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Pitch bend and mod: wheels or joystick?


bill5

Well?  

63 members have voted

  1. 1. Which do you prefer?

    • Wheels
      31
    • Joystick
      21
    • No strong preference either way
      11


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On 9/27/2022 at 8:16 AM, Julius D Majestic Studios said:

Someone needs to make a board with both. 

I have long felt that what keyboard makers should do - and IMO any one would get serious attention if they did - is make it modular. What I mean is have some kind of slot or plug and play where you could plug in whatever you wanted for the pitch bend and mod and then have several choices of what could be attached. At least two choices of course, a joystick or wheel, but diff types or shapes or sizes would be so awesome. One thing I hate about every joystick I've seen is that they're all the size of hamster dicks. It's ridiculous. Who was that made for, Ant Man? What mental midget thought that was a good idea?  

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On 9/27/2022 at 9:13 AM, JimboKeys said:

Wheels.  It's easier to control the control of amount of pitch bend with a wheel than with a joystick.  

Disagree 1000%. Diff strokes.

 

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2 hours ago, David Bryce said:

 

Jupiter X has both wheels and the classic Roland paddle.

 

dB

 

That would be my ideal.

 

I always liked the roland paddle but for the unfortunate loss of a fixed mod wheel or even a fader.

 

But always hated Rolands paddle location on far left making a 61 noter the length of a 76 or a 76 noter the length of an 88. That one thing has made me shy away from Roland products.

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Wheels because most of the keyboards I've owned have them, so I'm used to them. I never liked the Korg joystick. I like the Roland paddle for pitch, but not mod. Too little throw compared to a wheel. I always felt like I was going from none to full.

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  • 8 months later...

Definitely the joystick.  I have a Roland A-800, love that setup.  Also dig the Nord pitchstick, super cool, but I enjoy how you can simultaneously do bend and mod on the Roland.  Creating 'actual' mod on the Nord stick is cool cool when you're on a note.  With the Roland, adding mod when you're at the upper or lower end of a pitch bend is cool cool cool.  (all of this is essentially emulating guitar solo stuff)

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Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

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What comes first, the cart or the horse? I've been using Roland boards since the 1990s so the paddle is second nature. I never once thought "I wish I could put the mod paddle somewhere and have it stay there" - but that's probably because that ability was never available to me! 🙂 

 

I remember using wheels on my DX7 (which was my main controller before I got my Roland XP50) and I was fine with that too.

 

My current Roland A800 has nine sliders and nine knobs that will stay anywhere I put them, so if I want to control a parameter like that, it's usually not a problem.

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The best one is the one you use. Play the thing until the thing plays you. Mine used to be wheels. After using the Kronos stick for a few years it is now the joystick.  

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So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I barely use pitch bend at all (I rarely solo and then it's usually piano or organ) but I could see Roland's little pitchtoggle thing being good for that.  I absolutely hate it for mod wheel though--often  want the mod wheel to stay where i leave it, and I want a bigger range than that little tiny thing has.  I usually map the mod wheel to filter cutoff or some other timbre changing settings, and generally do not want it on vibrato.

I prefer standard mod wheel although having a Korg style XY joystick would be a nice addition.  My old Poly 800 used to go out of tune--same amount each time, about 3/4 of a semitone--and I got very good at precisely getting it back to the right spot with the joystick.  It would stay that way for a song or two and then snap back.

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Roland paddles are fine until they stop returning to exact center. The spring always wears out on those. 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Dude! You did it! A keyboard-related thread! Happy Juneteenth!!

 

I like the pitch-stick for bends, joystick for bends and some mods, wheel for most other mods and for volume sweeps to switch smoothly from one patch to another--like from Piano to organ on the same patch, neither at the same time. 

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
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3 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

Dude! You did it! A keyboard-related thread! 

Yeah I should have made a long ranting "accordion patches are the root of all evil" thread; would have been so much more worthwhile! 

 

 

1 hour ago, TommyRude said:

What 61 key boards/controllers with joysticks are out there.. besides the Roland A-800?  I can't find any.

Offhand don't know of any either; in fact joystick keyboards are depressingly rare. And I still can't stand how teeny they all are. 

 

I've said it before: I really think a keyboard maker could find a crowd base if they made that part of the keyboard modular and you could plug n play whatever type of controller you wanted in there and offer wheels, a joystick, and a joystick that isn't make for Lilliputians. 

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14 hours ago, TommyRude said:

What 61 key boards/controllers with joysticks are out there.. besides the Roland A-800?  I can't find any.

 

How about three wheels and two x/y "balls" (one sprung to return to center, the other one stays where you put it)?

 

That's the Technics WSA-1. Of course, "out there" in this case can only mean used, since these date back to the 1990s and are long gone. I was hired by the company to do some of the factory sounds.

 

image.png.83679a04d64665976b52506446fd1fd9.png

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41 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

 

How about three wheels and two x/y "balls" (one sprung to return to center, the other one stays where you put it)?

 

That's the Technics WSA-1. Of course, "out there" in this case can only mean used, since these date back to the 1990s and are long gone. I was hired by the company to do some of the factory sounds.

 

image.png.83679a04d64665976b52506446fd1fd9.png

hah!  Cool reeze.  I did some searching, couldn't find any new/current 61 midi controllers with joysticks, but there are boards.  The Rolands, i.e. the Fantom 06, several Yamaha 61s, looks like most Korgs have the joystick setup somewhat similar to the Rolands.  But the vast majority have wheels.

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

Tommy Rude Soundcloud

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3 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

We're not drawing any distinction between the joystick & paddle? To me there's a difference, though obviously not like the diff between these and wheels. More of a tactile thing.

 

image.png.cf0c57eb7dfb2190af4e22876338774c.png

Fair enough. For me, paddle/lever is the best, the Korg Joystick is good, the wheels I like least.  Haven't tried the Yamaha joystick, assuming it's similar to the Korg.

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

Tommy Rude Soundcloud

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4 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

We're not drawing any distinction between the joystick & paddle? To me there's a difference, though obviously not like the diff between these and wheels. More of a tactile thing.

 

image.png.cf0c57eb7dfb2190af4e22876338774c.png

I did. I call one the former a joystick and the latter a pitch stick. "Paddle" is better. 

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Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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On 9/26/2022 at 8:59 PM, bill5 said:

I seem to be one of the few who hates the wheels. You? 

 

I don't hate them, but Roland's paddle or Korg's stick work much better for me. And if they have sliders you can usually assign them to whatever parameter you have your mod wheel assigned to. Best of both worlds, IMO.

 

The paddle responds quicker, and to me side to side motion is more intuitive for pitch bending. I also like that I can bend up or down and push the paddle up to add modulation or whatever for extra drama, all in one motion. Can't do that with two wheels, or at least not as seamlessly/effortlessly.

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