And the same fully equipped …
Guys, what I see here is a massive change from what you originally proposed. In effect rather than creating an interface for the ASX board you’re now basically proposing a generic midi synth control surface with programmable knobs. The idea in principle is a very good one. However…
First of all please bear in mind that the following is a personal opinion, and just my gut instinct as to what the fairly major pitfalls are. If somebody brought this to me as a commercial project, I’d say exactly the same thing.
I can see some distinct problems with it. The front panel of the control surface that you’re proposing already falls over when it comes to useability with Creamware synths in the ASB… you’re already short of controls for the Pro-12 and the MiniMax on that surface, not to mention the difficulty of translating the controls of the Prodyssey to what basically appears to be an almost Pro 5 interface (with a lot of switches missing) front panel…
This is quite often where generic synth controllers fall over, because you end up with a ton of buttons or switches that you won’t need for every synth and can end up short of switches or buttons on other synths.
Personally I’ve just never found any generic controller intuitive to use with synths. Mostly because all synths are so different from each other, and it’s like trying to squeeze the functionality of 50 different devices onto one surface.
As the use of each knob or switch changes entirely depending on which other piece of hardware or software it is that you’re controlling. It tends to get very confusing, because you end up not remembering which knob it is that carries out which function in relation to which synth.
This is exactly why, when Creamware released them as semi hardware versions, they built a specific control interface for each replica synth… It actually makes them more difficult to program if you don’t have the original interface or an interface specific to whichever synth it is.
You can get away with this with a MIDI Mixer type generic controller, because pretty much all mixers follow the same layout and way of doing things. But that’s not the case with synths.
As a suggestion, Maybe you could get around some of this by using panel overlays that show the function of each knob or switch when you have the box controlling a specific device?? But even then there’s a learning and memory curve involved for each separate device.
Please understand that I’m not saying this to run down your project!! Far from it… I think you do have some good ideas. But please think about the implementation of it, before you rush into it. To create and invent something useful to the world, you need to be clear that there is actually a need for it to begin with. AND need to be very clear what that need actually is. Otherwise you could end up trying to create a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist to begin with. It’s a trap that a lot of people inventing things fall into.
The question you guys need to think about is: Does the world need a synth controler that trys to be a “jack of all trades” but in doing that ends up mastering none of those trades.
On top of that, it looks to me like everything you’re proposing in this (except display of envelopes, which could be written in) is already available in MidiBox 64 or 64E. Re-inventing the wheel a bit.
Here is a wild idea. Consider making a fixed number of controls which are common for all the synths. The variable ones could be the knobs around the display area. The label will be shown in the display as you switch profiles.
Called the Palm Audio PPG Realizer (1986)…
the Realizer features an analog model, an FM model, wavetable synthesis, and a sampler. (starting to sound very like the ASX board and the Plugiator isn’t it) They were designed to show an image of a Minimoog, or other synth on their built-in monitor. Then you could control the Minimoog knobs with the controls around the screen of the Realizer. Cost $65,000.00 in 1986. This was the last product designed by PPG before they went out of business. I’m not even sure if a working one of these ever made it out into the real world. The only pictures I’ve ever found of them are the publicity shots.
Actually, when the Realizer was first announced (April 1985), we sat around the control room laughing at the idea of virtual synths like that. We actually thought it was an April Fool joke… It was that close to Science Fiction at the time.
It’s still a great idea guys… But you’d really have to work on the implementation and figure out if it’s at all what people actually want. Or what it actually is you’re creating in software that we don’t already have in Midibox64.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
Good luck with it… If there’s anything I can do to help you just yell me.