alternate controllers

[Michael Zacherl]

Am Aug 12, 2008 um 12:28 PM schrieb M-.-n:

> Anyone gave this a try by any chance ?
>
> http://www.thomann.de/fr/doepfer_r2m_v2_midi_ribbon_controller.htm

Hi Marc,

    sorry for the late answer, things are upside down at the moment.

I'm using that thing for three years now.
I didn't use MIDI at all, so can't tell you about that.

The ribbon itself is nice.
I get three voltages out of it:
    - Horizontal position
    - Pressure
    - Gate

There are quantification and range functions.
Actually I like to play it. It's sensitive and nice to touch. It  
allows me to to pretty expressive things.

But ...
The built quality is so-so ... e.g. Doepfer use an USB-type cable   
(1m, female/female!) for connecting the box with the bar, without (!)  
any strain relief on both sides.
So it was foreseeable that the USB socket on the ribbon-bar broke.
I could repair that, but I wasn't able to mount something to ease the  
strain on it (would be pretty ugly as far as I can see).
Disassembling the bar was a pain BTW.

The µC is ... doepferish.
Obvioulsy low resolution (you definitely can hear the increments on  
the pressure CV) so I have to use a LPF to smooth that out.
(for me that's the utterly most off-putting thing, when someone throws  
in a digital unit being used in the analogue domain and f.cks up  
everything with low resolution ... grrr)

The control signal derivation is weird too - when you press the ribbon  
with two fingers you don't get the lowest or highest value but the one  
somewhere in a middle position.
I got used to that meanwhile and I can use it for FX.
(Scott Juskiw took that into account when designing his Sword of  
Kahless: http://www.tellun.com/motm/diy/tln854/TLN-854.html )

The controller and the µC-box are made of steel, they are sturdy.
The box lost all it's rubber feet meanwhile and the PSU-connector  
(wall-wart) is weak and a bit loose.
The analogue connections are provided via 3.5mm jacks ... I still  
don't like them, but that's probably just me.
I've two use adapters to use my 1/4" patch cords.

I don't regard this unit as live-proof!
So I've to look for some serious modifications.

I see the price is the same, but I still think it's too expensive.
I supect that's because the ribbon is made of two custom made resistor  
tapes (from Lohmann).
Two years ago I dropped the bar once and it got a serious dent which  
made it unplayable.
I had to throw in another 200€ to get it repaired (it took six weeks  
and two attempts since they didn't clean the steel bar from the old  
glue and he result was a very bumpy ugly feeling when playing)

All in all, I still like to play with a ribbon controller, it's  
something very expressive.

But if there was an alternative product I'd definitely check that out.
But OTOH, there's no market. (Kurzweil is out of production and Haken  
Continuum is over the top).

More info here: http://www.doepfer.de/R2M.htm

   HTH, ;-)  Michael.

--
nonconform? noiseconform: http://blauwurf.at