#midi controller

LUMINITE - Graviton

wireless midi controller set

"... The XY Controllers ... can be attached to your instrument with its nano pads on the bottom (These pads work like geckos' feet without any adhesives. They can be attached and removed multiple times and are safe for all kinds of guitar finishes)."

(AKA, "What do you MEAN I can't use one MIDI controller for two programs at once???")

Many of you may know that I perform live! At conventions, at clubs and bars, and wherever else the world needs a dose of eurobeat, I've been performing my work on stage for many, many years now! Fewer of you may know that I've tried different approaches to my shows over the years— for a little while, I'd just play the songs end to end; then I learned how to DJ, and now most of my sets revolve around DJing.

Lately, I've been revisiting that, and trying to figure out new and more compelling ways to perform. For the last year on and off, I've been attending choreography classes. These have not resulted in me properly learning routines, but they HAVE boosted my confidence tremendously. As well, in the last few months I've dreamed up possible performance methods and workflows that are less DJ-centric so I can focus on singing, crowd interactions, the occasional novelty (maybe some keytar sections or playing a drum pad?), and some fun video effects.

Today I began putting that into action by trying out my various MIDI controllers, trying new configurations in Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio, and... failing. A lot.

It turns out, some of my ambitions of mapping multiple functions in two applications to one MIDI knob were a bit more ambitious than I thought they would be. Getting programs on the same computer to talk to each other is surprisingly more difficult than I thought it'd be. Getting Resolume Avenue and Bitwig to communicate worked, Avenue and Ableton surprisingly less so. And even then, getting one or the other to handle MIDI clock information in basic integer values has proven frustrating.

Instead of still trying to mix between two "decks" like DJs do, I may do it one of a few ways: * Pre-mix the set in Bitwig or Ableton, find "pause points" for water/audience interaction. I'd basically be performing to an automated experience, which would be easier to predict and work around, but with little to no flexibility. * Load in songs as clips instead of full-length audio, which would buy me back my cue points from the DJ years; but I'd still have to mix between songs, which increases potential failure points. * Find more innovative ways to use Traktor (my current DJ software of choice) and video/lighting programming, or pre-mix a few songs together and THEN load those into Traktor. Current performance method wouldn't change dramatically, but the overall visual appeal would improve. * Make shorter versions of my songs I play through from start to end, like a traditional concert. (Doesn't seem right, given the nature of eurobeat; but it's not far from what a few eurobeat stars do already!) * Keep pushing towards building a whole one-laptop visual audio extravaganza, restraints be darned.

...I want to see what I can do with some MIDI automation and video for now, with maybe one play-in "novelty" and automated vocal effects with some optional ones I can dial in any time. It'll be a bit weird to surrender some of my control over which songs play when, but I want to start building a more compelling, less DJ-specific live set where I'm a bit more of a performer. I think I'm onto something with this, though time and figuring out the tech will tell.

GUESS WHO FOUND AN ORGAN FOREVER AGO?

Found an organ (psure it's an AceTone B-422) on the side of the road one day while some guy was clearing out his dad's house, and managed to get this organ for free. Dude said he didn't get a chance to try it out, nabbed it anyway and stuffed it in my room.

Turns out, it doesn't work.

Turns out, it has a bunch of built in features that DO work.

There's a built in vibrato, a built in reverb, a built in Rhythm Ace Drum Machine, and a God Damn Leslie-branded rotary speaker built in. The drum machine, speaker, and rotary speaker all for sure work, and since it's a 60s organ that reverb is pmuch guaranteed to be a spring tank, which is easy to repurpose. The vibrato would be cool to mess with, too. Lastly, there's a "Brilliance" switch which I'm really curious about.

As for the rest of the organ, I have a bunch of options:

1. I rip out all the keys, replace them with modern midi controllers, and turn the whole thing into a custom recording station. Problem is, the two keyboards are 44 keys each, which is pretty rare for midi controllers. They're also bigger keys than normal, so maybe there's a way to make them work, but that also makes the depth of the keys an issue I'll have to tackle. It also means the 13 bass pedals would be useless.

2. I get 1-4 Arduino boards, and rewire the keyboards so I have 2 44-key controllers, 13-pedal controller, and if I wanna get crazy with it the swell pedal and whatever other knobs I want for midi controls. Problem is, I know nothing about Arduino or digital midi, and I'm already diving headfirst into several unfamiliar disciplines for this project as is. DOUBLE problem is, from what I can tell it would be difficult if not impossible to make the original keybeds velocity sensitive. Triple problem is, if I do decide to toss the key beds, I can't go back and Arduino it up later. I'm not gonna be able to hold onto those parts, and there's no way I could justify having a whole second house organ just to reattempt it.

3. I cut my losses, rip out the relevant electronics, and toss the rest

If I go with either of the first two (read: fun) options, it's also worth considering all the space around the keys, where I can theoretically add whatever. I've tossed around the idea of putting a 2x4 group of drum pads, maybe some knobs or even a ribbon controller somewhere. I could even put a screen there, either with real time feedback or built in synths or digital effects (maybe a raspberry pi or small computer affordable to run soundfonts or even VSTi's natively; imagine having a DIY touch screen with drawbars next to the keyboard to adjust settings, that'd be sick)

And none of that takes into consideration the multitude of cosmetic modification options possible; Paint, veneer, upholstery, LEDs, lights, VU meters, metalwork, leather, the list goes on.

I've got a bunch of ideas and I'm in the process of getting the tools together to move forward with this project.

I'm sure I can also upgrade stuff in the future.

But I'm seriously considering turning this thing into the ultimate keyboard performance desk, both for YouTube stuff as well as live (since, theoretically, it'll be a LOT lighter once the speakers and motor(s) are pulled out)

If anyone has experience with doing any of this sort of thing, I'd love to pick your brains for more info on all this stuff. Working on researching for a YouTube video about the project, including a history of the Ace Tone company that made it (with probably too much emphasis on it being founded by the same dude who founded Roland several years later).

Me: "I really want to get (back) into Orca, because it just seems like a lot of fun, but I don't like how it restricts the user to certain scales"

Evil me: "Girl! The software is open source! It's written in C! you know C!"

So now I have a version of Ocra that uses the chromatic scale. The ddownside is the notes are now completely divorced from the characters ( C is still C by some miracle, but D is C-sharp, etc). Might not be a huge downside given some of the experimentation I want to do, but we'll see.