Doepfer

Got my A-198 Ribbon controller today.  We just finished messing 
around together for the first time.  I'm smoking a cigarette.

THIS THING ROCKS!!!!!!

Run to the bank, sell something if you have to, just don't steal - 
but do anything you need to get one of these.  It's amazing.

Listen, I'm no Lucky Man  (in more ways than one).  But what I'm 
getting at is I wouldn't use a ribbon controller in the same way 
Keith Emerson used his.  But I would much the same way Mort 
did and for the first time in 27 years, I'm able to - and it feels 
GREAT because it's giving me a real physical connection  
between me and the machine.  The whole MAN MACHINE thing 
has leapt a paradisgm in a big hurry.

Picture this:

the standard 'Peter Grenader' percussive phrase - made up of a 
'thumpy' short envelope which is driven by a trigger generator.

Got it?

OK - I've got the trigger driving the EG into an AND gate.  I've got 
the gate output of the 198 on the other input of the AND gate so 
that pulses will only pass while the unit senses contact onto the 
fingerboard.

I've got the non-pressure voltage out panning the sound across 
the stereo field and also into a sample and hold which is 
controlling the pitch of the VCO used in the patch.  That S+H is 
being triggered by the output of the AND gate as well.

Finally, I've got the pressure output of the 198 controlling the 
speed of the trigger generator that's driving the whole mess.

What I really appreciate about this system is it  responds to all 
sorts of actions that I am completely in control of.  Instantanious 
feedback to complex control patterns which affords a whole hell 
of a lot of experession that possibily aren't generally associated 
with a ribbon controller.

I'll do some ssamples later onm and give you all a link.  In the 
meanwhile, don't wait for this -->  just trust me and order one of 
these things.

- P