Organelle Knobs Extension Box Idea

Organelle
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Hello c&g and friends! I had an idea earlier today I thought I’d share with you all.

I was thinking about how some of the patches on the Organelle have multiple pages you can scroll through which change the function of the 4 knobs for each page. Do you think it would be possible to create an (official c&g) external box with 8 or maybe 12 knobs on it that could hook up to the Organelle through midi to handle those same functions? I’m thinking something that’s the same length as the Organelle that could pretty much just sit right above it. It would make it much easier to tweak things quickly in a live setting, being that every parameter in the patch is easily accessible. And it would look super cool!

Is this otherwise possible with a midi controller that already has enough knobs? Any thoughts or ideas?

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I’ve had the “organelle companion” idea for a while. For me, it would ideally have :

  • preamps
  • separate L and R balanced inputs
  • XLR/jack combos
  • phantom power
  • balanced outputs
  • DIN midi in/out
  • 8 encoders with 8 dimmable rgb leds
  • 8 buttons with 8 rgb leds
  • maybe a pad of utility buttons (for save/recall/fn/alt/shift/lock/fire/turbo)
  • usb hub
  • cup holder on the side

:joy:

Have a look at the Behringer BCR2000. Amazing midi control surface for the value !

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I think it has been debated before. It sure would be lovely with an extra box with more knobs, buttons etc. 16 buttons in a row for a sequencer would be nice. And maybe an led next to each button so one could use it as a sequencer :slight_smile: Dreaming… :slight_smile:

Midi controllers:
I have got a launch XL, from Novation. Those a pretty nice. Many knobs and faders and buttons. 56 buttons/faders/knobs in all. And you can make up to eight pages with 56 buttons/faders/knobs. So 56*8 = 448 parameters :slight_smile: WAY more than one would would ever need. One coll feature is that the middle of all the knobs kind of “snaps”, which makes its very easy to set a center value. S0 you got values 0 64 127 which are very easy to set. So all though you dont get a display, its pretty easy to set precise values. Or you could also just have a page on the organelle that show the incoming midi values from the midi controller on the display. That should be pretty easy to set up.

And its class compliant so it should work with Organelle, all though I havent tried it yet. I have used it extensively with Pure Data on a Mac and that works really great.

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hi @legos, yes I think we all have had similar ideas…

personally, I love the compact nature of the Organelle , but then at times I want to go a bit further, so want a bit more hands on control.

however, the issue for me though is not getting knobs/sliders, as its the Organelle has usb midi , so any number of control surfaces will work… just pick the one that suits your needs best.

no, the issue is , once you have your new shiny surface, your going to have to then edit the PD patch to map controls… even if your familiar with PD, this is pretty tedious/slow as you need a screen/mouse to do it.

so ive spent a while working on a new way of doing this for all my patches , called ‘Kontrol’, this provides midi mapping (via a simple midi learn) and many other features related to allow other controllers to control Organelle patches… I put out a beta about a month ago and posted here

since then Ive been steadily improving it get it ‘release ready’, and I am about to release new versions of all the Mutable Instrument patches which are now kontrol enabled, and have a few other new features.

the new version is much smoother , and now allows complete remote control of patches, say from your desktop, or phone/tablet*

once the MI patches are out, I plan to look at creating other Kontrol enabled patches - partly conversions of others patches I enjoy, and also totally new ones.
(the goal behind Kontrol was also to make patch creation much easier/quicker, and it really does :slight_smile: )

anyway, just grab a control surface and watch this space :slight_smile:

Mark

(*) I’m talking to a company that is involved in ‘headless’ PD apps on rPI, who are producing an also producing a mobile app, and are hoping to adopt ‘Kontrol’ for this purpose. I’m also considering writing a small web app in JS, to do the same… if anyone (with solid Javascript experience) is interested in getting involved PM me.

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