[sdiy] MIDI CC with Pots

[Jacob Watters]

Thanks for all of the great feedback so far. I really appreciate it.

Richard, to answer your question, my friend has many years of
experience making synths for himself but has never made something that
he intends to sell. I tried to tell him that he was thinking like an
engineer and not a musician, but he wouldn't listen. I think that part
of it is that I have only been making synth for a few years. However,
I have been playing synths since I was a child and think I have a good
understanding of how musicians would expect a synth to work.

I didn't want him to release this product and have people trash it in
reviews over something that could have easily been avoided by coding
it right in the first place. So thanks again for all of your input. I
value it greatly, and hopefully he will too.

Cheers!

On Sat, Oct 4, 2014 at 7:10 AM, Richard Wentk <richard at wentk.com> wrote:
>
> On 4 Oct 2014, at 06:35, Jacob Watters <jacob at joviansynth.com> wrote:
>
>> -= PROBLEM 1: MIDI CC and Pots =-
>>
>> OPTION 1: I recommended having the synth use whatever message it last
>> received, whether a pot change or a CC message. This provides
>> flexibility in usage and allows the use of both MIDI CC and the pots
>> at the same time. This is how most of my synths seem to work.
>
> Use encoders with an LED ring. :)
>
> Or if not, I like the pass-through idea.
>
>> OPTION 2: He wants to
>> put a switch on the synth to change from either MIDI CC or pots. The
>> synth will never be able to respond to both at the same time. This
>> limits it in that you can't adjust a pot by hand while a MIDI
>> sequencer changes other values automatically.
>
> This is not a good option. and will lead to wailing of the wrong kind and bad reviews.
>
>> What option would you prefer? What other suggestions do you have that
>> haven't been mentioned?
>>
>> -= PROBLEM 2: Mod Wheel =-
>>
>> OPTION 1: ...the pot for the control will have its own dedicated CC for setting the
>> base level, and the mod CC will only add to that.
>
> This seems sensible.
>
>> OPTION 2: He wants to add a switch.
>
> Nope. Just no.
>
>> OPTION 3: He also talked about the possibility of not using the
>> modulation CC at all.
>
> Also no.
>
> How much experience does your friend have with synths? It sounds like he’s a bit new to this.
>
> Bottom line is there’s a base line of functionality that users expect from a commercial product. If you start removing features because switch, you’re going to piss off a lot of potential buyers because that base line isn’t there.
>
> And from what you’ve said I’d expect other elements in the design to have issues too, because your friend isn’t thinking like a synth user or a professional synth designer.
>
> It’s true there’s some overlap between the geek-toy not-really-a-musican market, the synth collector and not-really-a-musician market, and the definitely-a-musician market. You could probably get away with switches for the first set of buyers, but you’ll alienate the rest.
>
> Not going all switchy will keep everyone happy without making the product any less attractive to any group.
>
> Richard
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