Tutorial

Camera Setup

Strimano works best with a built-in laptop webcam or a USB webcam mounted at chest level. Position yourself so the camera can see your hands from roughly the elbows down.

• Distance: About 18 inches (arm's length) from the camera. Too close and your hand fills the frame; too far and the tracker loses finger detail.
• Lighting: Even, front-facing light. Avoid strong backlighting (window behind you) and dim rooms. The hand tracker needs contrast between your hand and the background.
• Background: A plain, uncluttered background helps. Busy patterns can confuse the tracker.

Which Mode to Use

Strimano has two modes: Air Synth (/app) and Piano (/piano). This tutorial covers the Air Synth, which is the primary instrument. In Air Synth mode, finger height controls pitch and finger extension/curl triggers notes on and off.

Open strimano.com/app, click Cam, and allow camera access. You should see your hand skeleton drawn on screen within 2-3 seconds.

Three Axes of Control

Every hand gesture maps to a musical parameter:

• Finger extension = note on/off. The instrument reads whether your fingertip is above or below the PIP joint (the middle knuckle). Extend a finger to play; curl it to silence.
• Fingertip Y-axis = pitch. Higher hand position on camera = higher note. The vertical range is divided into scale degrees based on your selected scale and octave range.
• Wrist X-axis = filter cutoff. Move your hand left for a dark, muffled tone. Move right for a bright, open tone. This is like sweeping a synth's low-pass filter.

Both hands are tracked simultaneously, giving you up to 10 independent voices.

Why Notes Flutter

The most common beginner issue: a note rapidly toggles on and off, producing a stuttering sound instead of a clean tone. This happens when your fingertip hovers near the extension threshold — the boundary between "extended" and "curled." The tracker sees the finger alternating between states at 30 frames per second.

The Fix: Commit

The solution is decisive movement. Think binary, not analog:

• To play: Extend the finger fully and confidently. Point it straight out.
• To stop: Curl it all the way in, like making a fist. No halfway.

Avoid the "limp finger" zone where the tip hovers near the knuckle. If you're getting flutter on a specific finger, it usually means that finger isn't extending or curling far enough.

Practice: Sustained Hold

The Essential Technique

Playing a melody means moving between pitches. If you just slide your hand up and down with a finger extended, you'll glide through every note in between — a glissando, not a melody. To play distinct intervals, you need to silence the note, reposition, then re-trigger.

The technique:

1. Play a note — extend finger, hear the pitch
2. Curl to silence — close the finger into your palm
3. Move your hand — reposition to the new Y height
4. Extend at the new pitch — the note sounds cleanly at the new position

This is the air synth equivalent of a pianist lifting their hand to jump between octaves. The curl creates a gap of silence that separates the two notes.

Practice: C to G

Setup

• Scale: Major
• Root: C3
• Range: 2 octaves
• Voice: Warm Pad or E.Piano (forgiving sustain)

The Opening Octave Leap

The song opens with a dramatic octave jump: C→C (an octave higher). This is the hardest interval in the piece and the perfect curl-and-leap exercise.

1. Play the low C at the bottom of your range
2. Curl to silence
3. Move your hand up to the high C (roughly halfway up the 2-octave range)
4. Extend — the octave rings out

Practice this leap until it's seamless. The audience hears two distinct notes with a tiny, musical silence between them.

The Descending Stepwise Motion

After the leap, the melody descends stepwise: B, A, G, E, F, E, D. For stepwise motion, keep your hand steady and make small Y adjustments. You can either:

• Curl-and-leap each note for staccato articulation
• Slide slowly with the finger extended for a legato feel (the notes will step through scale degrees as you cross boundaries)

Fewer notes per octave means wider zones and easier pitch accuracy. Pentatonic scales (5 notes) are the most forgiving. Seven-note scales are standard. Eight or more notes pack tighter and demand more precision.

What Latch Does

Normally, curling a finger stops its note. With Latch enabled, notes sustain after you release them. This lets you build chords one note at a time.

Toggle latch with the Latch button on screen, or with a left wink (close your left eye while keeping your right eye open — requires face tracking).

Building a Triad

1. Enable latch (left wink or click the Latch button)
2. Extend one finger at the root position — the note sounds and latches
3. Curl the finger to silence your hand, then move to the third position
4. Extend again — the third latches on top of the root
5. Curl, move to the fifth, extend — three latched notes form a chord

Left wink again (or click Latch) to release all latched notes at once.

Adding the Arpeggiator

Once you've latched a chord, enable the Arpeggiator with a right wink (or click the Arp button). The arp cycles through your latched notes automatically in a rhythmic pattern.

• Up: Low to high, repeat
• Down: High to low, repeat
• Up/Dn: Low to high to low, bounce
• Random: Random note each step

Adjust BPM and division (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/8T) to control the speed. You can keep adding notes to the latch while the arp runs.

Strimano + Launchpad

Use the Launchpad for chord pads and rhythm, and Strimano for expressive melody. Program chord triads on the Launchpad grid (StriBot can help: "set row 1 to C major triads"), then play lead lines with your other hand in the air.

Strimano + Theremini

A Theremini handles pitch with the left hand (antenna proximity). Use Strimano on your right hand for a second voice, filter sweeps, or arpeggiated chords. Foot pedals can handle volume so both hands stay free for pitch.

MIDI Routing through a DAW

For multi-instrument setups, route Strimano's MIDI output through a DAW (Logic Pro, Ableton, etc.) via the IAC Driver on Mac. This lets you layer Strimano's gesture-controlled synth with hardware controllers, software instruments, and effects — all synced to the same timeline.