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Re: Max in hardware?



At 12:29 PM 11/9/01 -0800, you wrote:
>This looks like a neat box, but it's MIDI implementation from the website
>sounds about the same as the DrumKAT that I bought in 1991 and upgraded a
>few times, can you tell me what is different?

This is a quiz, right? Well, we include a lot of those features and used
some of the language because we were trying to reach drummers who had some
familiarity with the drumkat but wanted to do more and do it more easily.
Also, there was an intention to mate this to 8-level multi-sampled drums
(or guitars, whatever) in the Kurzweils but let me see what's different:
 
There's more Continuous Controller features, the ability to send groups of
CC messages, fixed-data CC's, mix CC's and notes together (verrry
interesting effects). 
We can handle pedals and Pressure-sensitive Resistive pads as inputs.
Any jack on the EventStation is configurable for any hardware and any
output function, even for things that might not seem to make sense.
Nothing is hard-coded in the unit. 
There's a programmable velocity-window for each event, not just each pad.
Triggers (hardware or software) may be mapped to more things of greater
variety.
Notes/Events may be programmed to Latch on/off, sustain from the input
(like a keyboard), or play a gated duration.
Our note durations will play both shorter and longer and are programmable
in both MIDI clocks and milliseconds.
We have a cool 'ShowAll' set of screens that lets you quickly view variuos
sets of parameters.
We've got a 32 beat programmable metronome (with programmable accents!) .
Our programming interface is (much) cleaner and easier to read and navigate
than the drumkat. 
We've got a real-time sequencer that captures all MIDI performance,
notes/CC's/other sequences/whatever. 
Loop 'n'-times for sequence playback.
An extra HiHat mode that triggers an 8-level sample set while sending a
programmable CC-message. 
All 16 of our response curves are user-programmable. 
There are 16 touch-sensitive front-panel keys that duplicate the
functionality of the rear-panel jacks so that you can program/test your
setups without having any performance hardware connected.
There's a rear-panel Expansion Port that will be used to accept external
sensor-arrays such as a multi-zone touch-surface or one of our guitar
fingerboards.
MIDI input re-mapping is availabe to all 128 Input notes.
I'm probably forgetting something.
The development staff is still on the project.
The drumKat is very cool and on the flip-side the dKat benefits from being
old and stable. We're new, our feature-set isn't completely nailed down,
nor entirely bug-free, although we're ready to 'beta'. Having said that we
give free software updates.
thanks,
harveyS

>
>    Kevin
>
>On 11/9/01 9:08 AM, "Harvey Starr" <harvey@cts.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> I might offer our EventStation as fitting this description. 
>'Max-in-a-box'
>> was sort of the motto as we developed the unit. It was originally 
>intended
>> as a percussion controller but the specs evolved to give it more MIDI
>> re-mapping capabilities. Basically it has 16 rear panel stereo jacks 
>which
>> accept a variety of inputs, 1 or 2 zone percussion pads (Roland
>> compatible), footswitches, expression pedals, pots, piezos, ??? . Each 
>jack
>> maps to 2 programming slots. Each slot is programmable for 8 events or a
>> variable-length sequence which you can input live from the system or
>> externally via MIDI. Each event may be a note or CC and there is a
>> velocity-window for each event that determines where you want the event 
>to
>> appear. There's MIDI clock, tap-tempo and a lot of performance-oriented
>> features. There are actually so many features we've had a hard time
>> defining the market for the unit. It's still a beta-unit but they are
>> available. If you want more info you can check out
>> http://www.starrlabs.com/kurzweil.html
>> 
>> cheers,
>> harveyS
>> 
>> ps. sorry for the commercial intrusion but since you asked...
>> 
>
>-- 
>Unit Circle Media
>http://www.unitcircle.com
>
>
>
>
http://www.starrlabs.com