Touchpad for surround control

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Since our Fairlight MFX/Fame slowly gets out of date, we had a meeting with some guys from Digidesign UK and Germany. After they introduced and explained their new ICON Controller, one of my questions was: "And where are the surround joysticks?"

Their explenation was surprising me. They told that Harrison/UK (Mixer manufacturer) call it their invention and now (pretty late) have the patent on it. So Digidesign is working on a tochpad control (like laptops have) for the surround placement of the signal.

Wouldn't that be possible with MBOX as well?

I don't know about they'll use regular laptop siced pads or biger ones like graphic pads.

Greetings, Roger

[Screaming_Rabbit]

http://www.tastaturen.com/ergebnis.lasso?-token=3341975661478&kn=211&vo=p&lng2=

[TK.]

After I saw a nice live performance from Weltklang music yesterday (see http://www.weltklang-music.de/html/body_langenacht2004.html and http://www.weltklang-music.de/html/body_langenacht.html), who are using the Korg Kaosspad to trigger and modulate sounds, I defenitely also want to experiment with touchpads. Only question: where to buy the pads...

Could you try to find some manufacturers or distributors who offer such pads in low quantities?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[moebius]

I browsed http://www.tastaturen.com for some time and come up with this: http://www.tastaturen.com/catalog/3341981256940/page661.html

Bye, Moebius

[TK.]

Much too expensive (I need at least 8 pads for controlling X/Y/Z parameters  ;D) - especially the RS232 or USB option is not required, only the pad itself is for interest.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Hello Thorsten

Here are some available but they're pretty expensive.

http://www.tastaturen.com/ergebnis.lasso?-token=3341981763325&a=Industrie&p=Touchpad&vo=d&mr=1&sr=2

http://www.tastaturen.com/ergebnis.lasso?-token=3341981763325&a=Industrie&p=Touchpad&vo=d&mr=1&sr=0

http://www.tastaturen.com/ergebnis.lasso?-token=3341981763325&a=Industrie&p=Touchpad&vo=d&mr=1&sr=5

I'll keep an eye on cheaper ones.

Greets, Roger

Oooops... came a bit late :-)

[TK.]

I'm just trying to get some different pads at EBay (they cost about 1-5 EUR) - don't overbid me if you want to have a software driver ASAP ;-)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Lately I was at a Digidesign D-Control demonstration (they call the controller now "D-Control" and the whole system ProTools/MicPres/Intrefaces is "Icon"). They still didn't implement the touchpads but the digi-guy showed me the physical sice of the pads with his hands... it seems, they'll be about 6 Inches of sice.

Greets, Roger

[mess]

hi thorsten,

www.voti.nl has them for € 4.17

http://www.voti.nl/winkel/p/S-Touchpad.html

Greetz,

Michaël

[Synapsys]

I am somewhat surprised to see this subject getting new responses. I ordered and started playing with these touchpads several months ago only to find out that an implementation workable with MBOX was already underway and almost finished. So, I abandoned that project.  As I recall it was Duggle that had a working prototype.

Regards,

Synapsys

[Screaming_Rabbit]

After I saw a nice live performance from Weltklang music yesterday (see http://www.weltklang-music.de/html/body_langenacht2004.html and http://www.weltklang-music.de/html/body_langenacht.html), who are using the Korg Kaosspad to trigger and modulate sounds, I defenitely also want to experiment with touchpads. Only question: where to buy the pads...

Could you try to find some manufacturers or distributors who offer such pads in low quantities?

... just browsed through a link from "atomsize" and found this...

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1283&variation=&aitem=1&mitem=36

Greets, Roger

[Screaming_Rabbit]

... they finally implemented the surround touch panel... with a touch-screen.

http://akmedia.digidesign.com/news/images/Icon-Panner_72_nws_3375_9591.jpg

Greets, Roger

[Wisefire]

ehm.. you can order a free sample for experimentation purposes from

http://www.spectrasymbol.com/

check your own forum TK.. there has been talk about an xy touchpad controller..

and my next project with midibox is making a kaosspad like midicontroller..

with the stuff i got from spectrasymbol..

[Screaming_Rabbit]

check your own forum TK.. there has been talk about an xy touchpad controller..

... if you have a look at the date of those postings, you see, that this was started more than a year ago  ;)

I posted the D-Control thing just for completion of information.

Greets, Roger

[Wisefire]

ah, sorry for that.. but still the xy pad from them is pretty sweet and should be made into a workable midicontroller :D

[kokoon]

i got the samples from spectrasymbol but didn't get the xy pad :(

[Wisefire]

i got a email asking me about my intentions.. and i told them..  and what i wanted.. and thats what they've sent me..

just mail them.. asking for their 5inch by 6inch touchpad with touch sensitive buttons.. they'll be nice and send them..

i think..

[kokoon]

i sent them the mail:

hello. i'm mostly interested in the touchpad thingie and flex sensors, but also potentiometers and the rest. i'm building a midi controller of some sort and i'm looking for alternative input methods (well touchpad is not THAT alternative :)

it would be great to get as many different parts as possible to try get them working and decide what suits me best.

by the way - you maybe know where i can buy your products in europe?

and - these will be *free* samples right? do i need to pay the shipping?

thanks for quick response!

regards, jure

and i got 6 flex sensors, one touch-potentiometer and one membrane switch.

[Wisefire]

my interest is not entirely general, but not geared towards mass production at this

moment. I want to look into using your products in a midicontroller. and/or

incorporating it into a synthesizer itself.

i have unknowingly used a product which included some of your technology

for some time know.. it is called the P5 Glove. and i have musically performed

with it, in my sparetime that is. and i am actually quite fond of it.. i have always

thought that music should be more expressive, and when i saw your other

products, a light began to burn, so to speak. and that is the reason i would

like a sample of your products

i am especially interested in the xypad and the softpot.

i was wondering if it is possible to produce the xypads bigger? say

5x5 or 6x6 inch. as I've read that you normally produce them 3x3 inch

or smaller.

if you would be willing to send me a sample of your xypad and a couple your softpots

i would appreciate it. and if i may be so bold as to inform you of my preferences,

if you could send my one of your larger xypads that would be great. as for the softpots

if they could be around 4 inches, much longer and it would lose expressiveness due

to speed.. much shorter and it would lose "resolution" in my opinion.

this is my exact email..

[cheater]

Hi!

I understand the problem with those sensors is that they are "disconnected" once you let go of them.

So if there were a circuit which would let the core know of when we've let go of the pad, and when we're touching it, the core could know when to update the midi controller value.

I thought of this, perhaps it could work...

How I understand those pads (linear ones): when you're touching one end, the output is shorted with one pin (lessay A). When touching the other end, it's shorted with pin B. The output changes fluidly between pin A's and pin B's voltage.

If we let go nothing is connected to the output pin.

Idea:

put +5V on pin A, +10V on pin B. Connect the output pin through a resistor to 0V. Now, if we touch the pad we get a voltage somewhere between +5 and +10 on the output pin. When not touching the pad, we get 0 volt and we could let the core know that it should remember the last position we have put in by touching the pad.

Will this work?

Of course, it would need a different module than AIN....

Is it worth ordering one of their samples to try this circuit out? Or is there some basic flaw I'm overlooking?

cheers, D

[Velaskin]

... just thinking...

if those touchpads are so expensive to get, why not try a completely different approach:

By now you can get reasonably priced digitizer tablets and well I've seen touch pads as a mouse replacement too. For the latter I've to check my bookmarks again.

Anyway, these things work via USB.

I've no idea how much effort the programming would be, but maybe a USB interface might do the trick?

... as I said: just thinking.

Greetings,

John

[Kyo]

This may help ...

http://www.livelab.dk/tablet2midi.php