Re: My experiences with the Handsonic (long, reveiw)

[Tom Ritchford <tom@swirly.com>]

>I tried the Handsonic in the store for about a couple of hours or so, read
>the manual and thought I'd post a quick review.
>
>Now, since I dearly love the concept of the hand drum controller, my
>ulterior motive in writing this is that this review will act as a straw 
>man
>that can be pulled down by people with more experience with the toy. My
>overall experience suggested that it was designed 'down' for easy
>accessibility and instant 'look Ma! I'm playing techno!' gratification,
>rather than trying to break new ground or really excite developed 
>musicians.

oh-oh...

>The worst part was the fact that no serious programming had been put into
>creating new sounds just for this instrument. This is absolute sacrilege.
>There was no wavedrum emulation, no attempt to even go in the direction of
>new sounds. The pathetic attempt to do so in the form of 'industrial' and
>'noise' sets were just crappy noise samples, with no use at all - they 
>just
>make very noisy, unmelodic soundscapes. No one's going to hear >anything< 
>in
>this box on a cd and say, 'that's that cool Handsonic sound.'

oh, drat.  and there's no wayto upgrade the sounds I assume...



>b. The effects were likewise tame, nothing interesting or even very useful
>in shaping the sound.. No resonant filters, which the instrument was
>practically crying out for. What's up with that? I'm supposed to get 
>excited
>over a reverse reverb? Hey! It's not the eighties any more!
>
>Since you only have a single stereo out, you can't add effects after the
>fact, except to the whole kit.

arg!  I live off effects!



>3. Programming and midi
>
>a. It really didn't seem all that programmable. You couldn't for example 
>set
>up to samples to crossfade on one pad, or do other forms of patch
>engineering. All in all it seemed you were expected to use the patches as
>they were, perhaps mixing instruments up to make your own 'palette' and
>assigning the various controllers to them.
>b. The midi implementation, as far as I could see, was adequate. It had
>local off, which was my main concern, and

... and?


All in all, very glad to get this review.  At least if I get it I'll know 
what
I'm getting!

        /t


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