Does anyone like the Roland pitch stick (or joysticks)?

[mate stubb]

The thing I found that took some adjustment with the Oberheim paddles is that the pitch bend worked the opposite of which one may expect: Pull the lever toward you, and the pitch raises/increases; push it away from you, and the pitch lowers/decreases!

 

IIRR, this could be reversed in my Oberheim OB-8 in the past.

 

Same with the Chroma - you can save the assignment, range, and polarity of each lever per patch.

 

I found this handy with harmonica patches - I want to bend up to the note on attack instead of bending the note up later. I found that setting the lever to pull worked great. I just start the note with the lever pulled, then release.

 

For more normal guitar type bending, the pull is set to bend up.

[allan_evett]

For me the ideal combination would the Roland style paddle/stick for bending, and a wheel for modulation. Roland nailed that concept in the A-70 controller, plus provided the pitch wheel too; it was a 'best of both worlds' design. Too bad they didn't keep doing that with future keyboard releases.

I'm OK with bending using the wheel; though I find the paddle/stick to be a bit more 'natural', and precise.

[AnotherScott]

Last year, I buyed a good condition Oberheim XK incl. some customizations @ebay for cheap to get these levers back for my Oberheim Xpander.

 

What I like w/ the XK is, if you push the modulation lever, it can be assigned to a different MIDI CC# for the "push"-action,- and if you pull that lever it´s the vibrato.

 

Thanks for reminding me... I did own an XK1... and still do! I lent it to someone years ago, and will get it back one of these days...

 

One of the nice Kurzweil PC3 features is how all the controllers are so assignable... you can assign pitch bend up and pitch bend down to entirely different parameters.. one, both, or neither of which has to actually be pitch...

[BP3]

For me the ideal combination would the Roland style paddle/stick for bending, and a wheel for modulation. Roland nailed that concept in the A-70 controller, plus provided the pitch wheel too; it was a 'best of both worlds' design. Too bad they didn't keep doing that with future keyboard releases.

I'm OK with bending using the wheel; though I find the paddle/stick to be a bit more 'natural', and precise.

 

^^^THIS^^^

 

It is why I still have a couple A-70s. That said, I love the Nord pitch stick but wish it was north/south in the layout. A couple decades of playing a mini have my thumb used to that travel.

[J. Dan]

For me the ideal combination would the Roland style paddle/stick for bending, and a wheel for modulation. Roland nailed that concept in the A-70 controller, plus provided the pitch wheel too; it was a 'best of both worlds' design. Too bad they didn't keep doing that with future keyboard releases.

I'm OK with bending using the wheel; though I find the paddle/stick to be a bit more 'natural', and precise.

 

+100

 

Although for those of you who say the good thing about a separate mod wheel is that you can leave it partially on, how often do you need to do that? If a patch has vibrato in it, I just program it with vibrato. The whole idea of a controller is the ability to change it on the fly as part of the performance. Setting it to a particular level and leaving it doesn't really fit that category, and I don't know any synth where you can't assign a fixed amount of LFO to pitch.

 

I also like the Korg triton stick, which has contollers in both directions that can be assigned.

[Sam Mullins]

Although for those of you who say the good thing about a separate mod wheel is that you can leave it partially on, how often do you need to do that?

 

One example: Many of the S90ES electric piano patches have effect depth (tremolo or chorus) assigned to the mod wheel. It's very handy to adjust that in real time. For example, sometimes I want the EP to cut through the guitars a little more by backing off on the effect depth.

 

I'm sure other people have examples where they control filter cutoff or resonance and want to "leave it where it is for a while".

[frogmonkey]

Although for those of you who say the good thing about a separate mod wheel is that you can leave it partially on, how often do you need to do that?

 

Actually I do this quite often. Though I don't usually have LFO amount assigned to it. More likely it'll be filter cutoff. And it's not like I set it and leave it for the whole night, but just for a tune or for a passage, and especially when I'm being all ambidextrous and playing multiple parts on multiple synths.

 

Oh yes, and sometimes resonance too!

[BP3]

..for those of you who say the good thing about a separate mod wheel is that you can leave it partially on, how often do you need to do that?

 

I use Logic's EVD6 often and the mod wheel allows for different amounts of mute/dampening of the clav. Spring loaded mod paddles don't work for me.

[J. Dan]

I guess this gets into the subject of a previous thread about how you do things. If I want a little more or less of an effect for a song, or a little more or less filter or resonance, I'll just edit the patch and save that version under a different name specifically for that song. If I reallybdo need to make a Terri during a song and leave it, i'm more likely to assign a knob, although again, I've stored multiple variations of the same patch and switch on the fly, or assign a button to toggle between to filter settings, for instance. That way I can nail the sound in advance and just recall it. Now if I need to modulate something as part of the performance, the it goes to a wheel or pitch bend.

[Al Coda]

I love the Nord pitch stick but wish it was north/south in the layout. A couple decades of playing a mini have my thumb used to that travel.

 

That´s it !

The pitch stick of the Nord is a sensitive tool, but I have no control w/ my forefinger or thumb moving in east west direction.

But the stick is great for musical vibratos.

 

All in all, I´d say, each of the controller units has advantages and disadvantages and maybe, we´re addicted to what we used 1st and most and learned to use.

I find it to be ideal to have some keyboards w/ different left hand controllers and use ´em for what these can do best.

One of my keyboards has the Roland controller, 3 keys have wheels (one of ´em not spring loaded), the XK comes w/ the Oberheim levers and my keytar has the ribbon.

I learned to deal w/ all but my favourites are the MOOG wheels because I played w/ ´em for 3 decades.

 

A.C.

[marino]

Although for those of you who say the good thing about a separate mod wheel is that you can leave it partially on, how often do you need to do that?

 

Actually I do this quite often. Though I don't usually have LFO amount assigned to it. More likely it'll be filter cutoff. And it's not like I set it and leave it for the whole night, but just for a tune or for a passage, and especially when I'm being all ambidextrous and playing multiple parts on multiple synths.

 

Oh yes, and sometimes resonance too!

 

+1000

 

 

[AnotherScott]

I guess this gets into the subject of a previous thread about how you do things. If I want a little more or less of an effect for a song, or a little more or less filter or resonance, I'll just edit the patch and save that version under a different name specifically for that song. If I reallybdo need to make a Terri during a song and leave it, i'm more likely to assign a knob, although again, I've stored multiple variations of the same patch and switch on the fly, or assign a button to toggle between to filter settings, for instance. That way I can nail the sound in advance and just recall it. Now if I need to modulate something as part of the performance, the it goes to a wheel or pitch bend.

 

a few thoughts that come to mind...

 

... creating a patch in advance is fine for some things, but not for stuff where you're altering the sound live on the fly, which is sometimes how people work

 

... assigning to a knob is fine, but almost every keyboard has a mod wheel of some sort, far fewer have assignable knobs

 

... some synths use the mod wheel for leslie speed... kick it up for fast, bring it back down for slow

 

... mod wheel can sometimes be used to fade one sound out and another in as you move it, or do other similar kinds of adjustments where you may want to alter it to a certain point and then leave it, "to taste"

 

... the rate of a mod effect can sometimes be varied with a wheel, and the rate you want might be different on different nights depending on the tempo you're playing the song at

 

etc. ...

[zeronyne]

I like the Korg/Roland pitch/mod stick combo.

 

On my V-synth, there are a jillion other knobs that I can assign to mod that will stay on a value. Actually, on my Triton, there's more than a few as well.

[Seannn]

The JX3P had a button for modulation, as did the Juno 6 and Juno 60, IIRC.

 

Interesting that you mention that, because I was thinking the same thing the other day. It's an LFO trigger, and works quite well as a mod button if you don't set the LFO settings too high, imo. I just never thought of it that way. I use it sometimes to mimic "trills" (or should I say "thrills") like in:

 

[video:youtube]iCHFVTQKqdQ

 

I'm not a huge fan of the wheel on the Juno-G, just because there are times when I'd like to keep some modulation without pitch bend. Most keyboards with two wheels, such as my DX7 or Korg R3 (I like its wheels quite a bit) have the ability to set a modulation level with the wheel, to my knowledge. The DX7 wheels are cool but you have to go through quite a bit of programming to get them operational.

 

I have to say though, I get great control on the Juno-G, and it's cool to be able to move the joystick diagonally for mod/pitch control.

[Moonglow]

The thing I found that took some adjustment with the Oberheim paddles is that the pitch bend worked the opposite of which one may expect: Pull the lever toward you, and the pitch raises/increases; push it away from you, and the pitch lowers/decreases!

 

IIRR, this could be reversed in my Oberheim OB-8 in the past....

I wish I discovered that back in 1984!

[Piktor]

I found the paddles on the Oberheim Matrix 6 unusable, unless I set the bend interval of the synth to a whole tone. Hated that.

 

I have a (restored) Roland A50. It has both a paddle and a spring loaded wheel. I never ever touch the paddle. If I program a synth to bend interval of only a whole tone, the paddle would probably be okay, but I would play like a robot. The wheel gives me greater control for the interval that I use.

 

Long ago I used the original Roland keytar thing (Axis). I found that bending the wheel on that thing was very cool, as it was similar to the motion of bending a guitar string and playing vibrato manually with that motion was great.

 

 

[AnotherScott]

Long ago I used the original Roland keytar thing (Axis). I found that bending the wheel on that thing was very cool, as it was similar to the motion of bending a guitar string and playing vibrato manually with that motion was great.

I mentioned the Axis as well, that was a nice setup, the best of their "keytar" pitch/mod arrangements, and it had aftertouch too. The later AX-1 and AX-7 were steps backward in losing the aftertouch, and turning the mod control into a bar that effectively could only be all on or all off. They also removed the sustain pedal. But patch selection in the later models was much better, and the built in split/layer capability was useful.

[Tusker]

I guess this gets into the subject of a previous thread about how you do things.

 

I agree it's horses for courses. Two examples:

 

- Sticks are great for concurrently bending in and out of wah.

- Wheels provide precision and accuracy on pitch that the Roland/Korg sticks can't, especially on longer intervals. (The Kurzweil long ribbon and the Nord stick are also quite precise and accurate over greater distances.)

 

With the abundance of control schemes on the market, you can always midi one device to another. However ...

 

... it seems to me that even with the best controllers, midi introduces a distance between the performer and the instrument. Perhaps I am imagining it, but I think I can feel it. Does anyone else feel that way?

 

Jerry

[Moonglow]

...(The Kurzweil long ribbon and the Nord stick are also quite precise and accurate over greater distances.)....

Is the pitch bend range of the Nord stick adjustable?

[mate stubb]

...(The Kurzweil long ribbon and the Nord stick are also quite precise and accurate over greater distances.)....

Is the pitch bend range of the Nord stick adjustable?

 

Not on the Stage. I am not sure about the Wave or others.

[Tusker]

...(The Kurzweil long ribbon and the Nord stick are also quite precise and accurate over greater distances.)....

Is the pitch bend range of the Nord stick adjustable?

 

Yes, at least on the leads and G2 afaik. Curiously the stick allows you to do decent vibrato AND wide pitch sweeps. I believe this is because it's an exponential controller.

[NYKeys]

I love the stick, But assign the mod wheel to a pedal