Show HN: Talisman – A Android instrument played with two thumbs

Show HN: Talisman – A Android instrument played with two thumbs(talisman.by-igor.com)

12 points by ycosynot 23 days ago | 3 comments

ycosynot 23 days ago |

Hi HN,

I’m Pierre, the creator of Talisman Music. It should launch in one or 2 weeks, and frankly I'm just trying to spread the message. Basically, I asked Claude Opus 4.7 to design a better instrument than the guitar, and fitting on a smartphone's display. (No login, no subscription, no ads, no bs.)

What came about is Talisman, from our collaboration. I believe Talisman is pushing the envelope on virtual instruments, for both casuals & power users. Just look at the videos on the landing page.

I wanted something that had zero learning curve, no staves, and no chords to memorize, but still allowed for deep, expressive play. The devil is in the details. It’s a digital instrument played entirely with your two thumbs (ninjas can use 3 fingers all at once to marvelous effect) on an Android device (works great on tablet!). There is vibrato, bends, portamento, plucking, ...

The screen acts as a living surface—you drag your thumbs, and the app intelligently quantizes the input to specific scales so that "wrong" notes technically don't exist. You can only play yourself on key. I know there is power in making mistakes and offbeats, but bear with me that this is a new way to make music serenely, where it is all about improvising vibes around the root notes. Let's call it vibe playing (tho there are zero AI requests at all and it works offline).

There are different sound engines or "Souls" (e.g., a Japanese koto in a temple, a crystalline synth pad, etc.), which completely alter the visual and haptic feedback. You can see 3 of them in the landing page. There are 13 universes to explore by default, plus custom metronome beats for each style, and custom generation of shareable soul presets. You can also share a video of your performance with one button press, straight to your local folder or whatever social network you desire.

A few strict rules I followed:

  * No "App" Bloat: It works 100% offline once installed. No credit card. No login. No ads. No bullshit. I'll monetize with updates later "if it works". The base version will always be free.
  * Privacy first: There are no accounts, no telemetry, and no third-party SDKs. Local storage only.
  * Zero UI: There are no buttons or settings on the play screen. The graphic is the instrument.

This is launching on Google Play in May 2026. You can subscribe your email on the site to get an alert.

Please, if you are a musician, don't get angry at me for trying to vulgarize the process.

Hopefully any feedback, bubbling discussions, or whatever is welcome! IF anyone knows how to improve the concept, let me know!!!

https://talisman.by-igor.com

vunderba 22 days ago | |

Nice job. Quantizing to a given scale/signature controlled through touch or gestures to glide and create ambient textured soundscapes is actually a pretty well-explored space. I've seen some neat MPE-style ones that let you emulate aftertouch through haptic pressure and vibrato by wiggling your finger back and forth.

It’s a very popular genre of music apps on the iPad, since the larger screen lends itself well to this kind of musical performance. You should definitely check out apps like MorphWiz, GeoShred, etc. if you’re interested in this kind of thing.

ycosynot 22 days ago | | |

Thanks! I looked them up. MorphWiz looks amazing. I have no iPad but the videos look neat. I might have oversold my innovation. I have been thinking about haptic pressure as you say, this is the weakness on most devices. I am thinking about maybe using drawing devices for power users. Hey even on a drawing tablet with no display, it could be interesting to try out.

In any case, I did try my app on tablet and it feels great (and responsive on cheap CPU). Forgot to say, that there is a tremolo feature and which is key to expressiveness.

Thanks for the comment, appreciated!

* No "App" Bloat: It works 100% offline once installed. No credit card. No login. No ads. No bullshit. I'll monetize with updates later "if it works". The base version will always be free. * Privacy first: There are no accounts, no telemetry, and no third-party SDKs. Local storage only. * Zero UI: There are no buttons or settings on the play screen. The graphic is the instrument.