[sdiy] modular synth controller

[Robert Leiner]

This is something interesting for a virtual knob control surface.

http://www.studer.ch/produkte/bilder/Vista%207/Vistonics-(700-px).jpg
http://www.studer.ch/products12-vista7.htm

A TFT display with built in rotary knobs so the background layout can
be configured for different uses. This is how I se the future will become!

/Robert Leiner

http://www.leinermedia.com



> On Monday 12 January 2004 16:15, Rude 66 wrote:
>> the only other solution i can think of, would be installing a large
>> touch screen as a second monitor on your pc, and running the vst
>> synth on it. like those touch screen ticket machines in public
>> transport. the roland v-synth has a large screen that works
>> surprisingly well. but we'd be talking 15 or 17 inch here.
> 
> I've vented the touch-screen ideas several times. As you would probably
> like to use the touch screen with your fingers and not with a stylus,
> the current crop of M$-endorsed tablet PC is a no-go, which is a shame,
> as you can get one of these (the Via EZ30M) for under $1000. Also, the
> finger is not precise enough for many of the VST instrument skins that
> I've seen.
> 
> I've recently bought a Casio PV460 specifically to make a MIDI
> controller from it's touch screen. I haven't figured out yet if I can
> coerce the UART in the thing to put out MIDI directly. You wouldn't
> want to put a complete skin on 160x160 monochrome pixels, though.
> 
> Last but not least, modular controllers are possible: consider a
> lab-on-a-board type arrangement of power and data bussing. You can then
> plug in any controller (like endless encoder, slider or CV in) anywhere
> onto this backplane. The controllers self-organize into a logical chain
> so that each one has a time-slot to insert and extract data from the
> bus. Then of course you'd need some controller to make use of this data
> and "learn" to do new things. This is more expensive than doing the
> control surface directly, but done correctly you could simply yank the
> cutoff knob from the panel and put it someplace more convenient or tell
> it to let go of the cutoff and instead control the volume - all while
> the rest of your setup is operating completely undisturbed.
> 
> 
> Achim.