From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Thu Oct 20 14:03:21 2005
Subject:Re: Controller options (was:Nord Electro still inspires & Why Doepfer)

Hi Ed,

>The long-discontinued Roland A-50 controller has both the pitch/mod lever AND separate pitch & mod wheels. It also has both channel
>aftertouch, and the considerably more rare polyphonic aftertouch.
>
>Given the trend towards virtual soft-systems and the need for live controllers with all the features you can get, I can't imagine
>why Roland doesn't make these anymore, let alone any of their controller line. What an odd marketing decision. None of the Edirol
>controllers are designed for live work and none of them are larger than 61 keys. If Roland would make a rugged controller for guys
>that want to play soft-synths live, one with at minimum all the features of the A-50 and then add 9 sliders, USB 2 and FireWire,
>they would have to make a killing.

Yes, Roland made some killer master controllers. I sincerely regret selling my MKB-300 years ago. I think the problem is, they were ahead of their time. No one needed the features back then, and everyone whined about the prices. It's probably left a bad taste at Roland, to the point where resurrecting the controller line is almost impossible to do in 2005.

Plus, abandoning all of their work in ROMplers to push soft synths is probably even harder to swallow!

>The closest full-featured controller-only keyboards I've seen so far are the M-Audio Keystation Pro88, the Doepfer LMK4+, and the
>Studiologic VMK-188 (and VMK-88), but then they're all 88-note hammer-frigin'-weighted, which makes them useless for playing
>anything but pianos on. Neither Doepfer, M-Audio or Studiologic even make a 76-note controller.

Actually, weighted keyboards are great for some synth stuff -- just not flying leads.

I've been trying to lobby for a 76-key weighted keyboard. In a band context, the extra 12 keys aren't all that useful, but the smaller footprint would be a help on smaller stages, and in the van/trailer. CME could easily do this if they wanted to: the hammer keys already exist, as does the 76-key case.

>BTW, why do people keep messing with the tried and true pitch & mod wheel setup on the original MiniMoog?

Because ARP dropped that gauntlet back in the '70s with their PPV (sp?) control. Even Moog went to ribbon controllers for a while. Roland bought into the alternate control concept big-time, too. Korg did, too, for a while.

I actually like the two-wheels-plus-ribbon format. There are certain things that just seem more intuitive on a ribbon.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™ http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com

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