intuitive controllers

Hi all,

I am looking for really intuitive Midi controllers in order to controll softsynths.

I think of controllers like the Alesis dome (the one in Air-Fx and some newer keyboards that thy sell),

or like the d-beam of Roland (do you know where to get it without a whole Roland synth around it?).

Like the Doepfer ribbon controller DM4 ...

or like the Korg Kaoss-Pad.

There must be much more and even more intuitive controllers out there. Once I have seen a controller with a seperate space for each of the 10 fingers ... formed ergonomically ...

Also I once found a website with quite many touchless controllers (like the theremin / D-beam / dome ), but I can't find it any more.

Who knows, uses or builds such controllers?

Thanks,

Holger

Doepfer is the best maker of midi controller gear IMHO, but it is more professional and expensive and therefore probably unnecessary when other controllers work just as well.

Hi all,

hi Khazul,

thank you for the reply and the link.

Well, this goes into the right direction. But it does not seem to be very flexible in comparison to the price and the big amount of hardware ...

... During my live performances I change quite a lot between different synths / Rhodes / Laptop and I also play Saxes and other instruments. Such a suit does not seem to be the right thing for me.

But - I'm happy to see that people go into these questions and find their solutions.

Also I am wondering if there is so little interest in intuitive controllers - only two replies to this thread so far. Do most of the keyboarders just use the black and white ones?

All sort of players here - but there is definately a crowd that mainly (exclusively?) black and whites and there is also a crowd that is very much at the other extreme - simple progressions arps etc with loads of motion in filters, fx etc.

If you want an extra pair of controllers for when you hands and feet are all in use - then this is where roland d-beams come (or alesis equiv) - just stick you head in the beams

V-Synth rocks for this

Maybe I should get one of these:

http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/MPEGs/GW.mpg

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Or maybe I should dance a little more?

http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/MPEGs/DanceSpace.mpg

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No ... I like animals too much for this one !!

http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu//courses/eceprojectsland/STUDENTPROJ/2002to2003/lil2/hamsterMIDI1.avi

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You see, there are a lot of posibillities.

The D-beam is one of them, and it is quite usable (comparing to the one with the hamsters).

Maybe I should really think of a Roland Synth ...

Oh, here are some more:

http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/MPEGs/KaiYuh_Baton.mpg

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http://infusionsystems.com/catalog/info_pages.php?pages_id=138

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But honestly ... it should be possible to build some really cool controllers with infrared, magnetic fields, lasers in combination with light sensors and so on.

I wonder why there are not some more handable controllers of that kind out on the marked.

The reason it doesn't happen is because it's the thin end of the marketing wedge. A few people go ga over the creativity of it, but many people believe they can accomplish the same musical purpose with a standard (slider/knob/pad) gesture.

One of the problems of electronic music is the lack of compelling visuals. There are not that many ways of showing physical cause and effect. So you would think that musicians would be salivating over some of the MIT stuff. Many us like the ideas ... but we'll wait until they are standardized and midi compatible.

If you do a search on D beam, you'll see the hard time that alternative controllers get around here.

Jerry

I'm looking into controllers for an interactive sound installation... the one I'm currently most interested in is here:

http://infusionsystems.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/21/products_id/28

It lets you hook various controllers (laser triggers, distance beams, knobs, pressure panels, etc) up to a little box that has a MIDI output. You use software to configure the box, but it then does its own thing. No soldering needed if you use their controllers, no weird interface drivers or whatever needed unless you choose to write them. It is pretty modular and you can basically build whatever weird controller you want.

The downside is it's expensive. But then there's that old engineering rule: fast to design, cheap to build, it works. Choose two.

Hi "submodern",

thanks for that link.

I knew about these products and they are really quite handable.

Maybe I'll buy sone of those.

Just now I found someone who built whole-body-suits in former times. One of his suits is still there and not even ready made. So it can be customized.

We'll see ... maybe this will be my controller.

It uses bend - sensors for up to 8 joints. In combination with inrared distance sensors this could be fun!

Yes, this little Midi-Box ("Digitizer") that the I-cubeX system uses seems very good to handle. Hopefully one can combine this with the whole-body controller that I found.

In case that I will decide to go for it, I'll let you know.