Namm 2013

[TweakHead]

theres' a joystick in my novation controller - a remote sl mk2, that is. when I bought it I thought I'd be using the x/y pad on that a lot, but it's so unresponsive that I seem to forget it is there, actually. same thing with the included drum pads. but the joystick is actually pretty handy once you get used to it. I think those wacom pens with touch sensors on them can make great x/y controllers, though. there's people using the wii controllers as well, once saw some software which made it easy to assign stuff, but don't really remember the name of it.

but while I'm at it... I think these manufacturers should be making real good midi controllers, with excelent build quality and good features on them. most of them feel like cheap plastic and some features are misleading, like on the remote SL. as far as synths are concerned, I really like the way the virus is laid out, having access to most features really fast and the knobs feel good as well. but the automap feature was also a good idea, sort like the total integration of the virus, and only recently with the last updates are they catching up to what's been promissed - it actually works great and has a very nice interface nowadays, one can almost forget he's using a software and get lost on a softsynth easilly.

Noticed some of the midi controllers are now trying to be Ableton friendly, with coloured pads and stuff like that. That's cool for some uses, but I'd really like to have nice keyboard action and awsome knobs, maybe ribbon controller, motorised-fadders or at least nice and sturdy ones, and a layout that's thought out to be used with synths mainly. Most of this goes for the synths themselves as well. Now imagine that the next line of the Virus would be thought like this, a standard layout that you're used to, but you could actually load different synths on it from the sofware.

Or another company that would do this. All it takes is computer power inside the controller and a built-in audio interface. And you'd have a midi controller with dsp driven synths that would work in stand-alone for live usage, but more like an open source alternative. Or a platform like Universal Audio for synths. This could be great fun I think. Total Integration would of course just make it even more fun, so if Access has the patent for that and reads this. Could even be a paralel product. You'd have a buyer for something like this here.