[sdiy] ... Simulating a Moog

[Julian Bunn]

Hi again Richard,

On the topic of virtual knobs:

> 
> I used to have this, but it's been waning of late. That's 
> partly just the 
> (im)practicality factor. I may be playing at a small festival 
> in the US 
> later in the year, and it would just be 
> IIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN
> NEEEEEEEEEEE 
> to try to ship even a small modular across the Atlantic and 
> back again.
[snip]
> 
> Okay, but you still have the weight and portability issue. 
> It's interesting 
> to wonder about some kind of virtual knob interface that uses 
> optical back 
> scattering from a projector to guess where your hand is in 
> relation to a 
> virtual knob or patch panel.

So there are these whiteboard attachments that digitise what you
draw on the board so you can keep a record of it. Perhaps something
like that could be modified so that you could simply take a
rolled up plastic sheet printed with your huge control panel, pin it up
to the wall at the location, attach the digitiser, hook to your
laptop, align the system and then have it respond in real time to 
your stabs, strokes and twiddles of the printed knobs and controls 
on the printout?

I dunno ... maybe it's science fiction.

> 
> There's a laser based system that works for PDAs that's due 
> Real Soon Now 
> that works like this.

Any details on that?

> 
> The T221 sounds great, but where can you get them for $3k? 
> Cheapest price I 
> found online was more than twice that.

You're right: I was looking at a price quoted at 
http://www.ibuyernet.com/search~str~Monitors+LCD+22in~compare_price.htm
which turns out to be a fictitious entry :-)

> >LOL. This is another of those statements that initially 
> sounds absurd,
> >but then the more you think about it, the more you wonder if 
> it really
> >is so daft :-)
> 
> No, it's absurd. Trust me on this. :-)

OK I trust you ... 

> 
> A lot of hifi is absurd. E.g. you could improve the quality of CD 
> DAC/Transport separates out of all recognition just by adding 
> a reference 
> clock to eliminate jitter. But instead manufacturers spend a 
> lot of money 
> on stupid 'vibration eliminating feet' and other gimmicks that have a 
> marginal (at best) effect on the sound. Or put supposedly audiophile 
> components into designs that are barely decent to start with.
> 
> Richard
> 
> 

Julian