Vectron X-Y controller. Any suggestions?

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Wed May 12, 2004 10:45 am

Ever since I got the Vectron I was looking for a cheap X-Y MIDI controller. I asked the same question in NI's Reaktor forum with some good replies (see this: http://www.thinkmig.com/stcspecs.html ). I was wondering what are you guys using to control your Vectron?

At the moment I am using a Peavey 1600x controller where I assigned two of the sliders to control X and Y which is not the best way to do it but it works.
PS
The keyword is cheap!

[ This Message was edited by: BingoTheClowno on 2004-05-12 11:56 ]

gedas · Post by **gedas** » Wed May 12, 2004 3:28 pm

Hi,
Using Korg Kaoss Pad2 here. Works great.

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Wed May 12, 2004 4:00 pm

I looked at the Kaoss and it is a little too expensive for me at this moment.

[ This Message was edited by: BingoTheClowno on 2004-05-12 17:00 ]

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Wed May 12, 2004 4:51 pm

Could you use something like a Wacom artpad? - I have one and am planning to try it on Vectron and other synths with XY controllers when I get my new DAW (soon).

You can pick up a Wacom Graphire for under $50 and there are other makes that I believe are even cheaper.

The other alternative I was thinking of would be a standalone touchpad (like on a Laptop) - or you can get touchpad-keyboards pretty cheap.

eg

http://www.keyboardco.com/tns/touchpads.htm

[ This Message was edited by: Kymeia on 2004-05-12 17:53 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed May 12, 2004 8:32 pm

I've seen a few webpages over the last couple of years on how to convert a standard pc gaming joystick into a midi X/Y device. If you intend to connect it directly to the Pulsar's midi input then you'll probably need to google for the variety that uses an external circuit board that connects via the game port on one and and midi on the other. A cheap & effective solution imo.

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu May 13, 2004 3:13 am

I found the cheapest way to do it. I have a Logitech gamepad featuring an analog x/y controller (or it can be any joystick) and I found a free mac joystick-to-midi conversion application and it does the job very well. There should be at least one PC counterpart for this, I suppose.

[edit]

here you go:
PC
1. http://www.harmony-central.com/Software ... dijoy.html
2. http://krypt.dyndns.org:81/joy2midi/
3. http://www.vellocet.com/software/VMIDIJoY.html

MAC
1. http://www.steim.nl/Software/midijoy.sit
2. http://www.steim.nl/Software/JunXion.dmg - this is shareware for OSX

[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2004-05-13 07:03 ]

calippo · Post by **calippo** » Thu May 13, 2004 4:06 am

Finally there´s a purpose for my old gamepad again. What a great hint! And so simple...

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu May 13, 2004 5:42 am

But remember it will work great but only with an analog gamepad - it's because the arrows on a plain gamepad have only 2 states - 1 or 0 while the analog ones have a range of numbers. something like this

valis · Post by **valis** » Thu May 13, 2004 7:36 am

Here's a pretty interesting PC based app for doing the conversion and a lot more:

A completely free application for use in commercial and non-commercial music projects and studios, converter is a very powerful and flexible real-time application providing an advanced midi input processor, clock sync'ed lfo to midi generators, filter bank -based audio to midi converter, gameport or joystick to midi converter, and mouse or touchpad to midi converter in an all-in-one solution.
http://www.urr.ca/software/software.htm

[ This Message was edited by: valis on 2004-05-13 08:37 ]

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Thu May 13, 2004 12:26 pm

Thanks for all of your suggestions!