Best products from r/Controllerism

We found 2 comments on r/Controllerism discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 2 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

Top comments mentioning products on r/Controllerism:

u/quitterjunior · 3 pointsr/Controllerism

Do you have a car? You could amplify with the car's speakers. If there's no audio jack in the car, they sell little fm transmitters. You could keep a laptop charged for ableton with power from the cigarette lighter, using a power inverter (like $20). Might want to keep the car engine running (but only outdoors and with lots of room for ventilation) so the car battery doesn't die on you. You could even set up on the roof of the (stationary) car, or in the bed, if it's a pickup. Why? Because, your punk as f*ck, that's why.

Things like the raspberry pi, wiimotes and gaming controllers could also make you a little more portable if you're not wedded to the push. A single wiimote, sending just bluetooth to your computer is equivalent - by my quick count - to a midi controller with 4 knobs (x,y,z,acceleration) and roughly a dozen buttons. Add infrared and that's a few more knobs. Then, in osculator and/or ableton, you can increase those figures exponentially by mapping events to button combinations. (E.g., the A and B buttons are each mapped to unique midi messages like c1 and c#1, while pressing A and B buttons at the same time is mapped to something different like f#2).

Any set is going to be a lot more portable if you're not responsible for your own amplification, or if the location of speakers is flexible. I haven't quite figured out whether this last one is viable yet, but it SEEMS like the Chromecast could be a budget option for wireless audio. If that were the case, you could brusk anywhere there's a tv. There are tutorials online re: using the Chromecast as a wireless hi-fi with the aid of hdmi audio splitter cables, or something.

In a similar vein, a raspberry pi with a WiFi or Bluetooth dongle running pd-extended or something would be laptop-ish. It couldn't any handle heavy lifting like ableton, but it could be useful as an audio or midi interface, or for getting bigger equipment like amps off site. I've actually been toying with this last one a little. I'm going to use the pi as a headless, wireless relay for data from bend sensors and ultrasonic sensors weaved into my clothes, and run through arduinos so they can act as mid I controllers inside ableton, but so I can still dance around, untetheredA term of art for productive googling with that kind of idea is "wearables" or "e-textiles". Make magazine has a few features on the concept.

I'm trying to powering the pi with this: http://www.amazon.com/Duracell-Instant-Charger-Includes-Universal/dp/B002FU6KF2

For getting audio (e.g, from a guitar) into the pi, or iOS devices, I'm using a uca-222. It's tiny, cheap and USB powered.

For wireless/portable midi or osc, don't overlook your phone, either. A lot of iOS apps can send midi and/or osc messages if you set up your laptop to broadcast an ad hoc network. An app called "Lemur" lets you do all kinds of midi/osc stuff. People post tons of templates for controlling ableton, Max for live, and even specific 3rd party plugins, all from an iOS device. You can also just put together your own custom interface. Touch OSC and Mr Mr also do this kind of thing. The ad hoc network thing was kind of a nightmarish process the first time I tried to figure it out, and with the lag it's probably not suited to actual, virtuosic finger drumming. An app called Apollo midi over Bluetooth (assuming you have Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), has worked a lot better for me with less lag and fewer dropped handshakes (which will be an issue if you do this in public, where the spectator's own phones are competing for your radio bandwidth.) Apollo is "musical" enough that with a slow song, at least, you could use it for notes. Try midimorphosis through Apollo (the "audiobus"" app is useful, but not necessary for this) into ableton. You can then sing into your phone, for example, with real-time midi accompaniment. Again, you're not going to wow anyone with your blistering voice controlled guitar solo, but it's passable for pads or chords. And anyway, there's no such thing as late notes in ableton...

I'm not really heeding any of my own advice. I'm trying to prepare a busking too, and I want it to be portable, but I can't bring myself to exclude the push. Right now I'm just using rolling modular wire shelving to support everything. The wheels have brakes, but it's too lightweight and it shakes when I press the push, which is a non-starter.

There are little tables made specifically for supporting the push or the apc40. You've seen them. They look a little like music notation stands. Very portable. Or if you want to go the opposite direction, or just make a statement, you could use a lectern. I used a wooden one as a makeshift standing desk for a while. It was cheap. Any university surplus store should sell them.

There are tons of ways you can economize for live performance just within the push itself. You probably went with push for that exact reason. But just like with ableton, don't put the horse before the cart. Make sure you know all of its features inside out. If there's something tricky you want to try, always first ask yourself whether it's built into push or ableton. It's heartbreaking to feel like you've just discovered fire, only to realize fire is a basic feature. It feels downright unbecoming of an artist to "read the manual," I know, but make an exception for this one thing.

With that said, here's two dirty tricks for live performance: Map velocity and after touch. There are a couple aftertouch M4L devices out there. Map either of these to, well, anything, for instant awesome. For instance: if you're playing the notes of a melodic solo instrument on push's pads: map the velocity (how hard you hit the pads) to the sync rate on an arpeggioator or beat repeat. Map aftertouch (how hard you press the pad after initially pressing) to something like an lfo rate. After touch in particular is fun if people are up close. Technically if you had it mapped to pitch, you could play -like actually play - the melody of an entire song with a single finger, theremin-style. But the fact that that's actually happening would just be lost on everyone if you were on stage.

Finally, if you're playing right next to people, instead of on a stage, consider implementing an interactive aspect. Motionmod or faceosc on a laptop pointed towards the audience would pay easy wow-factor dividends. And there are a few tutorials around re: mobile midi-triggering dance floors.



u/maylortaylor · 1 pointr/Controllerism

I found this handy guide

It just requires a small battery/generator.For ease of use i've seen people strap their amp and battery to a hand cart