From ccmacdon@rogers.com Mon Oct 28 14:41:33 2013
Subject:Re: Question about Roland VR-09 & Hammond SK1

Sorry, but it's not much of a midi controller if it can't control pitch or modulation..   that's a minimum for anything that I would really consider in the "good" controller category.   I wouldn't call my Mojo a "good" midi controller, but it will send note on/off velocity and sustain that's all I need it to send in order to trigger my Kronos or my old Sonic Cell.
 
Your definition of good and mine are obviously different.  

Regards,
Craig MacDonald


________________________________
From: "anotherscott@hotmail.com"
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 5:24:45 PM
Subject: RE: Re: [CWSG] RE: Question about Roland VR-09 & Hammond SK1

 
It's not perfect. I called it a pretty good MIDI controller, not a great one. ;-)  But really, for a lot of people, I think it can be a nice controller. It's light, it has up to 88 keys, expression pedal, footswitch (separate from its rotary toggle pedal for the internal organ sound), 9 drawbars that send MIDI CC, support for three external zones, and 100 user presets that can include 3 sets of MIDI program change commands complete with octave transposition, volume, and other parameters. That's a pretty useful setup. It's not for everyone. As I said, sure, it would be better with pitch/mod wheels (and aftertouch), that was kind of my point. But not every player must have those things. 

As I've mentioned, I use pitch/mod rarely, in part because of the kinds of sounds I use and parts I play, and because I rarely have the hand free anyway. I may find ways to do what I need through foot pedals or through programming the sound itself. Of course the SK1 will be a bad controller choice for someone who needs pitch/mod wheels! But not everyone does, and the board has a lot of useful MIDI functionality that other clonewheels lack. 

For example, the Numa Organ has pitch and mod wheels, 73 keys, and drawbars that send MIDI CC, but lacks the ability to store and send MIDI Program Changes. The VR-09 has the pitch/mod controls, but is limited to 61 keys, can only send one definable Program Change per user preset, and has, I believe, no knobs or sliders that send MIDI CC you can use to control an external parameter. The Nord Stage 2 lacks physical drawbars. The Kurzweils and the Kronos will be much better MIDI controllers than the SK1, but they weigh a lot more for comparable # of keys, and their clonewheel sound/functionality lags.

It's always something, and that something is always going to be essential to some people and expendable to others. Everyone just needs to decide what they need. You seem to keep insisting that everyone needs pitch/mod controls, but people's needs are different. Personally, I find some of these other things more important.

---In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, wrote:
AnotherScott, I'm really not sure how you can keep on saying that the SK1 is a pretty good midi controller when it doesn't have a joystick or pitchbend/modwheels!  That's a pretty basic requirement of a midi controller!

Sorry..

Craig
Sent from my iPad

>>