Non-Keyboard Controllers

What can you do with Fishman Triple Play Wireless Guitar Controller Technology? Lots. You can seamlessly integrate a guitar with a DAW and wirelessly compose, perform, and record; access a host of instruments and sounds on your guitar; build entire arrangements; and much more.  

Put your feet to work with the new Roland PK-6 Dynamic Pedalboard, a MIDI pedal controller optimized for live performers who want full MIDI control plus the freedom to use their hands to play other instruments.  

Modulars meet DAW controllers -- Steinberg introduced the CMC Series of Cubase controllers, a collection of six separate units with pads, knobs, and faders that cover every function in Cubase.  

Take your USB / MIDI controller where no controller has gone before -- across the stage, down into a mosh pit, all around the studio, and wherever you feel like going. The Alesis Vortex USB / MIDI keytar controller offers ergonomic controls; bus-powered or battery-powered functionality; traditional MIDI and USB MIDI for controlling software instruments and synths on Mac, PC, and even iPad; and more.  

If we told you Richie Hawtin had a hand in designing the Livid Instruments CNTRL:R, would you be more likely to check it out? The CNTRL:R is a new kind of MIDI performance controller and instrument that allows you to create rhythms, sequence and perform drums, launch clips, mix tracks, and have complete control over your performance, both in the studio and on stage.  

Have a look at the new face of MPC. At Winter NAMM, Akai Professional will be pulling the curtain on its new flagship MPC Renaissance, a hardware / software Music Production Controller featuring the familiar and popular MPC layout plus the convenience of expandable production capabilities on your Mac or PC via MPC software.  

SSL has a new upgrade bundle for the Nucleus control console, which essentially provides Nucleus users with Lion support, 64-bit support, and access to dedicated DAW control profiles.  

Control everything in your studio with the new QuNeo from Keith McMillen Instruments. The "next-generation 3D multi-touch" portable controller is the size of an iPad and provides 27 groovy-looking pads, sliders, and rotary sensors with 3D multi-touch recognition for pressure, velocity, and location sensitivity.  

Now that Native Instruments has released Maschine Mikro and iMaschine, music makers and producers have a number of new ways to create music, make beats, and control their projects. Maschine Mikro includes a portable controller plus the latest version of Maschine software, giving users a hands-on way to work with their music.  

Get hands-on control of your Cubase system with Steinberg's CMC Controller Series of USB controllers. Designed specifically for the company's flagship DAW, the six new USB controllers can be individually combined to form a custom-made Steinberg Cubase control system.  

Keith McMillen Instruments wants you to go head over heels for 12 Step, the new chromatic keyboard foot controller that allows keyboardists, guitar players, bassists, instrumentalists, and vocalists to accompany themselves with their feet, playing bass lines, notes, and chords.  

Next month when NI releases Maschine Mikro and iMaschine, music makers and producers will have a number of new ways to create music, make beats, and control their projects. Maschine Mikro includes a portable controller plus the latest version of Maschine software, giving users a hands-on way to work with their music.  

With the new OhmRGB controller from Livid Instruments, you can customize your layout with up to seven different colors, use the expansion jacks to add controls such as foot pedals and sensors directly to the unit, and more.  

The genius of the MPC lay in its tactile input method. Now that your average desktop computer can run computational circles around even current MPCs, its nice to know the Akai MPD32 retains the same feel of the standalone Music Production Center. Reviewer Len Sasso offers an in-depth examination of the MPD32 controller.  

Eowave announced the availability of the versatile Ribbon -- an all-in-one ribbon controller, mini lo-fi synthesizer, USB controller, and CV / gate controller. You can put it on your desktop, place it on a keyboard, hold it like a guitar, or whatever suits your fancy.  

Ableton Live is great, but sometimes you just want some real knobs and buttons to work with. That's what the Faderfox LV3 is for. This dedicated controller for Live 8 features a host of tactile controls, including faders, encoders, a button matrix, and joysticks.  

Livid Instruments announced that all Block controllers now come with two 1/4-inch expansion jacks. The added expansion module allow you to connect Roland-style foot pedals and single analog controls to the Block MIDI control surface.  

It's like a iPad dock, but not -- Livid Instruments released the Block Station, a matrix-based hardware controller with a built-in slot that holds an iPad.  

Now shipping from Omer Yosha of Kesem Design, the Airpiano MIDI and OSC controller offers touch-free control over your instruments. To trigger MIDI and OSC messages, you make specific hand gestures over the unit's airborne matrix of keys and faders.  

Keith McMillen Instruments announced that its SoftStep multi-touch foot controller now comes bundled with KeyWorx software, which provides even more control options that improve workflow in media production applications, games, and software programming.  

With SoftStep for iPad and iPhone, you can use the multi-touch foot controller to control functions of your favorite apps. And with KMI's standalone version of SoftStep, you can use the unit to control MIDI keyboards or FX processors without a computer.  

From German coder / visual artist Stefan Göhler comes Crossfire Designs MidiPadz Lite, an app that turns your iPad into a wireless MIDI controller and costs nothing. Which is $175,000,000 less than it costs to turn your fondest childhood memories into commercial nostalgia pablum.  

SSL will be showing its new Nucleus controller at the upcoming AES convention. The Nuclues offers advanced DAW control, a USB audio interface, SSL mic pres, SuperAnalogue monitoring, and bundled Duende plugins.  

Keith McMillen Instruments has officially released the new SoftStep, a super compact and lightweight universal multi-touch USB / MIDI foot controller.  

With the limitless number of assignable parameters and live performance features available in DAW software these days, you may feel like you have your hands full when creating and modifying sounds on the fly. Why not get your feet into the action too? Michael Ross shows you how with this in-depth review of the SoftStep from KMI.  

Vestax introduced the Pad-One, a compact, very portable MIDI pad controller housed in a durable aluminum enclosure.  

"Think outside the grid" -- which sounds a lot like Taco Bell's "Think outside the bun" -- is the catch phrase accompanying the new Livid Instruments Code, a MIDI control instrument featuring an array of knobs to twist and turn.  

Their Tango AD_DA may have gone the way of the dodo, but the AlphaTrack DAW controller by Frontier Designs remains one of this smaller company's most steadfast sellers; Len Sasso examines why.  

It was the first dedicated controller for Ableton Live to bare the Ableton logo, but the Akai APC40 is no longer the only choice for integrated Live control. Pro Reviewer Markkus Rovito puts this hardware behemoth through its paces and lets us know if it's still his first-choice controller for Live.  

At the forefront of music technology as always, Richie Hawtin introduced the new Liine Griid modular touch control system for Ableton Live and iPad, the first in a series of interconnected control modules for Live.