Universal Synth Remote - VSTi midi Control

[beely]

Lot's of things can be in the ballpark. My RS7000s were in the ballpark as well.

Your ballpark is not even the same game as mine, lt alone the same ballpark, then!

The row of eight knobs with visual interface is actually much better for programming.

Not for me. It's exactly the problems with this approach that made me create me own solution for my need.

[nori.lam]

Just curious but are the parameters limited to 128 in Ableton?

Also I dont really see how this is more 'universal' then say Push 2 + Sigabort Preditor or NI S-series keyboards with their plugin mapping solution. Both these have LCD screen that dynamically show parameter names and values.

Did you guys consider using lcd for some of the knobs/faders so they can be dynamically mapped? I assume this would push the price up but would make it more 'universal.'

Either way its an interesting idea.

[ghettosynth]

Lot's of things can be in the ballpark. My RS7000s were in the ballpark as well.

Your ballpark is not even the same game as mine, lt alone the same ballpark, then!

I doubt that you're doing something that unique, really. The RS7K covers a lot of "basic" ground. However, once you start to get past that then synths start getting very specific. Even something as generic, by today's standards, as a Matrix 12 is too complex unless you have a huge interface.

The row of eight knobs with visual interface is actually much better for programming.

Not for me. It's exactly the problems with this approach that made me create me own solution for my need.

Well, unless you want to describe your approach then there's not much to talk about. It's easy to make claims without providing any food for discussion. For me, as complexity increases, you really need a dedicated interface. So, if you're talking about generic interfaces that work across multiple synths you need some way to abstract all of the different types of controls.

I have tried multiple touchscreen approaches, but, they are still to slow and imprecise for performance or programming. There are some touch methods that work well, but they are too complex.

In the end, once you start combining all of the constraints of performance and programming I think that it's really difficult to beat either the mouse, or a controller dedicated to a synth.

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Just curious but are the parameters limited to 128 in Ableton?

Also I dont really see how this is more 'universal' then say Push 2 + Sigabort Preditor or NI S-series keyboards with their plugin mapping solution. Both these have LCD screen that dynamically show parameter names and values.

Did you guys consider using lcd for some of the knobs/faders so they can be dynamically mapped? I assume this would push the price up but would make it more 'universal.'

Either way its an interesting idea.

Yeah we are currently limited by Abletons 128 parameter limit.

We have 2 soft Osc controls with displays. and 4 other soft controls with displays. These can have multiple pages.

I dont think it's any more universal than NI stuff but as far as i know it's the first dedicated synth controller with auto parameter switching.

[nori.lam]

Thanks for the reply.

What do you mean by auto parameter switching?

[HcDoom]

Will buy one for sure!!! Also, please add option so the users can map parameters themselves as well. So we have two options: factory and user...

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Thanks for the reply.

What do you mean by auto parameter switching?

We have software between the controller and the daw that automatically maps the right parameters to the right controls.

In abletons case it is just an ableton remote script. All be it a pretty complicated one.

But for example with Uhe Diva we can do stuff like detect what osc panel you are using and select the right controls for that panel.

All Daws are different and we have to do something bespoke for each Daw so it's quite a bit of work. Ableton one is done and Logic is well under way.

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Will buy one for sure!!! Also, please add option so the users can map parameters themselves as well. So we have two options: factory and user...

We will make the plugin mappings user editable so you can make your own versions of ones we have done or make your own ones for synths we might not have got done yet.

[nori.lam]

Sounds pretty cool.
Look forward to some video demos

[knowix]

This reminds me that for a while now I've been beating a particular drum about plugin controllers.

The big failing of Novation Automap is that you had to use a separate, rather utilitarian, GUI. And that you had to configure it for use. The plugin has a perfectly good GUI so why not use it.

So either the plugin would have to be designed to reflect what parameter is being controlled by a particular physical knob. Or the controller dev would have to overlay the plugin GUI with this info.

[VariKusBrainZ]

The most annoying thing about most controllers is that it is difficult to do fine tuning of parameters. Most controllers simply jump through too large values and have too little resolution.

I've been waiting for decades for somebody to realize this and actually program an intelligent controller that works like the virtual knobs of FabFilter plugins. If you turn the knobs slowly you get super fine tuned small values and the more you ramp up the "speed" of your tweaking, the larger the value jumps are. This is tricky to finetune properly and I know for a fact that FabFilter worked very hard on this aspect alone.

If somebody did this intelligent scaling knobs for real in hardware and was able to translate this to plugins then I'd be all over it. Novation are sort of doing it but even at very low speeds the values are still too coarse in many critical applications (like finetuning FM modulation depth or any other parameter that has huge sonic changes with tiny value changes).

Mapping isn't a big deal in my opinion any more.. most DAW's and VSTi plugins have easy built in mapping that saves with the preset. If you want to automate something that isn't mapped it usually takes about 5 to 10 seconds to remap it.

The IBK 10 did this over a decade ago, with programmable LCD for each knob, still got mine, built like a tank and was cheaper than alot of lower quality controllers you can get today

[slackerluddite]

Definitely interested in this type of device... diy is hard work especially when you want it work efficiently in a daw.

Would be important to make it super fast and clear switching between vst instruments in a project... would it follow the selected track or would it be controller on the unit.

How much do you expect this will cost? Maybe it would be wise to offset the costs with making the presets to be paid for... just to make it more sustainable? The most important thing is that it still works in 5 years time when we are all on newer OS and vst4 or whatever it will be... so the company has to stay afloat!

Anyway I'm pretty sure with the hardware boom that's going on people will start to long for the simplicity of in the box again and they'll all definitely want something like this.

I certainly do

[slackerluddite]

Oh and forgot to say +1 for Bitwig support!

[slackerluddite]

Will it send 14 bit midi cc? Do many soft synths support 14 bit midi cc?

[zengel]

I'm waiting for this type of product since so many years , looking for everywhere to see if some compagny did it , no one. I never understood why no one thought about it until you, now ! It make so mutch sense as all vsti are osc, filter, lfo, (h)adsr . Then make it real and you will make a Jack Pot ! really ! waiting for your product to buy it ! Do you have a guess for the date you will sell it ?