5-pin is good. let me see what else we can find. do you have a preference for full-size keys at all? or do you prefer portability?
Mostly looking for portable.
Full size keys are a nice perk, though width is more important than length, due to my fingers being stubby wide troll fingers.
I mean, if I want super cheap, apparently the Rock Band Keytar has a 5 Pin port on it, haha.
3 Likes
also ummmmmm
this looks great??
@spacetown
also i hope everyone knows about this already too:
The great thing about the volcas and the pocket operators is you can just chain the sync jacks. Check the PO manuals to figure out how you put it into the Volca friendly mode
Yeap! And they’re both dirt cheap at thrift stores and indestructible. Besides the short scale, the only downside is that you need to hold down the overdrive button to use the pitch bend thingie. I’ve been considering just taping mine down.
1 Like
i know you can sync them but like the volcas have something like 8 16-step … memories(?) and there’s no way i can see to tell the volca to play memory 1 four times then memory 2 twice, etc.
you can make a sequence (?) on the Pocket Operators but it’s only 16 patterns long.
i’m guessing if you have a pc with a midi card (?) you can control the volca and tell it what to do so you could use any function there was a midi command for (?). but it seems like there should be a stand alone box that does that and can do it for multiple instruments?
@boojiboy7 @nettle if you’re interested in sequencing the volcas and you don’t need actual keyboard control, the beatstep pro does everything you want it to do with both sync and 5-pin MIDI (via MIDI->TRS cable) AND it can do the sequencing for you so you’re not tied to simply 16 step sequences
https://www.arturia.com/beatstep-pro/details
and they recently had a firmware update that allows you to sequence volca drums without having to use the retrokits cable (the problem was that the volca sample received all MIDI in on one channel so it was tough to get individual drums to play)
it can sync pocket operators but it can’t sequence them unfortunately
MIDI stuff is really annoying because half the stuff is actual 5 pin DIN and the other is USB, so in order to get the USB controllers to talk with 5pin stuff you need what’s called a MIDI Host, which is DIFFERENT from a MIDI Hub in that a MIDI host has a tiny computer/controller inside it that’s translating the USB signals to 5Pin signals, where a Midi hub just splits or combines 5pin stuff. and it’s tough because there are things that are being sold where you’d think they’d be MIDI hosts, but for some reason or another they can’t (power issues, no message translation, etc.)
which is why the retrokits midi host/hub/everything I’m bringing to the meetup is SO FUCKING AMAZING:
https://www.retrokits.com/shop/rk006/
it might not be amazing for people who have expected someone to have already made this box, but this is someone making that box and it’s small and tiny and great
4 Likes
@meauxdal I’ve been seeing the trash80 stuff for a while on his IG! I am…pretty interested? at first I was just like “why is he making LSDJ again” but then he started adding the other oscillators and then the FX and then more channels and it’s like…oh…I don’t want to buy a thing again but if the MIDI/sync stuff is there then…oh…
and yeah I saw the new polyend thing too! I’m kind of getting more and more into polyend as a company because their interests seem to be the same as mine, that is, weird ass ways to tell a synth what to do? their sequencer is expensive as fuck but beautiful and easy to use, and now they’re getting into trackers? interested to see more
oh and if anyone sees my post above and is interested in a beatstep pro I have one that I’m not using and am willing to send to someone for the buddy discount of “free” because there’s no way I’m selling it anymore, it seems like everyone in the dang bay area has one
3 Likes
i’m really upset that the keylab lacks all the features of the keystep and beatstep… like… why? make a fucking flagship midi controller already arturia
I would be interested in the beatstep, because I am interested in playing with everything, but it sure sounds more like something nettle would get way more use out of so I would default to them.
i also have been looking at this (it’s not cheap)
despite all of its many, many features, it still has a lot of limitations which irk heavily at that kind of price
it also probably wouldn’t even be that useful to me without a collection of outboard gear
meh.
hey i’m in the uk so it’d be expensive to ship over, and also i have crippling inability to actually get around to things so i can’t take it in good conscience.
Well, it is your call, @spacetown. I will definitely try to figure out how it works and noodle with it, but I am more than happy with it going to anyone more experienced, or if you just want to bring it to SLC and we can mess with it there.
Edit: Thinking of some generousity that recently happened here to me from an SBer, I am willing to help with costs to get it to the UK for nettle as well.
hows about I send it to you and you can noodle with it and then if @nettle wants it we can figure something out after?
Works for me. I will shoot you a PM.
just here to say the keystep is fantastic for the price. really solid and has cv output.