Guest Posted January 25, 2001 Share Posted January 25, 2001 For anyone who owns a Kurzweil K25/2600, an Andromeda, or a Kurz. Expressionmate, what do you use your long ribbon controller for? I love short left-hand ribbons, especially if they're well placed so you can use other controllers too.. but I never quite understood what kind of stuff you'd want to do with a long ribbon, or a 3 sectioned ribbon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Martin Posted January 25, 2001 Share Posted January 25, 2001 Steve, Good question. The K25/K26 actually have two ribbon controllers, one small one located near the pitch and mod wheels and the large 600mm ribbon. There are many possible applications for the large ribbon. By default (in Program Mode) it controls pitch and will do a pitch bend of one octave in either direction. The nice way about our ribbon works is that it easily allows you to do trills, hamerons and very realistic vibratos. Other applications could include filter sweeps and filter gating (by tapping and sliding), effects control, turning on and off various zones or layers and even triggering notes such as a harp glissando. The ExpressionMate takes this a few steps further allowing you to do guitar strums and define note scales. The small ribbon controller on the K25/K26 in addition to controlling pitch is also pressure sensitive. This makes it ideal for doing vibratos as you can control both pitch and timbre at the same time. Unfortunately you have to be somewhat coordinated with your left hand, which I am not. I usually do everything on the large ribbon. ------------------ Mike Martin Kurzrep@aol.com Kurzweil Music Systems www.kurzweilconnection.com -Mike Martin Casio Mike Martin Photography Instagram Facebook The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormhole Posted January 28, 2001 Share Posted January 28, 2001 I was wanting to get the stand alone ribbon that Kurz makes and put strap locks on it to play like a chapman stick. Would be cool to have it be a controller for vocal FX too. Does anyone make a longer ribbon than the Kurz one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Martin Posted January 29, 2001 Share Posted January 29, 2001 I don't believe any other company makes an external ribbon controller. -Mike Martin Casio Mike Martin Photography Instagram Facebook The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman1ovation.net Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 I got an ExpressionMate about a year ago in order to bring me back as close as I could get to the good ol' Yamaha CS80. The synth engine aside, what made the CS80 cool for me was (1) *WOODEN*, weighted keys(duh - I guess any wooden keys would be weighted http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif), (2) Polyphonic Aftertouch - each note responded to its own individual aftertouch... and, by the way, the CS80 handles aftertouch better with weighted keys than any of the current crop... by that I mean that I seem to prefer weighted boards without aftertouch, because they feel weird with. The CS80 didn't feel weird, and (3) A fantastic long ribbon with a fantastic feel. It has a felt-like feel to it, but fingers slid easily. This was all without MIDI, so there were no preset limits to the scale of the pitch bends. Pitch bends could be real DIVES down to three or four octaves! The ExpressionMate manages to capture a GREAT DEAL of this. No, it doesn't have the felt feel, which I would have preferred, but I suspect they wear out, etc. after time. Who knows, maybe if one had the right substance, it could be added? Don't try this at home kids just in case it screws it up. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif The ExpressionMate has serious MIDI capabilities in the realm of arpeggiator and controllers, but frankly, I've been using it mainly as a long controller. It does indeed do great hammerons and trills, and it is built with solid Kurzweil quality. I have a question, Mike. I've seen that the Kurzweil PC2 has a 60mm ribbon input. Is that the ExpressionMate? It seems to be called something different like two letters and a number (you know AB-2 type name). Maybe that IS the ExpressionMate. If not, it probably is the ribbon portion. Whatever... the ExpressionMate's a winner. This has been an un-paid endorsement! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve44 Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 Musicman, The PC2 has its own ribbon option which is insanely cheap - only 60 bucks . I have been intrigued by the Expression Mate and think I'll end up buying one sometime, but I'm still not quite sure what I'd use it for. Pitch slides and trills are nice, but is that all you do? Especially with the three-zone thing, what kinds of stuff do you do with all those choices? I still haven't figured it out. It's likely, though, that I'll put off buying an Expressionmate since I'm after that new Midiman Thunder-imitation, the Surface One. I'm delighted to hear all the stuff you liked about the CS-80.. I'd like to get my hands on one of those, as I'm a big fan of poly-aftertouch, even though I've not yet tried out a board that has it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steadyb Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 Originally posted by steve44@visto.com: For anyone who owns a Kurzweil K25/2600, an Andromeda, or a Kurz. Expressionmate, what do you use your long ribbon controller for? I love short left-hand ribbons, especially if they're well placed so you can use other controllers too.. but I never quite understood what kind of stuff you'd want to do with a long ribbon, or a 3 sectioned ribbon. Long ribbon controllers are awesome! As far as the Andromeda goes, there's almost nothing you can't do from the ribbon. It can be the source of over 40 different mods at the same time, from obvious things like pitch and filter, to frequency modulation, LFO speed, sequence and arpeggiator speed, bring in or out distortion, etc. (way too many to list) I know on the K2500's long ribbon you can do lots too!!! It really allows you to put motion and life into your sounds and it's right there under your hands. You can really "play" it. On the A6 it can have the entire length, and/ or either half as zones, and relative mode is currently in the works. Most synths today that have long ribbons are capable of multiple assignments, and add a whole 'nother musical dimension to the sound in real time (or recorded in a sequence). ...just my 2 cents. Byron Gaither - Alesis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman1ovation.net Posted March 30, 2001 Share Posted March 30, 2001 I wish I could be more helpful about the ExpressionMate, but I'm still using it mainly as one long ribbon controller. I do know that it has an elaborate arpegiator. I've just never been too much into those. I do such things manually (plus I walked 12 miles to school every day as a kid, even in the snow). Just kidding about that second part! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif But one thing that is cool is that you can PLAY the violin (or any such non-fretted instrument) with no keys at all. Your finger positions determine the note and vibrato and the whole thing, just like the real deal. Fretless bass, same thing. It is so very tactile, and its sideways position above the keys makes going back and forth, using left or right hand while the other plays keys, and other such readily available conveniences TOO handy! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve44 Posted March 30, 2001 Share Posted March 30, 2001 musicman, how do you get it to do this fretless instrument thing? Do you have to trigger note-on's with the keyboard and then use it as a bender, or does it have its own mode where it figures out the note ons based on position and then does vibrato using pitch bend from relative movements? I'm quite intrigued... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-kay Posted March 30, 2001 Share Posted March 30, 2001 arrgh it's 399£! for this ExpressionMate thing. How can anyone afford that! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Martin Posted March 30, 2001 Share Posted March 30, 2001 The ExpressionMate has the unique ability to do both note triggering and pitch bending at the same time. For a fretless bass sound for example, you can trigger the note by placing your finger on the ribbon, then just slide to the next pitch. It wont' trigger a new note until you release the ribbon and place your finger back on it. This is unique to the ExpressionMate. The K2500/K2600 series keyboards can't do this. ------------------ Mike Martin Kurzrep@aol.com Kurzweil Music Systems www.kurzweilconnection.com -Mike Martin Casio Mike Martin Photography Instagram Facebook The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormhole Posted April 3, 2001 Share Posted April 3, 2001 are any of them longer than 18" or so? I'd like top get one strapped also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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