Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
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Thanks guys for all the great recommendations.
The novation seems to be not bad. Design looks like 90s
I spotted one on eBay for just 70 bucks. Hmmm...
Have also to take a deeper look at the EC4. 16x16x16 knobs.... that’s insane. That’s more parameters than my brain has got
The shanteacontrols are looking extremely good. I wonder if it could be possible to emulate the paging behaviour of the Electra One. I wish it would be possible to buy kits.
Do you have a controller now?
If not, I suggest you get something cheap to start with before jumping all in on an Electra one.
The midi deficit apps have will apply the same to that as a 100$ used launch control xl.
At least see what you’ll be up against (and the lovely jumping values).
Yes, I have a Korg nanoKeys Studio with 8 knobs, some pads and keys, a LaunchControl XL and a Launchpad mini. Usually I use the LP to control LK, the LCXL to control AUM and the Korg to play the synths and have its knobs mapped to important synth parameters like filter and envelope. But if I really want to tweak the synth while jamming in AUM the 8 knobs seem to be not enough. Sometimes I also use my Arturia MicroFreak as a controller for the synths - that is much better but as I wrote in the beginning, the MF’s synth engine does often not match well to the soft synths I have. But yeah, might be a luxury problem...
So back to the possibly of DIY, and don’t mind color coding a la launch stuff instead of a screen, I built a 32 encoder controller with these and a teensy controller:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/SparkFun/COM-15141?qs=EBDBlbfErPxqLtRuGPCXWQ==
It’s 4 banks of 32, so it uses all 127 cc’s on a channel. The encoders are push button, and when pushed cycle between 4 colors (banks). More than enough knobs, but not too many that you get lost in. Was the 1st project I built with 0 experience.
It does seem like your heart is set on an Electra, and that goes a long way.
If a screen is what you’re after, you could get an iPad mini for less than half the cost of an Electra and make it. A dedicated midi controller that you could change on a whim w/ midi designer, touch osc, or lemur.
The other thing you can look at is just using scripts or teensy with a usb host port and its usb out and make 16 virtual midi ports, essentially making 16 launch control xls. Each one of the virtual ports contains its own 16 midi channels. Run you about 50$ in parts and 100 lines of code.
Sounds phantastic. Would you share with us some of your creations? Best device and music
That is actually also a great idea. When I saw the Electra One there was one thing that struck me. The combination of a big touch screen and hardware encoders. I love to have real knobs and buttons. So its great to have a screen that visualizes the meanings and the values of the knobs.
So now the one million dollar question: could any of these MIDI controller apps also work with a hardware controller? So could I have a fixed mapping of my hardware controller to the controller app and then different presets of the app for each of my synths? In other words, is there a controller app that I can control with a MIDI controller?
The good thing about another iPad is that next to the MIDI controller app I could also run another instance of AUM on it. So it would have a dual use. That is quite tempting.
I don’t really get this idea. How could an arduino board replace a LCXL?
That’s what I do. On my iPad Pro 12.9 inch 2nd gen I run ZenBeats/Drambo/Xequence 2 to serve as a piano roll/loop launcher into Logic Pro X, which serves as a desktop synth host (Zebra 2, Diva, MS20, Logic stock synths), and MIDI Designer 2, which controls the desktop synths in order to do sound design with my own personalized synth templates that I’ve made (and will be uploading to the MDP community soon). Then I run either Logic Remote or another instance of MDP2 on my iPhone that controls Logic Pro (select channels, fader volumes, etc...). I have a new iPhone coming in today that I get to incorporate into my workflow too😁
This is all in an effort to have a more “hands-on” approach rather than clicking everything with a mouse as well as to help avoid carpal tunnel syndrome.
Gimme a couple hours and I can take some pics and screenshots to explain better.
It might get a little lengthy, so rather than turn your thread into a DIY questions thread, I’ll PM you.
It’s not replacing the LC, it’s in addition to. It’ll make sense after you see the screenshots.
While I‘m far from pursuing any diy midi stuff myself, I‘m also really interested in the possibilities. So if you don’t want to bloat this thread, maybe create a new one and share your creation(s) with more people?
This is the truth. As far as I know, nothing beats the Novation X-Station. Certainly has shortcomings but specifically for remote synth programming, it remains at the top of the heap because it’s laid out like a subtractive synth.
What a cool thing. At the first glance I’d never think it’s a controller.
Take a look at a Novation Remote SL Zero. Nothing but knobs and faders, with a LCD strip across the top. Class compliant, so it works with iOS no problems. Loved it, the drum pads on the mk1 are pretty useless IMO, but they can be remapped for program/bank changes and whatnot.
Gave mine to a friend just cuz he runs a PC and the Novation automapping drivers don’t work under Catalina. I’ve drifted towards Ableton with the iPad as a sound source, so decided to pay it forward.
If they’re targeting $149 for the BCR32 though, I’ll be giving that a long hard look over the LCXL I was planning on replacing the SL Zero with…
Another win for Novation Remote is midi IO. This is especially useful when having more than one controller for usb power reasons, especially, but not only, with lightning devices. I have mine powered with a power bank via usb but use regular 5 pin for midi. I can’t remember when I last saw ‘device requires too much power’ message.
Meanwhile I found out that Midi Designer Pro could actually do what I try to achieve. So I could create a MDP pedalboard with supercontrols.
For those who don't know MDP. A pedalboard contains controls that can be MIDI learned to hardware. A supercontrol is a control that controls one or more normal controls. My idea is to put supercontrols on the pedalboard, MIDI learn them to the hardware knobs and let them control the normal controls. Sounds mind boggling, eh.
The concept is to use a hardware controller with about 16 knobs and some buttons that controls the virtual MDP controllers of one page and then have several meaningful pages that in total cover the whole synth. For instance, one page for the oscillators, one for the filters, one for modulation, etc. Then I can switch the pages and control the elements on that page with the hardware. The MDP controls visualise the actual meaning of the hardware knobs and also their values. I will run MDP on an old iPhone as its screen is enough to show 16 controls, probably somehow mount it to the hardware controller. Connect the iPhone via Bluetooth. Then I would adjust this MDP preset for each of my most used synths.
I will try that with LaunchControl XL and my iPhone and keep you posted. But what do you think?
@krassmann Curious to see this in action.