Re: Thunder was RE: MIDIMAN Surface One

[Harvey Starr <harvey@cts.com>]

Hi!
we've been building PSR [ Pressure Sensitive Resistive ] surfaces for 10
years and it occurs to me that we could retrofit the Thunder with a new
overlay with better response or new electronics which also may improve the
response but would change the user-interface, maybe for the better (?).
However, at that point all that's left is the physical layout and maybe one
would want a new instrument entirely. 

Just a thought...

-harveyS


At 01:54 AM 10/12/01 -0400, you wrote:
>I've had a love/hate relationship with this instrument for years. I 
>spent way too much time writing custom software for which the thunder 
>was the front end, but eventually got tired of its limitations.
>
>It feels like playing a rock.
>The active area of its pads is much shorter than it looks.
>If you completely release pressure, but are still touching it, it 
>sends a note off.
>
>As a physical interface, it leaves much to be desired, because the 
>relationship between gesture in and midi out isn't clear enough to 
>make it easy to mentally internalize it so you don't have to think 
>about it.
>
>I keep think I want a pair of four finger controllers that would 
>sense pressure and have a very physical give to them.
>
>
>At 1:07 AM -0400 10/12/01, Tom Ritchford wrote:
>>>Does the Thunder, which I believe uses FSR (force-sensitive 
>>>resistor) technology, offer XY position and pressure information 
>>>from a single "pad"?
>>
>>you can get velocity, "pressure" (actually the cross-sectional area of 
>your
>>finger apparently) and x position.
>>
>>there are lots of other interesting features that make the Buchla a cool
>>instrument, though!
>>
>>      /.t
>>
>>
>>http://whatGoes.com  ................ extreme NY calendar.
>>http://ax.to/fortune ......... a new fortune every minute.
>>http://clikTrik.com  .................. Many, many photos.
>
>
>-- 
>
>"Freedom is a scary thing ---  Not many people really want it"
>      --  Laurie Anderson
>
>               Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D.
>Video Producer                 Image Processing Specialist
>Video for your HEAD!                   Boris FX
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>
>
>
http://www.starrlabs.com