Vintage Synth Repair

Just wondering, has anyone done anything in the field of making MIDI pitch-bend controllers that are, well, beyond the steel ribbon or plastic spring-wheel?

  I have noticed that lead guitar players will bend one or two strings up a few steps and then hit another string that is not bent.  But it is impossible to imitate this technique with a standard MIDI pitch-bend wheel (and did ribbons disappear along the same time as disco?).  

  I've thought about using a dual potentiometer joystick and setting a seperate Pitchbend channel on each axis. Then having a controller get each note played from a keyboard and alternating each note between the two channels of the joystick.  First note gets channel 1, next note gets channel 2, next gets channel 1, then channel 2, etc...  This might allow some advanced pitchbent sounds that imitate distortion guitars, it might be just junk.

  Has anyone tried anything like this?

  Now I'm sure there is some obscure European company made up of super-rich/super-hip synth enthusiasts who have exactly what I want (and was used on the rare classic "KlangenBäupfferSchagnatenMachte" album from 1982) that I can order direct for only 950 Euros.  But I have no money.  Good AVR and Arduino programming skills, lots of chips and old equipment, but no money.

  Thanks, any input or replies welcome

On Aug 7, 2010, at 8:15 PM, "Alan" <alan_probandt@...> wrote:

> Just wondering, has anyone done anything in the field of making MIDI pitch-bend controllers that are, well, beyond the steel ribbon or plastic spring-wheel?

The chroma Polaris has some interesting pitch bend options I vaguely recall. Nord lead uses a wooden finger lever that is very responsive. I always liked the oberheims levers ( pull towards you to bend up)... Seem like lots of room for innovation in this area. I actually play a restless midi guitar that takes pitch bending to a whole new level. -pc

Hah. Not only is it restless, but it's fretless. Bad iPhone. -pc

On Aug 8, 2010, at 9:12 AM, Paul Cunningham <paul@...> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Aug 7, 2010, at 8:15 PM, "Alan" <alan_probandt@...> wrote:
> 
>> Just wondering, has anyone done anything in the field of making MIDI pitch-bend controllers that are, well, beyond the steel ribbon or plastic spring-wheel?
> 
> The chroma Polaris has some interesting pitch bend options I vaguely recall. Nord lead uses a wooden finger lever that is very responsive. I always liked the oberheims levers ( pull towards you to bend up)... Seem like lots of room for innovation in this area. I actually play a restless midi guitar that takes pitch bending to a whole new level. -pc 
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
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>

Hi Alan

I know you have been doing this soft of stuff for a while now, but I was wondering if you knew that the core of modern spark plug leads (the black bit in the middle) can be stripped out and it is a conductive rubber. Use ones seem to be fine.

It has a near constant resistance.
I have made 'ribbon' controllers stringing the core (stretching it a bit) along a board with foil  stuck underneath, copper in my case, but aluminum should work. 
Screws at either end and I used matchsticks for bridges at either end - sparing no expense in my music endeavors.  

So it forms a potentiometer.
        ____________________________________
 Gnd  8======================================8 5V
        |__________________________________8| Out

It was a test for a PCB version that was never made as this worked so well.

I love this sort of stuff.
Let me know what you come up with.

All the best
Royce



--- In vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com, "Alan" <alan_probandt@...> wrote:

>
> Just wondering, has anyone done anything in the field of making MIDI pitch-bend controllers that are, well, beyond the steel ribbon or plastic spring-wheel?
> 
>   I have noticed that lead guitar players will bend one or two strings up a few steps and then hit another string that is not bent.  But it is impossible to imitate this technique with a standard MIDI pitch-bend wheel (and did ribbons disappear along the same time as disco?).  
> 
>   I've thought about using a dual potentiometer joystick and setting a seperate Pitchbend channel on each axis. Then having a controller get each note played from a keyboard and alternating each note between the two channels of the joystick.  First note gets channel 1, next note gets channel 2, next gets channel 1, then channel 2, etc...  This might allow some advanced pitchbent sounds that imitate distortion guitars, it might be just junk.
> 
>   Has anyone tried anything like this?
> 
>   Now I'm sure there is some obscure European company made up of super-rich/super-hip synth enthusiasts who have exactly what I want (and was used on the rare classic "KlangenBäupfferSchagnatenMachte" album from 1982) that I can order direct for only 950 Euros.  But I have no money.  Good AVR and Arduino programming skills, lots of chips and old equipment, but no money.
> 
>   Thanks, any input or replies welcome
>

Hi Alan
I should have mentioned, although I'm sure you don't need this info, that the foil should have a resister going to GND

         ___________________________________
  Gnd  8======================================8 5V
  Gnd -^v^v-8______________________________8| Out

 
Using a PCB (you might like to gold plate it 8) ) you could have a number of tracks under the rubber (all grounded and a separate feed to the ADC).
You would be able to detect guitar type pitch bend although it would be quantized.
You could use a piezo strip attached at one end of the rubber to detect strain and this would make it analog.

I used an ATMEL 8 bit controller that had a muxed ADC inbuilt as well as a Midiable UART and Flash memory to store settings.

All the best
Royce