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Eurorack Knob Idea

mitxela.com

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Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#31

Post by buescher »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #20
buescher wrote: post #12

This is so cool and so clever I'm in awe, really. I'm grinning from ear to ear looking at this and jealous I didn't think of it. But the problem it solves is not quite one that anyone has. What does it offer over a built-in knob with a jack that overrides it beside compactness? A knob that's not designed for feel that you can misplace? There's a miniature case study in thinking about innovation here. This is what the…

As he mentions in the video, the whole motivation is compactness. When your panel looks like https://learningmodular.com/the-eurorack-expansion-project/ , every mm^2 matters. I'd be tempted to eliminate the patch cord altogether by using one of those pushbutton pots. Normally it would act like a traditional pot, but if you push it, it would go into a mode where you could choose from a variety of nearby inputs wireles…

Right - it solves the compactness problem but introduces new ones. That said, from what I've seen of other people's modular setups, keeping them from growing without bound does not seem to be the highest priority in that world.

I'd also have to wonder how well a jack would hold up under regular use as a bushing. It's very common for engineers with little exposure to the connector industry (not my background either, but I read the data sheets and app notes) to underestimate how highly engineered and optimized for their use case even decades-old connector types are.

It would be nice to have something like the NKK display pushbuttons in the knob for a rotary encoder/pushbutton.

>After 5 or 10 years' worth of tinkering, it might actually synthesize some sounds.

Yeah.

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#32

Post by tarentel »

adamgordonbell wrote: post #25
weinzierl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dream is a piano keyboard with entirely software controlled mechanical key response. Every key individually mounted on a servostepper. As a bonus it could be used as a fake player piano. Or for practice you could make the wrong keys hard to press. Endless possibilities.

> Or for practice you could make the wrong keys hard to press. This seems like a pretty cool idea

I'm not convinced it would work very well on making you a better player but who knows. Either way, it sounds like a good way to injure yourself. Piano is a very percussive instrument and if you're hitting the keys with any force and they don't give the way you expect them to I imagine that won't be very great for your joints.

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#34

Post by butlike »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #6

It's interesting. I haven't been sucked into the Eurorack thing though — do people want not just patch cables all over their mixing desk but knobs as well? Eurorack (and modular synths in general) seem like funny things. Like guitar pedals, I sense there are a lot of enthusiasts that do a lot more tinkering than actually playing them. Watching Rick Beato and guests on YouTube ... seems like a lot of musicians are loo…

The knobs tend to be the "public API" and the patch cables the wiring up of the functionality to that public API. having a knob for each patch is akin to making every method 'public' instead of protected or private.

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#35

Post by butlike »

ericwood wrote: post #28
JKCalhoun wrote: post #6

It's interesting. I haven't been sucked into the Eurorack thing though — do people want not just patch cables all over their mixing desk but knobs as well? Eurorack (and modular synths in general) seem like funny things. Like guitar pedals, I sense there are a lot of enthusiasts that do a lot more tinkering than actually playing them. Watching Rick Beato and guests on YouTube ... seems like a lot of musicians are loo…

> Like a few good sounding pedals that, ideally, each have just a knob or two. It makes for a nice narrative but I haven't found it holds much water; musicians are all over the place on this spectrum. You'll find both extremes very well represented, and a good chunk of people who compartmentalize their "dayjob" music and tinkering. I've found a lot of successful musicians love to tinker and are always on the search f…

Your pedal board/modular synth is a reflection of your personality.

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#36

Post by ericwood »

butlike wrote: post #35
ericwood wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like a few good sounding pedals that, ideally, each have just a knob or two. It makes for a nice narrative but I haven't found it holds much water; musicians are all over the place on this spectrum. You'll find both extremes very well represented, and a good chunk of people who compartmentalize their "dayjob" music and tinkering. I've found a lot of successful musicians love to tinker and are always on the search f…

Your pedal board/modular synth is a reflection of your personality.

Just like real life I have a tidy put together functional board, then a disturbing spaghetti mess tucked away in a corner that few are allowed to see

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#37

Post by geerlingguy »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #6

It's interesting. I haven't been sucked into the Eurorack thing though — do people want not just patch cables all over their mixing desk but knobs as well? Eurorack (and modular synths in general) seem like funny things. Like guitar pedals, I sense there are a lot of enthusiasts that do a lot more tinkering than actually playing them. Watching Rick Beato and guests on YouTube ... seems like a lot of musicians are loo…

Watch some episodes of LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER for an example of the kind of tinkering/creativity some people at least love to have available in the physical realm: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw

A lot of the music is made just playing with different parts of the sound, and having all the controls exposed to be messed with can lead to more creativity.

IMO, kind of like how I enjoy Linux configuration files, in a way, more than I do a GUI that covers up 90% of the guts of an application or server software.

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#38

Post by alnwlsn »

> any jack can have a knob plugged into it to set it to a fixed value.

I'm kind of surprised he didn't start with a knob with a tiny accelerometer, mcu and battery in it to produce some sort of output signal into a stock plug depending on how the knob is oriented with respect to gravity.

Putting electronics inside the plug is nearly a mitxela trademark. https://mitxela.com/projects/flash_synth

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#39

Post by 2mlWQbCK »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #6

It's interesting. I haven't been sucked into the Eurorack thing though — do people want not just patch cables all over their mixing desk but knobs as well? Eurorack (and modular synths in general) seem like funny things. Like guitar pedals, I sense there are a lot of enthusiasts that do a lot more tinkering than actually playing them. Watching Rick Beato and guests on YouTube ... seems like a lot of musicians are loo…

My favorite documentary I have not seen (yet), I Dream of Wires from 2013, about modular synthesizers. I know in some trailer there was a maker of modules saying something to the effect that if only people actually making music with their synths bought modules he would be out of business. Can't find that trailer now or I did not watch carefully enough now. There are a few different ones on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQSxqha62j0

Re: Eurorack Knob Idea

#40

Post by scottapotamas »

diggan wrote: post #16
pakue wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should be doable to add that. The BLDC needs to add a proportional (or any other function) force against the rotation direction until it reaches 0.

Sounds reasonable, wonder how that would actually feel in real life? As far as I understand, this would pass through digital parts, adding a little bit of (maybe noticeable) latency, but I wonder if the latency gets high enough for it to be a bit jarring that the resistance is dynamically changing as you apply torque.

This is all fairly normal in robotics, under a subset of (slightly overloaded naming sorry) “impedance control”
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