Looking for an XYZ midi controller

Anything about hardware musical instruments.
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xybre
KVRAF
Topic Starter
1758 posts since 19 May, 2006 from Nomadic (Chicago and San Francisco mostly)

Post Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:50 pm

Only requirements is that it can send 3 simultaneous signals somehow over midi.

I was thinking a normal X/Y touchpad controller with pressure sensor.

If all else fails I'll build one myself by using a pressure sensitive pad beneath a touch-screen controller of some sort. But I wondered if something like it already existed.
noise and beats: Negutyv Xeiro do people actually click these?
gearlust: Roland JP-8000, too much/not enough eurorack
machinecode by: u-he, Bitwig, Fabfilter, NI, et al

siriusbliss
KVRAF
2493 posts since 6 Dec, 2005 from Bay Area, USA

Post Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:26 pm

You mean something like the Roland d-beams?

G
Don't ask me, I just play here.

dadaumpa
KVRist
153 posts since 28 Mar, 2008

Post Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:41 am

the (now discontinued) Alesis Photon X25. not very common, but goes cheap enough on eBay from time to time.

cheers,
Aldo

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xybre
KVRAF
Topic Starter
1758 posts since 19 May, 2006 from Nomadic (Chicago and San Francisco mostly)

Post Fri Jul 09, 2010 6:07 am

siriusbliss wrote:You mean something like the Roland d-beams?

G
They always seemed imprecise and unreliable though, I've never heard a lot of good things about it.
dadaumpa wrote:the (now discontinued) Alesis Photon X25. not very common, but goes cheap enough on eBay from time to time.

cheers,
Aldo
Same principal as the D-Beam right? How well does it work in comparison?
noise and beats: Negutyv Xeiro do people actually click these?
gearlust: Roland JP-8000, too much/not enough eurorack
machinecode by: u-he, Bitwig, Fabfilter, NI, et al

siriusbliss
KVRAF
2493 posts since 6 Dec, 2005 from Bay Area, USA

Post Fri Jul 09, 2010 9:19 am

xybre wrote:
siriusbliss wrote:You mean something like the Roland d-beams?

G
They always seemed imprecise and unreliable though, I've never heard a lot of good things about it.
dadaumpa wrote:the (now discontinued) Alesis Photon X25. not very common, but goes cheap enough on eBay from time to time.

cheers,
Aldo
Same principal as the D-Beam right? How well does it work in comparison?
I love the d-beams - but they work using infrared in mid-air, so you don't get the tactile response.

I have bookmarks somewhere of other small companies that build surface controllers for other applications such as ship navigation, lighting control, etc. that can probably be adopted.

FWIW I also like the combination of a Korg padKontrol with MIDI-OX for mapping drum-rolls (z-axis pressure) to other functions. With the padKontrol you at least get x-y pad combined with the trigger pads that have velocity sensing (quasi-aftertouch), which can be remapped to whatever you want (using MIDI-OX or pK's internal programming).

Greg
Don't ask me, I just play here.

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xybre
KVRAF
Topic Starter
1758 posts since 19 May, 2006 from Nomadic (Chicago and San Francisco mostly)

Post Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:38 pm

This looks almost perfect:
http://madronalabs.com/hardware

Too much wood, and probably too expensive, if it ever ships at all though. :(
noise and beats: Negutyv Xeiro do people actually click these?
gearlust: Roland JP-8000, too much/not enough eurorack
machinecode by: u-he, Bitwig, Fabfilter, NI, et al

siriusbliss
KVRAF
2493 posts since 6 Dec, 2005 from Bay Area, USA

Post Tue Jul 13, 2010 3:16 pm

The Haken is pretty cool - but pricey...
http://www.cerlsoundgroup.org/Continuum/

There are some DIY controllers listed here.
http://www.synthzone.com/ctrlr.htm

Greg
Don't ask me, I just play here.

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xybre
KVRAF
Topic Starter
1758 posts since 19 May, 2006 from Nomadic (Chicago and San Francisco mostly)

Post Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:39 pm

siriusbliss wrote:The Haken is pretty cool - but pricey...
http://www.cerlsoundgroup.org/Continuum/
Oh I forgot about that. But yeah. That costs more than any most of my audio hardware and software combined.

technically it shouldn't be hard to build one. There's instructions how to build a Soundplane on their website. Might need to build a hardware interface to convert from internal voltage directly to MIDI. I don't understand why they insist on using USB and then screwing with it all in MAX (exclusively, I mean).
noise and beats: Negutyv Xeiro do people actually click these?
gearlust: Roland JP-8000, too much/not enough eurorack
machinecode by: u-he, Bitwig, Fabfilter, NI, et al

Banned
KVRist
41 posts since 9 Feb, 2023

Post Sat May 27, 2023 8:08 am

xybre wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:50 pm Only requirements is that it can send 3 simultaneous signals somehow over midi.

I was thinking a normal X/Y touchpad controller ..
After 13 y this is still dream in Bitwig (having only XYpad) and same in Pure Data/ Plug Data - device aim for integrating music and graphic production..
Fl Studio have it for kids already about 4 y - tough based on XY.
But thnx got we have a Dribble device... :wink:

Working on it in Plug Data - http://sigsaly.xf.cz/pd/ - if anybody have idea let me know..

FranklyFlawless
KVRian
518 posts since 24 Oct, 2022 from Abbotsford, British Columbia

Post Sat May 27, 2023 1:03 pm

Plenty of MPE hardware controllers on the market now. The Surfaces list is most likely to satisfy the touchpad criteria.

Banned
KVRist
41 posts since 9 Feb, 2023

Post Sat May 27, 2023 5:05 pm

FranklyFlawless wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 1:03 pm Plenty of MPE hardware controllers on the market now.
So it makes my comment about lack of XYZ pad in Plug Data or Bitwig even more scandalous.)
Soft devices lack behind HW not only in sound, but also in options - it is too much even for sci-fi movie.. 8)
It can be probably done (in BW, Pd) trough with interpolation of xy.. but xyz should be in DAWs 10 y ago, now we should be messing with topology, meshing...

Missing Vectorsynth on your list - http://sigsaly.xf.cz/wp-content/uploads ... 5/warp.mp4 - but it is over 1000 eur and in soft one should be able to do even more..

FranklyFlawless
KVRian
518 posts since 24 Oct, 2022 from Abbotsford, British Columbia

Post Sat May 27, 2023 6:33 pm

Banned wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 5:05 pm Missing Vectorsynth on your list - http://sigsaly.xf.cz/wp-content/uploads ... 5/warp.mp4 - but it is over 1000 eur and in soft one should be able to do even more..
It is not, that is the Beetlecrab Vector.

Banned
KVRist
41 posts since 9 Feb, 2023

Post Wed May 31, 2023 10:28 am

FranklyFlawless wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 6:33 pm It is not, that is the Beetlecrab Vector.
Yep, it is... and they were kind of hiding, that these are simple Lissajous curves - http://sigsaly.xf.cz/knots/ - these is pretty overlooked topic..
In their promo vids, they were also lying that they are 3D - very marketing oriented presentation rising bunch of doubts about particular synth capability..

Milkman
KVRist
223 posts since 17 Mar, 2005 from Bay Area

Post Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:00 am

Banned wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 10:28 am
FranklyFlawless wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 6:33 pm It is not, that is the Beetlecrab Vector.
Yep, it is... and they were kind of hiding, that these are simple Lissajous curves - http://sigsaly.xf.cz/knots/ - these is pretty overlooked topic..
In their promo vids, they were also lying that they are 3D - very marketing oriented presentation rising bunch of doubts about particular synth capability..
I've just acquired the Vector Synth about 2 weeks ago and found this thread because I am looking for folks who have used it inside Bitwig. The Vector is fairly amazing and instantly became my top synth, and I knew that before it showed up specifically because of all the videos about it online. Ive had some of my very favorite ambient jams of my entire life on this instrument in the last couple weeks, and Ive been doing this for 20 years.

Im not sure if the Beetlecrab folks made any dishonest statements about the orbiter being "3d", and if you consider the dimensions of sound that are automated by them, is this not multi-dimensional? Where do you see that they lied about this? Now that I've used this wonderful Synth for some time, I am very protective of it lol. =P

My only trouble with Vector today is that I cant seem to get Bitwig 4 to read the arp output from the Vector, which has its own output channel. In Cubase the vector works fine in/out, but Im struggling to get Bitwig to even see the arp midi.

Also, Ive had the Vector for about 12 days now, and it has crashed 3x in that time. Just random crashes, in the middle of a jam. I hope it doesnt do this very often and/or that Beetlecrab can stabilize it via additional firmware updates. And the thing is built like a tank! I could probably throw it through my window and it wouldnt bother it lol.

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Tj Shredder
KVRAF
8610 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space

Post Wed Jun 21, 2023 6:46 am

Milkman wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:00 am My only trouble with Vector today is that I cant seem to get Bitwig 4 to read the arp output from the Vector, which has its own output channel. In Cubase the vector works fine in/out, but Im struggling to get Bitwig to even see the arp midi.
Did you setup an extra script for the arp Midi port?

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