lots of people garden and really spend a lot of time on (creating); in the end, they don’t expect to win any international prizes for gardening,” Haken said. “They don’t expect to get rich off of it. They enjoy it as a pastime and as something that’s physically and intellectually satisfying, so this is closer to that.”
