What exactly is the Slim 21?
The Slim 21 is Haken Audio's newest Continuum Fingerboard, an expressive MPE+ playing surface that reads pitch, pressure and finger position instead of triggering fixed notes. It packs 21 half steps, nearly two octaves, into a body that measures 45 x 19 x 3 cm and weighs 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs), light enough to carry in a backpack rather than a flight case. Every note runs through the same EaganMatrix engine found in Haken's full flagship: virtual analog, additive and physical modeling synthesis, plus FM, all shaped in real time by how you actually move your fingers across the neoprene surface.
Why does a cheaper Continuum matter?
Haken's full-size Continuum Fingerboard lists at $5,290; the half-size runs $3,390. Both have stayed studio-bound, expensive instruments mostly reserved for touring composers and sound designers with deep pockets. The Slim 21 ships now for $1,799, the cheapest full-engine Continuum Haken has ever sold, and it slots into a Slim lineup that already spans the wider Slim46 and Slim70. That's the real story here: the same continuous-pitch, per-finger expression that's shaped ambient, modular and ECM-adjacent electronic records for two decades is now priced closer to a decent synth than a used car.
What do you actually get for $1,799?
Each finger is tracked by up to 12 independent Hall-effect sensors, digitized through ultra-high-speed A/D converters, so pitch bend, pressure and front-to-back tone shaping all read continuously rather than in MIDI-CC steps. The unit ships with a carry-on EVA case, USB-C cables, two DIN5 MIDI adapters and more than 500 presets, plus Haken's own editor software for macOS and Windows. It's still a niche instrument built for players who want to bend a note the way a violinist does, not for anyone chasing a quick preset workflow, but it's the first Continuum priced for a home studio rather than a commissioned installation.
