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

["Jonathan El-Bizri" <jonathan@full-moon.com>]

>I am still trying to sort out which sounds, if any, are physically modeled
>and which are samples.  There is no mention of COSM or physical modeling
>anywhere in the manual or the advertisements I have seen for the 
>Handsonic.
>Can _all_ the sounds be programmed to respond to positional sensing,
>pressure, muting, etc. or just some of them?  I'm still researching this
>when I have the time.

They are >all< multi-samples, as far as I could tell. Take the most
intricate, such as the tabla or talking drum. Hit it twice in succession at
the same level; same sample. Pretty good multisampling though.

>
>The only module I am thinking of adding right now is the Emu Xtreme Lead 
>or
>Proteus 2000 as these modules have global microtonal tuning tables, decent
>scale resolution, and are not too expensive.

Right now he says... right now... just wait till tomorrow, when the new 
toys
arrive :>

>>"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."
>
>I suspect _all_ the sounds are sample-based (no physical modeling) and the
>editing facilities are limited.

Sounded that way to me :< The manual was mainly concerned with assigning
controllers - there was little more you could do with a sound.

>>"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!"
>
>I thought there is programmable filter resonance, but as part of the sound
>editing architecture rather than the effects section.  I remember reading
it
>in the "Editing sounds" section of the manual.
>

That's a step in the right direction, though I don't think I heard any
really heavy use of it in the factory presets. I was hoping for screaming,
howling, squelching drum kits...

>"b. The midi implementation, as far as I could see, was adequate. It had
>local off, which was my main concern, and"
>
>The manual seems to indicate that it transmits polyphonic aftertouch, a
>feature you can't even find on 99% of the keyboard controllers out there.
>This is definitely one area I need to investigate further.

It is a percussion controller, so one would assume this was more necessary
than on a keyboard.

>>"b. The 'loop' section was a good step in the right direction, allowing
you
>>to create loops and then assign them to pads for triggering on the fly.
>>However, the creation wasn't something you could do easily on the stage,
>>more of a set up presets and then play over them kind of thing. Hey! I 
>can
>>already do that with a cd player..."
>
>You can also do that with a cheap phrase sampler. :) I get your point,
>though.  I figure if I want to do live looping with it, I either have to
use
>an audio looper (which I do plan to do) or the internal sequencer.  Using
>the audio looper and the sequencer together could be messy.  Or maybe I
>could just trigger a sequence, loop that with the audio looper, turn off
the
>sequence, play "live" and loop that, etc.  I'm sure there's a workaround
>somewhere...

Being able to trigger patterns and fills is a good thing on it's own for 
use
rhythmically challenged, even if you can't set them up on the fly. Too bad
that most of the drums are so unexciting. I can't believe they didn't
include a junglist set.

>>"c. The knob controllers were a pain to use - they seemed more designed
for
>>tweaking patches, than on the fly performance. The ribbon controllers 
>seem
>>under utilized in the factory patches, and I didn't have time to program
>>them."
>
>I agree in that I've only used the knobs to try to adjust the pitch of the
>Indonesian gongs to get a more authentic pelog or slendro tuning.  The
extra
>controllers (ribbons, D-beam) in general are underutilized.  For example,
>for one preset the D-Beam triggers a loud gong no matter what hand motion 
>I
>use.  It _can_ be set up to respond more dynamically to hand speed and
>distance, but it more often than not is not set up that way in the 
>presets.
>I only found one preset where the D-Beam actually varied in response to my
>hand position for a Theremin-like effect.

Good point. Those controllers could really make the toy shine, especially
when combined with pattern based loop or trigger playback, so you can have
stuff going on and pitch them in real time. It's not all bad :>

bIz


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-----Original Message-----
From: Paolo Valladolid [mailto:phv40@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2000 10:23 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: My experiences with the Handsonic (long, reveiw)

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