Numark Orbit
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I have ordered one of these:
[http://www.numark.com/product/orbit](http://www.numark.com/product/orbit)I have liked the idea of it for a while now but never bought one because I didn't *need* it. But it dropped down £40 (from £99) so I went for it.I like the idea of the wireless-ness (is that even a workd?) and apparently the distance is really good. "Orbit gives you 2.4 GHz ultra-low-latency wireless performance control with a range of up to 100 feet and eight hours of continuous use per charge (up to 24 hours standby).I am wanting to use it for VJing as I hate just sitting behind the laptop and pressing keyboard keys and even 'standard' midi controllers can be limiting (fixed on a desk, etc).so this is ideal for me. I also like the gyroscopic midi stuff, could be gimmicky but who knows!Just wanted to share - may be interesting for some of you.P.S - yes I know it looks like a kids toy! lol -
looks like fun.. I like the possibility to control a vj set while viewing from different locations.
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At £40 it's a no brainer even if it turns out to be a bit gimmicky, I think these new types of HIDs and physical input are one of the most interesting areas of interactive visual performance.
As the boundaries blur between playing live music and visuals who's to say whether a musical instrument should be used for music or the playback of visuals? How about a key-tar for visuals? A bit 80s... -
I have always been interested in midi controllers of every type. Coming from a DJ background I like various types. This is defiantly one of the best I've had. Especially for the price. The only negative I can find is that is has no native midi feedback. So I can change all the buttons colours, values and note/controller numbers and settings. But if a button is on toggle then it sends the data but button light does not change. It would be cool if you could set and off and on value. Or even if a light just went dimmer. Of course I could create a big midi patch in izzy and send midi back to the Orbit to change the colour. But is the time and effort worth it? Maybe it I need to! Haha. I will post some videos and examples when I get the chance.
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Happy New Year everyone.
At £40 they are great, some early observations.The radio knocks out the wifi connection on my macbook every time I plug it in - contact re-established as soon as I unplug it - could be encouraging for strength of signal for range of controller, but certainly might cause issues ;) I'm probably going to use it plugged in anyway.Controlling the lights is fairly easy - they respond to the same midi note that the switch produces, the velocity controls the colour, so simply mirroring the midi back produces lights on the switches that relate to their state (as long as the switches are set to send different midi values). Colour mapping is not linear, but there are a bunch of useable colours in there. -
@nick one annoying problem is the Orbit does not send velocity out so if red is say "55" it doesn't tell you; so I need to go through every colour and work them all out. Just going to take a bit of time.
