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Comment by jb1991 | Hacker News Reader

jb1991

Cool! But I would’ve preferred sliders over dials. Or a combination of the two. Sliders are particularly useful when controlling multiple parameters in real time performance, where dials basically make that impossible. It’s quite normal for example to have two fingers on two sliders while performing with orchestral virtual instruments, while the other hand is on a keyboard.

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Author here, thanks! The issue with sliders is that either you'll have to use a “latch takeover mode” or use motorized sliders if the parameters change in the software. With these, the LEDs and internal values just update when something changes, so like a motor fader but much less involved and cheaper. I do agree that sliders better control but these dials with LED indicators feel like a better “general purpose” controller to me.

Have you come across any high resolution sliders that you can recommend? Either motorized or not, or a brand in general you like?

Go with original replacement sliders from good mixer boards. They will usually be much much better and easier to select than any out of electronic vendor ones. They are really costly but the difference in behavior, feeling and reliability is worth the cost if you need precision.

I've had good success with Numark salvaged ones, but I'm sure there is better.

Hey there, very nice project!

A couple of bits: 'course' -> 'coarse' and the reason you don't get the same feel from digital is simply because of the digitization itself, if the steps are large then there is always some movement that isn't enough for a whole step, rather than that it doesn't max out the full range.

Looking forward to more of your posts.

Thank you! Fixed that typo.

Your post made me recall of a technique I saw on a mixing book some 30+ years ago. The trick consisted in linking together two or more potentiometer knobs on a mixer by using thick rubber bands, so that one could rotate more than one with a single hand, for example to alter a filter while acting on a fx send, etc. By wrapping the rubber band in inverted position on one knob one could also for example pan a sound to left while another one went to the right, etc. This was of course well before automation became widespread. Unfortunately I lent that book to some friend to never get it back, and don't even recall which friend was or the book title.

Now I'm imagining a Rube Goldberg device with all sorts of rubber bands, weights and hatches hanging piecemeal over a mixing desk and a desperate audio engineer lacking the gyral fortitude to find the crossover sweet spot on the EQ.

Monogram has a 3 slider controller, plus it's modular so you can build something for your specific workflow.

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