I love the way YAMAHA has them 2 separate things, same as on the Korg Prophecy uh.

I've had a Minimoog and many other synths with wheels as well as a Yamaha CS60 with the pitch ribbon and wheels. Also several Rolands over the years with pitch lever and Korgs with pitch/mod levers.

The problem with the original Rolands like the Jupiter 8, the lever only bent pitch and modulation was triggered with a button allowing only Off or On and nothing in between. The the following JX's added Mod by pulling down on the lever, but still was only Off or On. The newer Rolands have continuous mod amount by pulling down on the lever but the travel is so short that it is not very usable to me at least. The Korg lever I feel is far more usable since there is good travel left/right and up/down. Plus up and down movements can be routed to many different destinations other than just modulation. Very nice. I do still prefer the wheels as long as the mod wheel is not spring loaded for center return. My favorite of all though is the trackball of the GEM WK8 even though the mod still centers. It is very comfortable to use the trackball for adding live vibrato like with a pitch wheel but you can also do the slap type thing if you want. The down side is that the mod (up/down) centers and cannot be routed to any other function. I would love to replace the lever on my Pa588 with a trackball and a small thumb button to the right of the trackball to lock in the vertical position, that would be the best as far as I am concerned.

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Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band
The Modulators

I agree, Dave...having to use the button isn't the most elegant way of adding modulation.

I was fortunate in getting a later model JP-8 which is equipped with the very rare MD-8 midi interface, so I can use a controller to access the Jupiter's mod.

The track ball thing sounds interesting...a friend of mine had a Bachman keyboard...almost a digital piano, that had something like that for control.

Ian

Mind you, there's something to be said for preset mod amounts, just as there is something to say for non touch sensitive keyboards. It gives you a VERY even, predictable sound, great for recording.

Yes, we can criticize these early synths for not having many of the bells and whistles we use now, but it didn't seem to stop the top players of the day from making GREAT music on them... And perhaps it HELPED

I deactivated my 'Pitch Bend' springs ages ago,i had serious issues with the wheel always having the upper hand over me!Didn't take long at all for me to 'know' exactly where to leave the wheel after i was done 'pitching'.I like my springless wheel because it allows me to set the setting to -12 in the settings and then i can go down yet another octave without having to go into custom voices.

Good point. I never really liked using the mod wheel to add vibrato because it applies a static rate to the pitch modulation. I much prefer using the pitch bend device to add live vibrato. Speaking of which, one of the best pitch bend devices I can remember (and it's funny that most people hated it) was the PPC (Proportional Pitch Controller) on the ARP Odyssey which consisted of three rubber pressure sensitive pads. The left pad bent pitch down, the right pad bent pitch up and the middle pad applied modulation. The harder you pressed, the stronger the effect. It was a little hard to bend notes to an exact pitch, but for adding natural vibrato, it was very cool.

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Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band
The Modulators

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 10-16-2009).]

Exactly, Dave. That's what I was getting at when I mentioned the Micromoog's pitch ribbon as being very tactile. Putting your finger on the centre spot and 'feeling' the vibrato the same way a guitarist does.

Diki, talking of early synthmeisters, I remember being absolutely gobsmacked by Jan Hammer's album 'The First Seven Days'. I'd love to get another copy of that.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Seven-Days-Jan-Hammer/dp/B00009VU2W

Jan learned from watching guitarists...

Dave, I had the older, 'knob for pitch' Odyssey. Tried the newer one, and HATED it! Being unable to consistently hit and HOLD a note using the bender was a dealbreaker! The mod thing was OK (but you couldn't leave it up, like a Minimoog) but the pitch control was a bust, I'm afraid. Went back to my older one...

The thing about strips that always gets me is that, although most of my keyboards have them (Triton, K2500S and KX-5), only the KX-5 feels TRULY natural under my fingers. Maybe it's because I play bass and guitar a bit too, but the wrist and finger position on the KX-5 strip allows me to do all the pitch tricks (including real natural vibrato) without even having to THINK. My mind imagines it, and it happens. There's always a feeling of a very slight disconnection when my wrist is turned over than when it is in the 'guitarists' position'...

Yep totally agree, just look at all the great work by Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, et al, who used early clavs and wurlis that didn't even have sustain pedals!!

They made them sing, purely through talent.