Sometimes, an idea is so beautifully elegant, it just seems obvious.
That’s the feeling I get from Koma’s newest prototype. The Kontrol Surface is a touch controller device. In its Light version, it’s an X/Y touch controller with CV output. The Pro version adds MIDI so it works with both analog and digital gear, and ups the ante to three-axis X/Y/Z capacitive touch.
Folks with MIDI gear will wait for the Pro version, but the Light edition already appears like it’ll become a must-have for analog/modular owners. Specs:
- 1 x CV output
- 1 x inverted CV output
- Manual gate output (so you can use it as a trigger)
- Hold function, per-channel, including a momentary hold
- …and you can clock the momentary hold. (Oh, yeah – so you can do rhythmic effects with the hold feature. It’s subtle how they’re doing this; see their post for a full explanation of what they’re planning.)
Watch a first video demo:
We’ve seen the occasional X/Y touch controller, but typically MIDI-only – KORG’s KAOSS Pad being the only one I can think of off-hand that got wide distribution. Maybe you don’t care about such a thing in the Age of the iPad, but for hardware lovers, it seems perfect – jack in CV to some analog goodies, play.
You’ll see the final versions, they say, at NAMM 2013 at the end of January in California, with shipping end of Q1 2013.
More:
New development: Kontrol Surface CV Controller! [Koma Elektronik]