Keyfax Phat Boy??

[Goldberg]

I was just at zzsounds again, and found something called the Phat Boy by Keyfax. What it does is adds knobs to use with (I'm assuming) a synthesizer/controller with no knobs. Being the person who always knows when something is too good to be true (it would be perfect for me), I decided to ask you guys if anyone has it. And, if it works fine and all, because, I've never heard of Keyfax.

[soapbox]

Originally posted by soapbox in the Korg Z1? thread:

...it's a lot easier to grab knobs on the Z1 than it is to use a mouse with the OASYS. However, in fairness to the OASYS, I should point out that it responds to the knobs of external MIDI boxes such as the Phat Boy. But buying a Phat Boy, a computer, and a MIDI keyboard would certainly offset the cost advantage the OASYS has if you don't already own those items.

 

I just bought a Phat Boy last week, but I haven't hooked it up yet. It's supposed to work great with a variety of synths. However, since I believe you have a Roland JV-1080, I should mention that the Phat Boy's JV-1080 support is a little complicated requiring some workaround.

 

Future Music just did a round up of MIDI controllers in its July issue. They gave the Phat Boy an 8/10 rating, but they liked the Kenton Control Freak best, giving it a 9/10 rating and a "Best Buy Award."

 

Personally, I prefer the knobs of the Phat Boy over the sliders of the Control Freak, but the Control Freak's learn mode looks very cool. Other devices in the round up included Native Instruments' 4Control (FM 9/10 rating), Phillip Rees' C16 (FM 7/10 rating), Peavey's PC 1600x (FM 8/10 rating).

 

Best of luck,

 

soapbox

 

This message has been edited by soapbox on 08-08-2001 at 07:27 PM

[Rod S]

Originally posted by soapbox:

I just bought a Phat Boy last week, but I haven't hooked it up yet. It's supposed to work great with a variety of synths.

 

Future Music just did a round up of MIDI controllers in its July issue. They gave the Phat Boy an 8/10 rating, but they liked the Kenton Control Freak best, giving it a 9/10 rating and a "Best Buy Award."

 

Personally, I prefer the knobs of the Phat Boy over the sliders of the Control Freak, but the Control Freak's learn mode looks very cool. Other devices in the round up included Native Instruments' 4Control (FM 9/10 rating), Phillip Rees' C16 (FM 7/10 rating), Peavey's PC 1600x (FM 8/10 rating).

 

Hey Geoff, how did the Encore Electronics stuff rate? (Knobby/slidemate). I've been looking at those myself. I have do some more comparisons, but if I remember either the phat boy or the control freak couldn't (or it was hard to) be setup to transmit sysex msgs, but the encore stuff can.

 

The philip rees stuff seemed pretty fragile. I didn't get a chance to work with it.

 

I'd be interested in your impressions of the phat boy when you've had a chance to use it.

 

I'm personally a slider guy http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif easier to control more than one at a time to do some cool effects.

[soapbox]

Originally posted by Rod CA:

Hey Geoff, how did the Encore Electronics stuff rate? (Knobby/slidemate). I've been looking at those myself.

 

Hi Rod,

 

Surprisingly, Future Music didn't include those in the round up. FM is an English magazine. Perhaps Encore Electronics has yet to find a UK distributor?

 

You can find a Keyboard Magazine review of Knobby, though, at Encore Electronics site.

 

This message has been edited by soapbox on 08-08-2001 at 07:57 PM

[soapbox]

This may be overkill, but check out the Bit Stream Pro .

 

BTW, the asking price of 529.00 Euros is currently equal to $472.08 in United States Dollars.

 

This message has been edited by soapbox on 08-09-2001 at 05:34 PM

[Rod S]

This thing is VERY cool. I'm wiping the drool as we speak http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

Thanks for the info... I remember the keyboard review of the knobby when they came out, and they recently did one of the slidemate. I personally like the simple design, and it seems pretty sturdy.

 

The only thing missing from is buttons. I like to be able to do things like turn the portamento on and off... cool to do during solos to get different effects.

 

I wonder if they have a US distributor... I'll have to find out

 

Anyways, keep us posted how you're doing with your controller. I do everything from the 4 sliders in my pc88mx, but I sure like to have more....

 

Dave, did you ever get one to control the drawbars in the b4 soft synth? I remembered you said you were looking.

 

Rod

[Dave Bryce]

Originally posted by Rod CA:

Dave, did you ever get one to control the drawbars in the b4 soft synth? I remembered you said you were looking.

 

Not yet.

 

I actually kinda dropped the ball on that, as I finished the record that I was doing, and then disassembled my studio to move. I'm still in the market, though...

 

dB

[bg]

Rod, if you're interested in controlling B4, it seems like PC1600x would be the way to go. It's got buttons, too.

 

Bart Garratt

[Rod S]

Now I remember what I didn't like about the phatboy

 

You can't program it to send midi strings (hence sysex messages), and the cc# information for each knob is predefined into presets. I want one that I can say : knob 1 will transmit cc10, knob 2 will transmit cc 7, knob 3 sending some midi string and so forth.

 

Anybody know of US distributors of the control freak?

 

Bart, thanks for the tip. I had actually forgotten about the peavey. I thought it was discontinued. This looks close to what I want.

 

http://www.peavey.com/midi/pc1600x.html

 

I actually don't have a B4, the only reason I brought it up was I knew Dave was looking for a controller specific for his application.

 

Rod