Synthesizers and midi instruments are commonly controlled with a piano-style keyboard, where each key triggers a specific pitch and are arranged in a low to high, left right configuration, where the 12 pitches of the equal tempered chromatic scale occur in succession with natural notes lying closer to the player, and accidentals aka flats and sharps staggered slightly forward and away from the player.
The samchillian compensates for narrowing or widening of that interval, aka minor or Major 2nds, 3rds, 6ths, and 7ths – as well as flat 5ths or augmented 4ths.
This initially provides a notion of easy virtuosity on a samchillian, although eventually, players will realize that maximum benefit from the instrument will only be gained by memorizing and being able to use the interval keys to execute more specific musical intentions.
The key/interval assignments were decided on after Gruenbaum studied the alternate keyboard layout concepts of August Dvorak.
The hardware unit features indicator lights based on the last 3 digits in binary of the MIDI note number, a knob that serves as a pitch wheel, the ability to plug in an expression pedal (controlling parameters of vibrato, wah, etc.,) and an 8-bit 11 kHz sine wave to allow the instrument to be used in a standalone mode without the need for an external sound source to be triggered.
Although frequently used as a single note soloing instrument, it has been used for chords, percussion, and bass lines in ensemble settings.
[3] The organizer of this competition stated that "Some instruments – controllers – have this short or sometimes long learning curve, but once you get to a certain point, you know it, and that’s what it can do.
“On 10/13/15, I asked Leon if he could add a vibrato function to the samchillian, or at least an LFO effect that could be manually added to the ends of notes.
[7] Misha is a samchillian in a Eurorack unit with greater scale options and a powerful interval based sequencer/looping element.
Misha adds the option of approaching the relativistic concept via a traditional piano style keyboard or the samchillian QWERTY layout.
[8] Shortly after creating the samchillian, Gruenbaum met the guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour/Ronald Shannon Jackson And The Decoding Society fame, and began gigging in earnest on the new instrument, playing it with Reid's Masques around New York and in European jazz festivals.
[9] Currently, Leon continues to play with Vernon Reid, James Blood Ulmer, and Burnt Sugar.
Among them are jazz organist Brian Charette, Rodney Clarke, Adrian Romero, and Vernon Reid.
A collection of videos featuring samchillian as a trigger for a Yamaha Disklavier have been published on YouTube by a user going by theremind.