Philip Snell was frustrated with the limited functions of standard MIDI controllers. Sure, there are alternatives, like Roli’s Seaboard, that have vibrato and pitch bend on a key-by-key basis, but it has limited portability due to its size. And so, Snell made his own MIDI controller that has the features that he wants.
Snell’s solution was to replace piano keys with the compact analog joysticks you’d find on the controllers of consoles like the Nintendo Switch or Xbox One. The smaller footprint meant that Snell could squeeze 39 of them onto a MIDI controller that’s roughly the size of a closed gaming laptop, but without having to trade functionality for portability. In fact, the outcome with the Joyst JV-1 is just the opposite.
Check out more details about the Joyst JV-1 over at Gizmodo.
Cool!
(Image Credit: Joyst/ YouTube)
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