Beats and Drums and Beyond

Arturia has a new controller coming with 16 pads and 17 asssignable knobs in a small portable controller expect to sell for $99 on the street. It can be used for performance, act as a step sequencer, and the SonicState team was impressed. Especially at this price point this offers a lot of power.

I used to have an original Trigger Finger back in MAudio's Avid phase, but the Trigger Finger 2's large display and sequencer pads do seem to bring it closer to something like a version of Maschine that's not tied to a specific software platform.

And, to spare you one more mention of such things, see also my notes on the ring controller devices, and of course ... the Keytars! And you thought we hadn't seen those since Revenge of the Nerds. But controllers are nerd-built, if you think about it. See my post  The NAMMage is Done.

If all else fails, flail

Finally, this is just fun, even if the software does only run on Windows PCs:

The only downside to this technology is that you have to be on the lookout for thuggish mimes who might pretend to hit you over the head and steal your invisible drums.