alternative keyboard controller project

[Steve Richardson]

danial stocks wrangled the electrons to say:
> 
> Isn't this what the Korg chaospad does?


I think the ChaosPad is just X-Y (at least according to the website).

I made something similar to the controller in the ChaosPad out of an
old MicroTouch UnMouse absolute X-Y input device.  I figured out the
protocol by trial and error (and of course found a document describing
it on their website later).. I run it into an 8051-based MIDI
development board that I designed and have it translate to MIDI
controller output.  

It's pretty neat.  I made a bunch of patches on my Ensoniq DP/4
effects box that would position, for example, filter resonance and
filter cutoff on X and Y respectively.. You can then 'play' the filter
even more expressively than with knobs.  Another cool one was reverb
decay time on one axis and wet/dry mix on the other axis.  I could
then bring sounds in and out of "the deep beyond."  Sounded cool to
bring a little arpeggiated thing in from a huge pile of reverb.

I have a picture of it on my webpage describing the MIDIbrick (the
aforementioned MIDI development board).. The page is badly in need of
some updating to bring it up to the level of my other project pages,
but it's probably better than nothing.

http://www.gweep.net/~prefect/eng/midibrick/

Scroll down towards the bottom for the UnMouse MIDI controller.


By the way, I have seen these controllers at the MIT Flea before.. For
those in the Boston, MA area, there's a Flea this Sunday...

-S


-- 

 Stephen S. Richardson                  The GweepCo Cooperative Network
 prefect at gweep.net                      network access * technology vulturing
 http://www.gweep.net/~prefect/         http://www.gweep.net/