When I began searching for more expressive MIDI controllers, touch-strips were something rare. Now they’re frickin’ everywhere: Novation’s Twitch, Dave Smith/Roger Linns’ Tempest, Akai’s new Max49 and of course, on my own Mojo.
So what I’d like to know is, what’s the next unconventional sensor to work its way into mass acceptance on these sorts of instruments? Arcade buttons? Joysticks? Accelerometers? Whack’a'moles? Let us know your prediction in the comments.
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sounds good! love that you chose Can !
IMHO: playing music without tactile feedback is like having sex without tactile feedback- not very satisfying for anyone involved ;)
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Right on. How well you’re able to feel what you’re playing is directly proportional to how expressive your music is. Without that, it’s all just “computer music”, as some say.
yeah, speaking of physical controller, i think technology is almost all there, no other new hardware incoming.
The next big step will be better interaction with body, more “dumb” user efficiency, and massive use of generic/programable touch screen pannel or space position oriented technology, like accelerometers and IR tools.
This in terms of the near, possible, future.
In the pseudo sci-fi scenario maybe there’ll be neural interface and so on… but these are just inferences.
I know that tactile feedback is critical nowadays, but things are going to change…
It’s fascinating to me how the gamin industry has brought down the cost of new sensor technologies DRAMATICALLY. It’s not just that music is similar to gaming in that it’s all “play”, it’s also a matter of the size of a market, and the millions of people who line up to buy a new gaming product, making 3D and infrared cameras dirt cheap.
It’s nothing revolutionary, but my two cents on my own question is that we need better buttons. I have a whole host of techniques based on the big, “clicky” arcade buttons on the Mojo. I haven’t been able to duplicate them on rubber pads or the small, stiff buttons on most DJ controllers. I want “Music Buttons”!
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That was a really great performance. Not sure if that was a custom mapping or just showing all the features of the hardware but controllerism will continue moving forward. With all these new techniques being discovered every week there has to be something to keep up with musicians’ imagination.
I’m still a beginner in this area but I’m always interested in how we interact with technology and I’m planning to study more on the subject. This is Reactable, a pretty cool responsive surface http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_FzLya8y4
Follow the logic. You’ll find out that the next things as far as DJ controllerism is concerned is that slowly but surely ushering its way being all that desperate for *futuristic* DJing styles, mainly 40-inch transparent mulit-touch screen and somethings that are but in today’s standards, considered rocket science like 3D “floating” holographic projections, motion sensors, brain-computer interfaces and everything else you can think of. Who knows that futuristic style DJ controllerism would have never been so cool than today, right?
Along with the Wii came a boom in the gaming world involving infrared, accelerometers and position recognition, which makes me think a similar thing might happen to the electronic music control world. I look at Shakey’s article on using Kinect to make dubstep and at Onyx Ashanti and I can’t help comparing controllerism with gaming. Even your Twitch video somewhat looks like you’re actually playing some sort of complicated game. (and why wouldn’t you call it a game? It’s incredibly fun and time flies while you do it. I know that’s the case for me, at lest.)
So, yeah. I’m touching on two completely different things here: the next big thing for controllers might or might not be infrared position recognition and all that jazz – which might make control more physical – but I think the real, important revolution for music in general will be interactivity.
So my Criswell report is that as making music comes closer and closer to gaming (look at all these flashy buttons and knobs on controllers), music gaming will come closer and closer to actual creation of new material (yeah, I mean Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and the like – hell, even the “Toast” on iPhone qualifies) until the line between what is music creation and what is gaming becomes really blurred. It’s going to be fantastic.
*comparing controllerism TO gaming. *at LEAST.
I’m sorry for the grammar mistakes, I was really excited when I wrote the thing. I still am.