From jason_stanfield@mac.com Mon Aug 22 10:07:51 2011
Subject:Re: Ventura Clontrol

To address some of the comments:

Construction:
The chassis is metal; just the top and side panels are (real) wood. We eschewed plastic because we didn't want it to be brittle and disposable. It needs to have a little heft to it so it doesn't move around easily during use (which is what I meant by "doesn't travel easily).

Price:
We've strived to keep costs as low as possible, and the price reflects that. There are a ton of things I could go into -- like the fact that we built in a small margin, that right now there are no other authentic drawbar controllers out there right now, and the only other thing like it promises to be double the price, that many of the 'boards these will be used with cost *twice* as much as others in their class (and their owners still complain about having no drawbars!!), that this can be used for devices and plugins other than clones (it is a universally-programmable MIDI controller, after all), that it's not a featherweight plastic toy, etc. -- but the quality and practicality speak for themselves.

Rotary Switch:
One was considered, but decided against -- rotary toggles belong on the left side of the keybed, not on another device entirely -- so the Clontrol's rotary control buttons were meant for plugin users.

Market:
Someone mentioned this list is the target market; to be fair, this list represents a fraction of the clone-playing market. Hundreds of Vents have sold worldwide despite a cumulative lukewarm response on this Group. I personally oversaw the sale of thousands of red keyboards for 5 years -- all day every day talking to people who all said the same thing: "great sound, but I wish it had drawbars". I'm aware that the more finicky players live in this forum, and I appreciate your comments and attention to detail; we're confident that the Clontrol will be of enormous value to many players.

Size:
We *could* have made a single-set version of the Clontrol, but that made little sense to us. Switching between two drawbar sets live means you have to (A) make the drawbars "grab" the current setting to adjust them, (B) have the setting "jump" to where the drawbar is physically, or (C) to make everyone happy, make "grab" or "jump" programmable options. In a dual manual situation, neither are very practical, plus it wouldn't have bass drawbars.

If the idea is to make a drawbar controller, why make a half one? Twenty drawbars are needed, which accounts for most of its size. Add in programming controls, and the Clontrol is as compact as any device of its type *can* be; there's simply no way to make it smaller without building in limitations like using tiny drawbars, or mixer faders (!), or making it USB-only programmable, or some other major limitation. And it can't be helped that it can't sit on top of other keyboards, whose makers are striving for compact size themselves.

We're really proud of the Clontrol and think it's something that is of great value to many players who don't have, but want, real drawbars to use live.

Jason Stanfield