Developer Craig Jackson shared this sneak preview of the Thumb Bar Controller – a new synth accessory that offers an alternative to the traditional pitch bend wheel.
The Thumb Bar Controller is designed to let you play your synth with modulation control, using just one hand. With traditional pitch and mod wheels, soloing with modulation requires two hands. The Thumb Bar Controller lets you add pitch bend or mod expression using your thumb, freeing up your other hand to do other things.
Jackson also notes that the Thumb Bar Controller can also be used as an enabling technology for people that may only be able to play an instrument with one hand.
The new MIDI controller will fit most 49-key or smaller synthesizers. The video demonstrates how the Thumb Bar offers two axes of expressive control, up and down for pitch bend and in/out for modulation.
Details are still to come at Jackson’s site, but he says that the Thumb Bar Controller will be available in 2025.
Clever!
For April 1st?
Ever hear of a flipping foot pedal, mate? But, thanks for reinventing the wheel. Again.
Clever, I like it. For cases where expression pedals fall short
MPE players be like…
Owners of existing synths without MPE be like…
Looks a bit Heath Robinson!
Cool idea! For something kind of like this, I use a $40 Doremidi pedal interface that can accept momentary or continuous foot pedals and configured to send any CC. But it also works with other kinds of switches, like hand pressure or bite switches. This website, enablingdevices dot com, for components for people with disabilities, is a great resource for unusual switches and sensors.
Hello, can Doremidi pedal interface work without attached PC?
Thanx
This serves a market of more typical professional musicians playing bars or events that want to enhance their kit without learning a new way of playing or retool their setup to add an expensive expressive MPE keyboard made by some company that hasn’t been around for very long (relative to Korg/Yamaha/Nord).
No nonsense or complicated MIDI setups or additional complicated keyboards that can fail. I’m surprised something like this wasn’t made sooner.
There’s something cool about Rube Goldberg devices that tap into the existing hardware in a funny but useful way.
BTW, there’s a company called AudioFront that makes a product called MIDI Expression. It’s not cheap, but with it you can connect different devices like expression pedals, switches etc, and it auto-senses them. You can assign them to do MIDI functions. It doesn’t do everything but it has lots of useful surprises– e.g., trigger notes with velocity using an expression pedal (!)
The goal with these devices is to add a few extra dimensions of control that your body will adapt to fairly quickly. Aftertouch is ok, but it must always start and end with zero, and is hard to control (127 values in a few mm). Wheels are ok, but you sacrifice a playing hand. Breath Control requires some training but gets you quite a bit of intuitive control. I quite like the idea of lip/bite sensor as control, particularly for pitch.
The big bulky steel rail across the front seems like a pretty reasonable approach for a studio keyboard — or for someone who is committed to an intense set-up for live. I could imagine setting it below the wrists so you could activate either with the heel of your hand, rather than your thumb. But I see the thumb gives you two operations.
That’s an impressive tool. It seems clunky at first glance, but no, its clearly built to translate a serious player’s technique well. Of course, if you implement several such enhancement devices at once, you can end up looking like a bad kid being eaten by a Willy Wonka machine. So what. A lot of people already see synth players as weirdos. We often are, but that’s beside the point.
Isn’t this what aftertouch is for?
Aftertouch is unipolar, pitch bend is bipolar. With aftertouch you can not bend a note down, only up and back to zero.