MIDI Controllers

Emu's Launch Pad provides a hardware control surface for the Orbit sound module, but can also be used with other MIDI gear. Paul Nagle finds out whether it's destined to become a springboard for many a successful mission.

Best known for their low-cost controller keyboards, Fatar have now released a new kind of controller — the MP1 MIDI pedalboard. Paul Ward brings his lower limbs into the sonic fray...

David Mellor goes all gooey about Kenton's new MIDI guitar switcher, designed to put a stop to all the embarrassing onstage effects pedal swapping that goes on in the dark between numbers.

Paul White packs away the keyboard and plugs Roland's new guitar-MIDI interface into his sequencer.

Roland's new MCR8 hardware controller seeks to take the strain out of parameter access synth or software editing, by offering you real-time manipulation of any MIDI values from its front panel sliders and knobs. Paul Ward checks it out.

Nick Magnus concludes his exploration of MIDI controllers with a look at creative uses of SysEx, and some of the hardware MIDI devices which allow more intuitive uses of controllers. But first, how to mingle your Ooohs and Aaahs...

How do you fancy a way of playing guitar patches, like a guitar, without the expense of a guitar synth system? Impossible? Derek Johnson finds out...

Synthesized music need not lack expression; with the array of MIDI controllers at your disposal, you can add a whole new dimension to your music. In this short series, Nick Magnus explains how...

Hands On Development came into the field of MIDI-controlled lighting very early, with their sophisticated Limetime controller. Now the Starlite offers even the most fiscally challenged the opportunity to add another dimension to a live performance. Martin Russ seeks enlightenment.

This compact unit allows you to add MIDI-controlled lights to your performance for less than the cost of a modest sound module. Paul White checks it out.