Leaderboard

MB-E4x2CS-> Rev1.2: New layout including DOUTx2 chain and 1 LED/switch (total=16 LEDs). Users must turn the board at 180° to have the LED on the top of the switch (I was able to put the LED only below the switch)....or 90° clockwise to have the LED at the left of the switch. I will update the Wiki ASAP. Best regards, Jerome.

Thought about it, did some searching on eBay, found encoders that were actually cheaper than potentiometers... I'm not sure now. I've used the Korg Electribe and microKorg pretty extensively, both of which use potentiometers. The former uses hard-takeover, the latter soft-takeover. I very much prefer the former. If I'm turning a knob for a parameter, I want that parameter's value to change! And I want to change it as quickly as possible to the value I have in mind, which is only possible with an absolute control method (not relative like encoders). Most of the time I'm not tweaking the sound bit by bit while the synth is playing--instead, most of the time I want the synth to be tweaking the sound bit by bit while I'm playing (via EGs, LFOs, Wavetable, or even sequenced CCs). The soft-takeover on the microKorg was a pain for me, because I would first have to turn the knob to whatever the current value was, and then turn it to the value I wanted. Smooth, yes, but delayed--what if the value is at 0 and I want it at full and the knob is at full? If it had hard takeover I could just touch the knob and it would jump to full, whereas there I have to turn it all the way down and then all the way up. Relative motion like with encoders solves the delay problem, but you still have to know what the value was in order to know how to change it quickly, you can't just turn it to what you want it. The other issue is the range of parameters. If I can take apart the encoders I get and remove the detent, they will be usable, because it will be 64/96 steps per complete turn (the maximum resolution of an OPL3 parameter is 64 steps for OP-volume). For the software-based modulators I suppose I could live with turning them four times around to go through the whole 8-bit range, though that's a bit obnoxious. However, if I can't mod the encoders without ruining them, and even if they had 24 steps, that would still be 10 complete turns to go through the range of a parameter of one of the LFOs or EG. As far as seeing the values on the knobs, I'm NOT going to fiddle with (or pay for) LED-rings. Not for 26 knobs. What do other people think? I know this is, like, one of the biggest ongoing arguments in MIDIbox-land, but would anyone else want to do a build with potentiometers?