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Fader board MIDI controllers
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| Stu Cox |
For some reason I'm having serious trouble finding MIDI controllers which just have a bank of faders on.
It's primarily to use as a mixer for Maschine - if I can mix 'internally', I can bring the full mix out on a single stereo output on my audio interface.
You can control levels through the Maschine hardware, but it's fairly awkward and is done through endless rotaries hidden on different pages, which is pretty rubbish for quickly adjusting a sound when you're playing live.
But I think it would generally be a useful thing to have around. At some point I might run Maschine through Ableton, in which case I'd need something similar to mix my channels in Ableton!
The MIDI controller in this fairly shonky diagram I saw on a Sound On Sound article is pretty much what I'm after: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar...idiagrams.l.gif - basically just a load of faders with not a lot else... a couple of knobs would be fine, but I wouldn't want them to make the controller much bigger because I'm fairly limited for space.
There are 'proper' DAW control surfaces, but they have loads more than I need, are huge and cost thousands of pounds/dollars/yen/gold coins.
The only things I've managed to find near what I'm after which aren't silly money with motorized faders etc are the Korg NanoKONTROL(2) and the Icon iControl... but I'd like more choice :) And maybe more faders - 16 would be nice.
Any suggestions? |
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| derail |
I have one I bought a while back (and haven't really used at all...)
It's a Kenton Control Freak (I just had a look on their website, can't see it in their current lineup of products). It has 16 faders, and a button above each fader (I guess that can be set to control either mute or solo for that channel).
It has a few extra buttons and a big knob on the right hand side, but it's basically a 16 fader controller. It's solidly built (metal, not plastic). The buttons on the right could potentially be programmed as play/pause type controls, but I haven't had much experience with this, so I'm just speculating.
Maybe one to keep an eye out for on eBay or elsewhere? |
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| tehlord |
| Behringer BCF2000 |
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| Inner Sanctum |
| Doepfer Pocket Fader would do the trick, but it's discontinued, so you'd need to find a used one. |
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| Stu Cox |
Great replies, thanks.
I really like the look of the Bitstream 3X - it's just the right size, has loads of extra little features and apparently it's pretty much bomb proof... not a bad price either (£250-300 over here), although there was one on eBay yesterday for 180 quid but it had gone by the time I woke up this morning!
The Kenton Control Freak looks like a good option if I decide I need 16 channels - haven't decided about that one yet.
A bit more thought needed, budget etc - whether to spend more now, or just get something like the UC33e which will give me a better idea of how I want to work with a plan to upgrade later. |
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