From Oakley Sound via analogue Sent Thu, Mar 21st 2019, 08:32
My ideal situation would be a Roland style left to right centre sprung pitch bend lever with a non sprung mod wheel (or two). But the proviso to this is that there must also be channel aftertouch because this is what I use to add vibrato, open filters, etc. I don't care for Roland's 'push forward the stick to get modulation' although it was improved later with more range in the forward movement. The Nord Lead stick and wheel are probably closest to this but then they ruin it by having cheap nasty crappy keyboards with no aftertouch. I tend to use the pitch bend with my thumb while the rest of the hand holds the side of the synth. I only bend the pitch down. The Z1's X-Y pad was also great. It had a hold function and was pressure sensitive IIRC. Novation's joystick was tolerable but it always seemed so fragile. The Oberheim paddles are quite good but with my Oberheims I have always swapped the pitch bend direction to the opposite of what they do normally. Down should be down. I cannot get on with the Minimoog style pitch wheel at all - whether it is sprung or not. And wheels or sticks on the front panel above the keyboard are not for me either. That said, my main keyboard and controller was a D-50 for many years and I pretty learned to play synths on that. Perhaps what you used the most in your early days may well set the path of things that follow. I should add that having a Roland synth as your master midi controller is a bit of a pain since virtually all Kontakt sample sets rely on a non sprung modulation wheel to do things. Tony www.oakleysound.com