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Subject: Re: Ribbon Controller - Kurzweil Expressionmate

From: "Dana Countryman" <dana@...>
Date: 2005-07-31

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, ivancu@a... wrote:
> Right, but how can you get it to control a MIDI synthesizer so as not
> to play individual notes when sliding up and down the ribbon?
>
> Ivan>>

Hi Ivan --

Long time, no chat!

Regarding the Expressionmate, the bad news is you CAN'T do true
portamento stuff on it. I bought one a few years ago, and had the same
frustrations.

So I called their tech support, and the guy admitted that it wasn't actually
designed to just play smooth theremin-like notes. A bit misleading, since the
original Moog ribbons were designed to do just that.

All I ever found the Kurzweil good for is arpeggio stuff, and I haven't even
recorded anything with that feature.

The unit is basically gathering dust with my keyboards. A waste of money.

So I went over to the Doepfer ribbon, which DOES what you think it would.
Check out my modifications here:

http://www.danacountryman.com/ribbon/controller.html

Cheers,

- Dana Countryman
Everett, WA


>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scott Juskiw <scott@t...>
> To: ivancu@a...; motm@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 10:07:51 -0600
> Subject: [motm] Re: Ribbon Controller - Kurzweil Expressionmate
>
> Check if the Expressionmate can do either of these:
>
> 1. Can it output a continuous controller message instead of note
> on/off?
> 2. Can it output note on/off with pitch bend?
>
> Either of these modes should be able to produce a reasonably smooth
> portamento from MIDI messages. The brand D ribbon controller supports
> both of these.
>
> At 10:26 AM -0400 2005/07/30, ivancu@a... wrote:
> >I had bought an Expressionmate when they first came out and was
> turned
> >off by the fact that it output info as pure MIDI notes, so instead of
> a
> >continuous "portamento" it was a "glissando." Of course later I
> >realized that this is a function of MIDI, where it is designed around
> >discrete notes rather than continuous variable voltages.
> >
> >Is there a way to get around this?