On 23 Nov 2009, at 11:07 PM, absynth-users@yahoogroups.com wrote:


>
> Messages in this topic (15)
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> 1d. Re: vibrato midi control?
> Posted by: "tomluth@..." tomluth@... tomluth
> Date: Sun Nov 22, 2009 9:54 am ((PST))
>
> Okay, a little off-topic, but it involves Absynth, and any other
> midi controlled synth: I would love a midi vibrato controller that
> would respond to a guitar/violin type finger vibrato. The bend
> wheels tend to be self-centering, and are difficult, at least for
> me, to emulate a good guitar vibrato. I would love to be able to
> add a nice Paul Kossoff vibrato and guitar-like bends to my
> playing; does anyone know of a controller that might work for this?
> There was a synth many years back (was it the CS80?) that allowed
> the player to move the keys much like one would a guitar to produce
> a human sounding vibrato, not dependent of an LFO. Yes, found a
> clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoEkyBX7qsg Would love to get
> this level of control, short of buying a vintage CS80. Thanks much!
>
>

I have CS80, keys are not moving side to side. (Ondes Martenot has
keyboard which moves sideways, sometimes I perform with a friend who
plays Ondes.) Right answer is a ribbon controller. Also some other
historical electronic instruments used fingerboard, like Mixtur
Trautonium or Sonar.

Moog had a big ribbon controller, and small one was was also on some
later Moog instruments - Polymoog Synthesizer, Polymoog Keyboard,
Multimoog, Micromoog, Yamaha analog organ YC30, YC45D.

Some digital instruments - Yamaha AN1x, EX5, EX7..., Korg Z1 has big
touchpad, Prophecy has a movable centered cylindric controller with
ribbon sensor... I really love Korg KaosPad which has big touchpad,
some programs use it for pitch control.

Kurzweil ribbon controller was very good, for use with some Kurzweil
instruments there's an additional PC2SRIB Super Ribbon Controller.
What more - they produced it also as a stand-alone MIDI controller -
ExpressionMate (ribbon + controller box). As a happy owner I can only
recommend this.

Doepfer has also excellent one, see here http://www.doepfer.de/a198.htm

My friend Yuichi Onoue works a lot with hand-made ribbon controllers
- see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0aE3t8ftk or here http://
www.myspace.com/yuichionoue, where is a link to his personal page.

Daniel Forro