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Best controller for expressive playing

Bought a Genki Wave ring and have been experimenting with it today (and a little bit yesterday). So far I'm very impressed with how easy it is to use. There is a learning curve with how to do the movements, but it seems capable of very simple settings, which are good for learning one's own workflow and preferences (to be "complexities" later as needed).
 
@ALittleNightMusic Any new thoughts on this? I am thinking of buying this controller - what the guy demonstrated on the demo video looked awesome, but I'm a bit careful as the video is uploaded on the companies account. Saying that because I own a Seaboard and playing it like Marco Parisi on all the official ROLI videos is just impossible without real practicing over a long period of time. But if this controller can be integrated quickly into the workflow, that would be great! Also, have you gotten rid of working with faders or how did your workflow end up?



And also, if your problem was communicating small and precise dynamic details with two fingers and faders, would you think that this ring could be the best alternative? I am also thinking of an expression pedal and the TEC breath controller, but I can't imagine them to be much more precise than the fader solution. This is where I possibly see the ring ahead of the others (of course expression pedal and breath controller allow for performing ensemble patches, but that's a different story).
 
curry36 said:
@ALittleNightMusic Any new thoughts on this? I am thinking of buying this controller - what the guy demonstrated on the demo video looked awesome, but I'm a bit careful as the video is uploaded on the companies account. Saying that because I own a Seaboard and playing it like Marco Parisi on all the official ROLI videos is just impossible without real practicing over a long period of time. But if this controller can be integrated quickly into the workflow, that would be great! Also, have you gotten rid of working with faders or how did your workflow end up?



And also, if your problem was communicating small and precise dynamic details with two fingers and faders, would you think that this ring could be the best alternative? I am also thinking of an expression pedal and the TEC breath controller, but I can't imagine them to be much more precise than the fader solution. This is where I possibly see the ring ahead of the others (of course expression pedal and breath controller allow for performing ensemble patches, but that's a different story).
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Honestly, the video is fairly accurate on what this can do. I have no issues with the actual hardware or functionality. Having said that, I haven't practiced enough to say it is fully integrated into my workflow yet. I also don't know if you would use this for precise movements over a fader, but you could by expanding the range of motion - though your arm may tire from that. All in all, I'm very glad I have the ring - just need to use it more.
 
That sounds great so far!
How flexible is the software? I could imagine using this for both, precise and general movement, so it would be nice to have an easy and quick way to change the motion range. And could you imagine using both hands (with two rings) for CC1 and CC11?
 
curry36 said:
That sounds great so far!
How flexible is the software? I could imagine using this for both, precise and general movement, so it would be nice to have an easy and quick way to change the motion range. And could you imagine using both hands (with two rings) for CC1 and CC11?
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Software is quite good. You can pair two rings though you can also put both CCs on one ring just on different axis / motions.
 
ltmusic said:
Any opinion on Leap motion control ? is it similar to Genki ring ?
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Huh. I just remembered I have a Leap Motion device somewhere from a couple of years ago when I worked on interactive stuff for museum. Will give it a try and report back!
 
robcs said:
I'm weighing up some of the new MPE controllers, trying to find something that will breathe some life into samples - sliders and foot pedals just don't do it for me.

Right now, I'm looking at the Expressive Touche SE, the Roli Lightpad, or a TEC breath and bite controller.

Just wondering if anyone here has had a chance to compare any of these against each other? Which did you find feels the most natural to play, and which creates the most natural-sounding expressive playing?

Thanks in advance!
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I can't personally recommend it because I haven't used it, but the Leap controller looks pretty amazing.

 
ltmusic said:
Any opinion on Leap motion control ? is it similar to Genki ring ?
Click to expand...
I've got one, its fun but its not accurate enough to use and takes too much setup time. I've used high end motion capture systems that are better or even Kinnect controllers that are more satisfying. In theory its great, in practice the tracking is slow and not accurate enough.

I'm a guitar player and have tried so many controllers, from a roland g300 guitar synth to cheap game/guitar controllers to the Artiphone instrument one and lately a Godin with a Fishman triple play. Oh, and I've been beta testing a microtonal keyboard called the Lumitone.

The Artiphone was fun, but the outside 'strings' didn't track well and its not trustworthy enough with its tracking to use as a performance. Thinking I'll do some more work with it now that Ableton is MPE, same with the Fishman guitar, both of which sucked using DP. MPE sythns will make it more enjoyable but it'll still not be as accurate or noise free as even my bad piano playing.

The problem with all of them is finding something that you can play accurately, tracks well and doesn't just create more work cleaning up midi control noise afterwards.
 
gzapper said:
I've got one, its fun but its not accurate enough to use and takes too much setup time. I've used high end motion capture systems that are better or even Kinnect controllers that are more satisfying. In theory its great, in practice the tracking is slow and not accurate enough.

I'm a guitar player and have tried so many controllers, from a roland g300 guitar synth to cheap game/guitar controllers to the Artiphone instrument one and lately a Godin with a Fishman triple play. Oh, and I've been beta testing a microtonal keyboard called the Lumitone.

The Artiphone was fun, but the outside 'strings' didn't track well and its not trustworthy enough with its tracking to use as a performance. Thinking I'll do some more work with it now that Ableton is MPE, same with the Fishman guitar, both of which sucked using DP. MPE sythns will make it more enjoyable but it'll still not be as accurate or noise free as even my bad piano playing.

The problem with all of them is finding something that you can play accurately, tracks well and doesn't just create more work cleaning up midi control noise afterwards
Click to expand...

gzapper said:
I've got one, its fun but its not accurate enough to use and takes too much setup time. I've used high end motion capture systems that are better or even Kinnect controllers that are more satisfying. In theory its great, in practice the tracking is slow and not accurate enough.

I'm a guitar player and have tried so many controllers, from a roland g300 guitar synth to cheap game/guitar controllers to the Artiphone instrument one and lately a Godin with a Fishman triple play. Oh, and I've been beta testing a microtonal keyboard called the Lumitone.

The Artiphone was fun, but the outside 'strings' didn't track well and its not trustworthy enough with its tracking to use as a performance. Thinking I'll do some more work with it now that Ableton is MPE, same with the Fishman guitar, both of which sucked using DP. MPE sythns will make it more enjoyable but it'll still not be as accurate or noise free as even my bad piano playing.

The problem with all of them is finding something that you can play accurately, tracks well and doesn't just create more work cleaning up midi control noise afterwards.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input!
 
Pier said:
Huh. I just remembered I have a Leap Motion device somewhere from a couple of years ago when I worked on interactive stuff for museum. Will give it a try and report back!
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Interesting.

That thing looked really cool... and then my bullshit detector went off at a demo video in which the head of the company sneered at regular QWERTY keyboards, saying they were out of date or something.

He'd be surprised to know that I can literally type "techbro douchebag" faster than he can say that in the video.

By the way, I made the mistake of going to the G(^|ki ring controller site to check it out yesterday. Today ads for it are stalking me. But the product is interesting.

I'm not sure what advantages it has over many other controllers, such as the ribbons built into my Kurzweil K2500X, but it does look like a nice controller. Reminds me of the Ondes Martenot.
 
gzapper said:
The ring was to ground the ribbon controller, wasn't it?
They also needed some kind of powder to make them work, I seem to recall.
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Dunno, but I went to an LA Phil concert where they played a Messiaen piece that used it. It was really great.
 
Wikipedia:

"The ondes Martenot can be played with a metal ring worn on the right index finger. Sliding the ring along a wire produces "theremin-like" tones, generated by oscillations in vacuum tubes,[2] or transistors in the seventh model."

There was also a model that did vibrato when you wiggled the keys side to side.
 
Re-reading this reminds me I need to get a TEC controller.

Even zombie threads on VI-Control somehow convince me to spend money. :laugh:
 
gzapper said:
I've got one, its fun but its not accurate enough to use and takes too much setup time. I've used high end motion capture systems that are better or even Kinnect controllers that are more satisfying. In theory its great, in practice the tracking is slow and not accurate enough.

I'm a guitar player and have tried so many controllers, from a roland g300 guitar synth to cheap game/guitar controllers to the Artiphone instrument one and lately a Godin with a Fishman triple play. Oh, and I've been beta testing a microtonal keyboard called the Lumitone.

The Artiphone was fun, but the outside 'strings' didn't track well and its not trustworthy enough with its tracking to use as a performance. Thinking I'll do some more work with it now that Ableton is MPE, same with the Fishman guitar, both of which sucked using DP. MPE sythns will make it more enjoyable but it'll still not be as accurate or noise free as even my bad piano playing.

The problem with all of them is finding something that you can play accurately, tracks well and doesn't just create more work cleaning up midi control noise afterwards.
Click to expand...
Hi Gzapper :) I've been sharing info about a free app I made for leapmotion that takes a simpler (but still really flexible) approach to setup and control. If you're on Windows and still have your Leap Motion, I thought you might like it! It uses the version 4 Leap drivers and honestly there's no perceptible tracking lag with these drivers (on my modest i7 system at least). www.midipaw.com in case you're curious to try.

Cheers!
- Steve
 
sctaylorcan said:
Hi Gzapper :) I've been sharing info about a free app I made for leapmotion that takes a simpler (but still really flexible) approach to setup and control. If you're on Windows and still have your Leap Motion, I thought you might like it! It uses the version 4 Leap drivers and honestly there's no perceptible tracking lag with these drivers (on my modest i7 system at least). www.midipaw.com in case you're curious to try.

Cheers!
- Steve
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Thanks, Steve, that's very kind of you but my pc only does VE pro right now.
The demo looks great, almost enough for me to see if there is a way to run it into VE pro and into my mac from there. Hmmm, there goes another few nights.......
 
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