Composing With Hopkin Instrumentarium: Miago Trod

The Hopkin Instrumentarium is a series of exciting and unique virtual instruments in collaboration with instrument designer and sound sculptor Bart Hopkin. Miago Trod is the newest addition to the series.

Miago Trod is a giant resonating lamellaphone created by master instrument inventor Bart Hopkin. It stands over five feet tall, with 22 threaded rods of varying lengths in two rows. The rods are tuned chromatically and played percussively. Part of the special character of this experimental device is found in the relative tuning of the upper and lower segments. They are long enough that the fundamentals are subsonic, and the tone is of various overtones. The range of rod lengths was chosen so that in the upper, shorter segments, one overtone is strong enough to stand out as the defining pitch, while other overtones contribute to a coherent blend. Meanwhile, the longer lower segment has similar sets of overtone relationships with a predominant pitch an octave below the upper segment. When either the upper or lower segment is struck, the two parts interact to further enrich the tone. The final result is a mysterious bassy and metallic timbre, ideal for your next scoring project that needs something truly unique.