Comments on: FRONT: Prototype Knob-Slider Musical Interface

By: Arjen

Arjen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:25:50 +0000

I think I have to add this just for the record, I graduated in 2003 on the Skiller project and had a roughly working protoype at that time. I expanded and tinkered it into a well working prototype in the year after that.
When I read his article on FRONT in 2004 I contacted the designer to talk about the resemblance between the two interfaces. It seems he developed his idea for FRONT without being aware of the existence of my Skiller. I just have to guess there was something in the air that time…

By: Chase

Chase — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:53:16 +0000

It would be really cool to find a way to use this thing to quickly scroll through scenes and clips in Ableton. The nob being up and down and the slider being back and forth. It’d be totally mouseless!

By: Zac Darko

Zac Darko — Wed, 16 May 2007 09:42:22 +0000

damn

if this had midi itd be a sweet VJ controller…

use it as a giant crossfader and turn the wheel at each end to select new loops =P

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:53:19 +0000

Anon.
you are right.
USB midi does suck. having that latency on notes make the music get bad. But for me, not having a way to get CC and PC messages in in and out of USB controllers and MIDI based sound modules is worse.

By: Drum and Bass Magazin - Drums, Basslines, Gute Laune » Blog Archiv » Front - neuartiges Musikinstrument

Thu, 03 May 2007 15:41:45 +0000

[...] Mehr Infos gibts hier. via Und noch ein schÃ¶ner Link zu Prototypen fÃ¼r musikalische Interfaces [...]

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:21:31 +0000

@dubbele, that’s truly a *remarkably* similar concept in the Skinner. Fader with a knob on it, paddle on the end that bends up and down? Interesting.

Of course, combining faders and knobs or something like that is always a decent idea.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:11:26 +0000

The Sonic Manipulator is a busker in Melbourne Australia that's been circuit bending and DIYing synths since most of us were playing duplo block percussion ;) He has something similar that I really liked, it's like a throttle lever with a pot built into the shaft, so you get a single axis of travel with a rotating knob at the end of the actuator... I think his design takes precedence over both of the above, just for the record... Scope it here: THE CLAUDE-A-TRON Melburnians I highly recommend a chat with this guy. If you're in the city and you see the weird lookin dude in the silver space man get-up playing a theremin sounding thingy with a bunch of stompboxes strapped to his belt and numerous bizarre DIY contraptions surrounding him, that's your man. He's totally ahead of his time and has a lot of creative ideas... And no I'm not an employee ;)

By: Michael Una

Michael Una — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:44:02 +0000

I see this as being part of a larger movement to get people out from behind their secret laptop screens (where they may or may not be checking their email) and put them in front of the audience in a performance-oriented manner.

The Lemur, Monome, and Tenori-On are all working towards this aim- throwing the audience a bone as to “what’s going on here, and how can I understand it/”

By: Electronic Music Interface » Blog Archive » The “Skiller”: a musical interaction to improvise with techno sampleloops

Thu, 03 May 2007 11:20:39 +0000

[...] Via CDM. [...]

By: dubbele lucht

dubbele lucht — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:10:32 +0000

As Peter Kirn pointed out, concepts like this need many itterations based on people playing the instrument to become of value to musicians. The first logical step, after designing it on paper, would be to build a working prototype.... That's what Arjen de Bruijn did with his remakably similar concept called the Skinner. You can watch and hear him play it in this movie. Unfortunately the development stopped with this prototype. p.s. Both concepts were developed in 2004, so I am not sure who inflenced who, or if there was just something in the air that time.