Scratching with a mouse just doesn’t feel right. One solution, as in FinalScratch and other products, is to print timecode onto the vinyl. But then there’s the direct approach: strap that mouse right onto your turntable and hit the club!

That’s just what the DIY-oriented community of users of terminatorX have done. terminatorX is a fully open-source scratch synth on Linux, with support for files like OGG, MP3, and WAV, and even (recently) Linux’s open stereo plug-in format, LADSPA. terminatorX lacks fancy features like support for timecode-printed vinyl, so users take a more literal approach to melding mouse and turntable.

Practical? Well, not especially. But fun? Heck, yeah. (Added benefit: a couple of these are far lighter and smaller than a real turntable.)

Necessity is definitely the mother of invention:

• Some of the projects use a series of belts to connect rotation mechanically to the mouse apparatus
• Toqer worked with a DIY optical sensor apparatus; several of these use optical sensors on the mice to keep from touching the records (thus making these even kinder to records than an actual cartridge would be)
• A number of projects feature full-blown motors and entirely-concealed mice
• Adam King built an entire DIY turntable with a mouse connected inside the unit (pictured, top)
• My personal favorite, Fernando S. Fabreti took the brute-force approach and put a mouse directly on the tone arm. (below) Insane. Brilliant.

More projects, photos, and links to specs and how-to instructions (I imagine you could do damage with ideas like this using other software, or even applications other than turntables):

terminatorX Turntable Gallery

This should also leave you more than typically safe from stepping on any N2IT/FinalScratch patents. Thank Douglas Englebart for this one.

Boring USB keyboards for connecting to computers: no matter how many manufacturers make nearly-identical models, more appear. Korg has a mostly-nondescript line of new USB keyboards that would fit that description, but with a twist. They’ve included an unusual, tiny joystick that fills in for your mouse when using a computer. I tried to get a feel for it in a casual test, but found it awkward — I’d rather just buy a cheap USB trackball and sit it on my keyboard. (And why not build in a trackpad instead?) Of course, I never liked those rubber nibs on the IBM ThinkPad notebooks, either, so this could be a matter of taste. Korg has also included the Korg M1 Le, in case you’re a big M1 fan, and offer an upgrade to the full Digital Legacy Collection at a discount.

Pointing and hand gestures: they’re powerful means of interracting, and make sense for music. The only problem is having to be tied to a desk in a performance, as with a mouse. Nintendo’s upcoming controller shows promise for what interractions could be like in the not-too-distant future (if other tech companies follow their lead). But what about now?

Possible Mac and PC-compatible mouse products:

Gyration GyroMouse; now discontinued though you might get an overstock. A friend of mine on faculty at SUNY Stonybrook uses this with Director on his Mac.

Monster Gecko Gaming Mouse: Just $40, and beloved by both PC Gamer and Macworld, among others. (Hint: poor choice for airplane security.)

Gyration Ultra GT $80, but more features. Crippled on the Mac (no right mouse button support, though USB Overdrive might work), but lots of options on Windows.

Once you’ve got these hooked up, a program like Max/MSP or Pd can make short work of converting them to useful information or MIDI. (We may some day be able to use the Revolution controller with our Mac or PC; there are already adapters for PS2, GameCube, and Xbox.)

Of course, the major limitation here is none of these appears to pull Z-axis information. Anyone out there tried gyro mice? Got any tips? Or are these likely to be useless for the time being? (Or should we go back to building things with our own gyro sensors? That’s more fun.)

I’ll admit it: I didn’t expect to like the new Mighty Mouse from Apple. Obviously, Apple’s previous single-button mouse was lacking, but with so many excellent mice on the market, did we really need another one? But I was intrigued by the Scroll Ball, which promised to make breezing through music applications like Logic Pro. Could this little ball make a believer out of me — and make me give up my beloved Logitech mouse? After weeks of testing, I’ve got the answer; read on for CDM’s obsessive review.

So it turns out Apple can deal with a two-button mouse — so long as those buttons aren’t invisible. Meet Apple’s Mighty Mouse, peculiarly named after a cartoon. (Note to Apple: why not Danger Mouse? He’s the quickest! He’s the best! Etc.)

So why is this mouse useful to musicians? Because Apple may finally have gotten horizontal scrolling right. Sure, there are Windows mice with horizontal scrolling, but nothing with the 360 degree design of the Apple scroll wheel. I’ve also found that horizontal scrolling seems to be universally broken on the Mac and works only sporadically on Windows (Word — yes; other apps — not necessarily).

As Apple points out, this should be pretty nice for navigating GarageBand and Logic. Horizontal scrolling makes more sense than vertical scrolling for timeline-based applications. Go left in your music by pushing left, right by pushing right, etc. And if you have a big Logic Pro project, 360 degrees makes perfect sense: up and down moves through tracks, right and left through time, or use a combination. (Scrolling Reason is fun with vertical scrolling, too, but you can do that with any mouse.)

That, and this looks like something some of you forward-thinking interface designers might have come up with. Force-sensing side buttons? A built-in speaker that provides aural feedback? Not sure that’s useful, but it’s at least . . . different:

Apple.com: Force-sensing buttons on either side of Mighty Mouse respond when you press in with your finger and thumb . . . the audio feedback built into Mighty Mouse provides an aural sensation that responds to your movements. A tiny speaker inside Mighty Mouse produces button-clicking and Scroll Ball-rolling sound effects.

This one deserves a verdict when it ships. In the meantime, I’m sticking with my Logitech.