The Midi Controllers

Hi, it’s a bit quiet in here today, so I thought that this topic could catch everybody’s attention:

Let’s hear it for the MIDI CONTROLLERS!!!

Everybody should own at least one.

That said, do you use said controllers to record music with, or is it mostly a matter of parameter tweaking (something to impress the friends/girls/audience with)?
Did you design and/or assemble your own hardware?
Are you planning to purchase new gear, or stay with the stuff you got? Why so?

Yeah because personally, I’m looking into the Novation Nocturn coming out in February, it’s cheap and will replace my trusty old Doepfer pocket control. And, I would love it if somebody could point out a controller with MPC-like pressure-sensitive pads, but with a 8x8 configuration instead of 4x4. A bit like the monome - but pressure sensitive!

Current MIDI Controllers:

  • Roland PC160a keyboard
  • Doepfer Pocket Control
  • Jomox Xbase 09 (modified)

Looking forward to replies :slight_smile:

i have a oxygen 8(the version)i would like to use with renoise and reaper,i am thinking on either getting on more of those,or buy my a little bigger (49keys)but right now im considering getting the bcr instead to contro different parameters,vst and the like

Found some images from Robert Henkes (monolake) website showcasing his Monodeck II controller:
http://www.monolake.de/monodeck/gallery.html

He’s giving a thorough explanation in this hour-long video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=54…h&plindex=1

That’s just crazy!

yes thats a nice controller,

someone should make a dedicated renoise controller :D

Yes, a dedicated controller would be quite something…
Let’s make one, once the keyboard shortcuts become MIDI assignable :D

hehe that would be cool

Yes!! I just learned that the Korg padControl has something called the “native mode” in which every LED and button light can be controlled via SysEx. This means that the 4x4 layout isn’t a restriction, it could be any virtual size :slight_smile:

This is going to get noisy :drummer:

I don’t even know what this kind of harware is for. Even less how i would ever figure out how to use one or find any use att all for it. What does it do except blinking in many colors? Looks way too complicated.

If it’s the monodeck you’re referring to, then I’d have to agree.

Edit: but he has a strong point. He says that he is now able to create music without ever having to look at the screen.

2 Emu X-Board 49. Nothing fancy, guitar center sent me 2 on accident. I hope that they send me two EMU 1616M’s when I can finally afford one :D

Evolution X-Session

M-Audio Keystation 49e

I’m rarely using them, so i’m more busy cleaning dust from them instead of fiddling with the knobs. :)

i am a big fan of the CME controllers i have a UF5:
http://www.cme-pro.com/products-list/product-uf.html
though i havent used it properly in well over a year.

this site is really cool ,if your into building your own controllers

http://www.ucapps.de/

also check out this controller

http://traktorizer.de.vu/

Same here, I’m yet to find a really useful way to work with my Remote LE and BCR2000…

It’s interesting…but not surprising…that so many of us are not using the controllers we’ve bought.
I would conclude two things from this:

1: Renoise simply isn’t well suited for anything but simple parameter control (though I use a more advanced setup for live performance, I’m really happy with standard 16 rotary dials). I’ve written my own stuff using MIDIOX and Keykit, but it tends to be very specific, with a single purpose in mind, instead of the generic “monodeck” approach. And he forked out a lot of $$ and time on that one.

2: Renoise is great with a keyboard! Seriously, who needs a controller!!! People are mostly struck with what’s possible - realtime control over the music on a laptop, with no mouse and no controllers

How I see it, best of both worlds remain to have (recurring feature request) midi configurable keyboard shortcuts

Agreed about the keyboard shortcuts :yeah:

I think the future of midi control in software will be based around the idea of dynamically assigning controls. Some great examples include Propellerhead’s ReMote, Novation’s Automap and Cakewalk’s ACT.

Now that Renoise has a focus-based interface it’s already half way there IMO. It’s been suggested before as well,

http://www.renoise.com/board/index.php?sho…c=13459&hl=
http://www.renoise.com/board/index.php?sho…16&hl=focus

:walkman:

it would be cool,lets hope the devs sees this,would like to know if its that hard to implement,actually i would really like to know alittle more about what they will implement in renoise 2(even just a little hint) :D

AU support :P

hehe nice one,im on xp though

I know some of this is already in the pipeline but i can’t contain myself from being at least sort of an asshole ;)

Let’s hear it for Renoise letting us map more things so controllers become at least sort of useful beyond knob twiddling!

Let’s hear it for Renoise letting us map Aftertouch! Let’s hear it for Renoise letting us map channel mute/off, speed/bpm and post levels!

Let’s hear it for Renoise letting us automate the pitch wheel in an intuitive fashion!

Let’s hear it for post-record quantize!

But most of all;
Let’s hear it for Renoise adding a specific midi column so we don’t have to waste all our effect columns on midi data, and handle interpolation of values better in the process!

Seriously, i own a bunch of Midi controllers and use them for Ableton Live, but actually using midi for composing in Renoise is a nightmare at this point.
It’s fun to jam and play around, but to actually record anything useful from it that doesn’t wind up a human-unreadable mess is just horrible. It just doesn’t display midi data in any useful way; It’s hardly tempting to go in after a midi live recording session and tweak stuff to perfection.

My list of external gear:

M-audio Firewire 410 audio/midi interface
Clavia Nord Micro modular
Korg R3
MidiNES
M-audio Oxygen8
M-audio Triggerfinger
Akai MPD24

Sequencing the synths are done pretty much exclusively through manual keyboard input of notes. I just can’t be arsed with the mess midi recording produces.