ROBOTRON - midi knob box

[ElmerJFudd]

lovely bit of kit, laid out as hardware controller for most software synth designs   the editor is a plug-in so your assignments save with your daw project or host file  499 euro, a bit pricey, but it isn’t plastic  

 

 

 

 

[PianoMan51]

This would be 50 times as interesting if the silk-screened labels on the escutcheon were instead small single line backlit displays. So the ‘meaning’ of each knob could change with each application, and the user wouldn’t have to create cheat sheets for the mapping.

[stoken6]

No 5pin MIDI. Why do I even bother any more?

 

Cheers, Mike.

[ElmerJFudd]

7 minutes ago, stoken6 said:

No 5pin MIDI. Why do I even bother any more?

 

Cheers, Mike.

The developer sees it specifically for soft synths.  Wether we’re happy about it or not, 5 pin gets more rare with each passing season.  

[ElmerJFudd]

21 minutes ago, PianoMan51 said:

This would be 50 times as interesting if the silk-screened labels on the escutcheon were instead small single line backlit displays. So the ‘meaning’ of each knob could change with each application, and the user wouldn’t have to create cheat sheets for the mapping.

Designs that are capable of providing that type of feedback tend to be synth or DAW specific.  Or use a DAW supported format like MCU or HUI.  Which is great, but sometimes a simple midi box is nice.  Hence the price should reflect that.  Although I do like the construction. 

[Tusker]

Love the knobs.

 

I'd love to see something like this with a mix of sliders and knobs. I prefer the Roland ADSR sliders to ADSR knobs and there are many software instruments (particularly sample libraries) where the ability to move 2-3 parameters at once is essential to expression. Tough with knobs.

 

Hopefully someday ...

[ksoper]

1 hour ago, Tusker said:

...Where the ability to move 2-3 parameters at once is essential to expression. Tough with knobs.

 

 

There's the old rubber band trick. 

[ElmerJFudd]

30 minutes ago, ksoper said:

 

There's the old rubber band trick. 

Those big bakelite knobs are perfect for it. Haha. 

[kanefsky]

5 hours ago, PianoMan51 said:

This would be 50 times as interesting if the silk-screened labels on the escutcheon were instead small single line backlit displays. So the ‘meaning’ of each knob could change with each application, and the user wouldn’t have to create cheat sheets for the mapping.

 

5 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Designs that are capable of providing that type of feedback tend to be synth or DAW specific.  Or use a DAW supported format like MCU or HUI.  Which is great, but sometimes a simple midi box is nice.  Hence the price should reflect that.  Although I do like the construction. 

 

The Faderfox EC4 has an OLED scribble strip for each of the 16 controls.  You can define up to 256 different setups for the controls with different labels for each control in each setup.  All of the configuration is done on the device itself or using the web-based editor, rather than relying on 2-way communication with a DAW.  That has some disadvantages but it's a big advantage in terms of making it universally compatible.  It also has both USB and conventional (3.5mm TRS) MIDI in and out.

 

It's not as pretty as the Robotron but it's a lot more compact.

 

 

[sunspot]

Meh, nothing else has ever topped this guy if you can track one down at a good price:

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/novation-remote-zero-sl

 

Only downsides are plastic build and relatively large footprint.

 

 

[kanefsky]

4 minutes ago, sunspot said:

Only downsides are plastic build and relatively large footprint.

 

Yeah that footprint is a real deal breaker.  You could fit four Faderfox EC4's in less space.

 

[Rod S]

On 9/9/2023 at 10:18 AM, PianoMan51 said:

This would be 50 times as interesting if the silk-screened labels on the escutcheon were instead small single line backlit displays. So the ‘meaning’ of each knob could change with each application, and the user wouldn’t have to create cheat sheets for the mapping.

Not quite what you mentioned, but figured I'd drop this in this thread.  I've had this bookmarked forever, I think I saw it in a loopop video.  Definitely looks interesting, unfortunately no way this would ever arrive in Brazil....

 

 

https://electra.one/

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

3 hours ago, sunspot said:

Meh, nothing else has ever topped this guy if you can track one down at a good price:

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/novation-remote-zero-sl

 

Only downsides are plastic build and relatively large footprint.

 

 

Didn’t this line of controllers require all your AU/VSTs to be wrapped in a layer to get them to function with the hardware?  
 

Are they still supporting the hardware with drivers and maintaining the wrapper software? That would be surprising these days.  It seems like developers run pretty quickly from supporting hardware they aren’t selling any longer.  

[Tusker]

On 9/9/2023 at 11:40 AM, ksoper said:

 

There's the old rubber band trick. 

 

 

How would that work? Can you get them going in different directions, different speeds? 

 

I am not doubting it can be done. Sounds like a Rube Goldberg opportunity for a creative mind which I don't have. 😅

[ElmerJFudd]

13 minutes ago, Tusker said:

 

 

How would that work? Can you get them going in different directions, different speeds? Sound like a Rube Goldberg opportunity for a creative mind. 😅

No - but if the knobs are different sizes you get some ratio action happening. 

[Baggypants]

On 9/9/2023 at 2:25 PM, stoken6 said:

No 5pin MIDI. Why do I even bother any more?

 

Cheers, Mike.

Counterpoint. The last time I used DIN was about 4 years ago. The DIN only keyboard I own has been in bits all that time.

[sunspot]

18 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Didn’t this line of controllers require all your AU/VSTs to be wrapped in a layer to get them to function with the hardware?  
 

Are they still supporting the hardware with drivers and maintaining the wrapper software? That would be surprising these days.  It seems like developers run pretty quickly from supporting hardware they aren’t selling any longer.  

 

Not required.  It was called Automap and I never had any luck getting it to work right, so I disabled it.  Anytime I use it to control something, I just set the hardware/software with the appropriate MIDI channel and configure the controls to recognize CCs.

[ElmerJFudd]

1 hour ago, sunspot said:

 

Not required.  It was called Automap and I never had any luck getting it to work right, so I disabled it.  Anytime I use it to control something, I just set the hardware/software with the appropriate MIDI channel and configure the controls to recognize CCs.

MIDI Learn in Logic for example.  When using it in this fashion, to your knowledge, did Logic or your DAW send any feedback to the controller?   Name or number of parameter and/or value? 

[UnderGroundGr]

Very pricy...