Re: interesting controller - where's the midi harmonica????? (Also Push question)

[Christopher Darrow <thedarrow@gmail.com>]

Piano players get all the love. But the whole playing-guitar-and-harmonica-at-the-same-time thing is so natural---it really needs a modern update. (Actually piano players could use it too.) 

AKAI can make a good enough midi sax (EWI) so why has nobody made something with a form factor mimicking the harmonica-with-neck-holder? That would be so freeing and brilliant. 

I'm about to buy Push and I'm sure it can be used as a midi controller for any midi software (VDMX primarily in my case) but obviously wan to confirm that first. I looked in the tech specs but didn't see specific mention of it. Also wondering if they made a librarian/editor app for such things. Anyone know?

I also wish Ableton/Novation would make a foot controller so I didn't have to learn to program everything o get visual feedback.... Just 2 or three rows with pads like those but fewer bigger round ones the diameter of a tennis ball cut in half but not as tall of a dome---and a few arrows and other basic controls.  Maybe this is the year I finally figure out a system that will work for me... Push with the Gordious LG, soft step, and P.O.K.... Another year, another expensive controller. Hope this one is as promised an that I can finally tame the Gordious and soft step.

Just thinking our loud... Sorry if that was self indulgent. 

---Christopher Darrow

       

On Mar 7, 2013, at 11:58 AM, mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com> wrote:

Jesus Christ.. Does it work like that out of the box? I think not... !
Can you imagine the hellish days and days of fiddly little assigning and mapping and tweaking... Looks so much like a job... not fun at all!

I bet they sell a lot based on the lights tho... vewwy vewwy pweeedy!
I might get one just to go on the wall!

Mark

On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 1:58 PM, Philip Conway <Philip.Conway@bristol.ac.uk> wrote:

I pre-ordered Push yesterday.  It's a sizable lump of money for a controller - especially one that I haven't been able to try out first hand - but I couldn't resist the introductory offer.  It'll be here in just 12-14 weeks!...

I'm quite excited about its potential as an instrument.  One appealing thing is that, if the early reviews are to be believed, it is very well made and feels heavy and solid.  This is no small thing for a musical instrument.   It's much easier to 'lose yourself' and get into 'the zone', as they say, if you're playing something that just feels solid and high quality, rather than flimsy and plasticy.  And, for me, whether or not you can 'lose yourself' in an instrument is ultimately the marker of whether it's any good or not.

In many ways Push makes much more sense than a traditional keyboard for performing and composing electronic music since it allows any scalar mapping of notes and makes that mapping intuitive by providing visual feedback.  In this way it seems to let the player find relationships between notes and sounds that don't rigidly adhere to the c-major scale structure of the piano-style keyboard.

This is how it should be for electronic music, which is not being limited to the physical mechanisms of objects like the piano.  The piano keyboard was an elegant invention but it resulted to some degree from the physical requirements of whacking strings with little hammers.  Electronic music is completely free from such physical connections but, with some expensive exceptions (e.g. the Haken Continuum), instrument or interface design has lagged a long way behind what programmers and sound designers have achieved.

Push looks like a step in the right direction in that respect.  It's not revolutionary in concept but it appears to have been very well done - at least I hope so!



Philip.


--On 07 March 2013 12:15 +0100 Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 2:36 AM, michael noble <looplog@gmail.com> wrote:

http://www.weareroli.com/

Anyone know anything more about this company or the controller?

Looks cool, like a "piano submarine" :-)  A little thin on information
that page, isn't it? From the video it seems as notes are located in
linear way, similar to a piano?

I must say I'm more intrigued by Ableton's new instrument Push, due to
its non linear location of notes. The chromatic scale layout on Push
is based on rows differing by a fourths and this creates what to me
seems to very playable note locations. In fact, the hand patterns are
the same as if tapping a fourths tuned fretted string instrument.
Another aspect I like with the Push is that some notes appear at
several positions and can be played in unison but with different
attack/_expression_, this too in common with fretted string instruments.

I've been using an Akai EWI4000s for some years and think it is the
most (musically) expressive MIDI controller instruments I've come
across. Since it is based on breath control rather than
hitting-something-with-a-hand velocity it a challenge to program good
synth patches to play. I think Yamaha was great in the 80s with breath
control but since then not much product development seems to have
happend im this area. THat's odd, thinking about how a simple hose to
blow into increases the expressiveness of any simple keyboard.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen

--
Mark Francombe
www.markfrancombe.com
www.ordoabkhao.com
http://vimeo.com/user825094
http://www.looop.no
twitter @markfrancombe
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24478662@N00/