hardware controllers

[dragster]

I have been thinking about this for years. Unfortunately track pads have been too sluggish while joysticks have been too expensive.

But I saw something just a couple of days ago. A really good and affordable joystick. I'm going to contact the manufacturer soon and see if he's interested in a ZebraCon.

Urs

That would be very cool. If you could rig it to have two or four joysticks that would be perfect for a live scenario. And, with a few buttons/knobs for patch changes too. I'd get one in a second.

I'd take a joystick over a trackball because I like the way a joystick always moves back to zero.

I saw a guy perform with an old school Nintendo controller that he somehow rigged up. I wonder if that would work with zebra?

[pdxindy]

I love the XY pad on my Korg Z1 - It has a switch right next to it to either snap back to center or hold last position. It is great to be able to tap the pad in different places and jump in rhythm. No knobs, or sliders or joysticks can do that. I also like the Korg pad cause it has a good feel and surface. I've tried XY pads that I did not like nearly as much. Some XY pads do not have the hold option switch.

If I were to fantasize a bit, I would like a controller that had 4 of the Korg XY pads, but they would also be pressure sensitive (so really XYZ pads)

[MitchK1989]

the korg Z1's pad IS pressure sensitive if I recall correctly (I owned one for awhile)

[kodama]

I have the XStation, Kaoss Pad, and Pad Kontrol, which all have great/fast/accurate XY Pads with hold option.

Why XY pads are SO much better than joysticks, is that they can be linear or non-linear, you can slide to a value or jump to it, or jump slide, or hold down & tap 2 fingers to jump between points rapidly, etc...


I wonder how Korg sourced the pads for the Pad Kontrols?

They seem to be about the same size as a trackpad, and 4 of those together would be awesome....

Even more awesome would be LEDs to show what they are assigned to, whether in Zebra, or in Live as automap to the 8 macros..

[politcat]

I have the XStation, Kaoss Pad, and Pad Kontrol...

[kodama]

Well I don't have much crap, comparatively...

A lot of people have moogs and machine drums and lemurs, and modulars and such that cost more than my whole setup!

And actually my Kaoss Pad 1 needs soldering.

I think a cool idea is to make synths around popular/versatile hardware, like the BCR-2000.

Ship out the synth with the required CC# templates and label templates...

[thelizard]

I don't own Zebra (I've been using the demo semi-religiously for two weeks now), so I haven't tried this yet with Zebra specifically...

However, if you are using FLStudio, you can map Joysticks/Gamepads to XY coordinates with FL's XY Controller Plug-in. I have a gamepad that has a D-Pad, and two Analog sticks (a Gravis Eliminator), which in theory I should be able to map to three of the Zebra controllers (I'm writing a paper right now, so I can't be bothered to test it out right now... stupid freaking KVR in its distracting glory!!!... but I assume that should work).

How much do they cost? Drum roll please...
$15
http://www.altex.com/product_info.php?products_id=4836

Thank me later

Now back to this stupid philosophy paper...

[thelizard]

Oh, and if buying an out-of-production controller isn't your cup of tea, I'm 99% sure that an XBox360 controller would do the same job, if not better. They're $30-$40, and connect by USB, so that should be the bee's knees.

[Howard]

Why XY pads are SO much better than joysticks, is that they can be linear or non-linear, you can slide to a value or jump to it, or jump slide, or hold down & tap 2 fingers to jump between points rapidly, etc...

Agree! You could also trigger notes, which you can't do with a joystick
(But even 2 joysticks would be better than 4 knobs or a mouse)