Recommend a rotary/slider based midi controller to record Automation in Ableton?

Performance & Techniques Music Production
1

Recommend a rotary/slider based midi controller to record Automation in Ableton?

Are there any good Rotary or Slider based midi controllers on the market at the moment that I haven’t seen?

There must be because I have been looking for a midi controller to record automation into my Ableton productions to give a more natural feel for a while now and haven’t seen any good solutions!

I work with a Midi keyboard and will be getting Maschine as soon as possible, but am still looking for a rotary-style controller for editing parameters on the fly without the use of a mouse!

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated!

2

I’m curently wondering about this:

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/novation-launch-control-compact-controller-ableton-live/505153-01/

But can’t imagine it being the nicest, looks a bit plasticy.

3

Doesn’t look too bad, I just thought there would be more solutions for what I want - might have to end up selling my midi keyboard and get one with rotaries as well instead of having two different pieces of kit.

4

Be a bit more specific, what exactly do you want (how many faders? how many pots? normal ones or endless? andsoonandsoforth)

Maybe a Novation Nocturn (8 endless encoders and a couple of buttons I think) could just be what you need. A rather pricy option would be a Novation Remote Zero SL. Or look at a Behringer BCR 2000 for more endless encoders than you could ever need. As a very budget friendly option you could consider an Akai LPD8 (if you exchange the normal pots for something more usable). Or you could look for a 2nd hand M-Audio UC33e (24 pots, 9 faders, a bunch of buttons), but I’m not sure how easy they are to find nowadays.

5

I would go for a couple of behringer BCF-2000’s they have 8 motorised faders, 8 led ringed encoders and enough buttons to play your clips/record etc…

500×368 28.8 KB

6

What about something like the APC40? It’s made for Live…

7

UC-33e.

Or like you say - a keyboard w/faders and knobs…

8

I use Studio One with the FaderPort which is great. I am not sure if its what you are looking for but I do know it can be mapped to ableton and mapped well.

http://www.presonus.com/products/faderport

9

+1 for BCF2000

10

I have the keyboard version of this, and if that’s anything to go by, it’s amazing. It’s also not insanely expensive… SL | Novation

That, with your existing midi keyboard, plus a Launchpad = a fairly comprehensive Ableton setup.

Alternatively, you could always go the DIY route and adding a couple of faders to this design shouldn’t be too hard Music Gear, Equipment, News, Tutorials & Reviews

R x

11

Novatio Remote Zero SL is awesome, I have the keyboard version, and from what you’re saying it should be perfect for you.

Alternatively, you could make one yourself, this kit it great and adding vertical faders in place of pots isn’t too hard.
http://blog.60works.com/eqkit/eqkit

I use the MidiDesigner app, because it’s really versatile and vey powerful

:slight_smile:

12

If I’m just looking for a rotary controller to record in Automation to Ableton live, is the new Novation Launch Control for me?

13

Sounds pretty good for what you want. Easily maps to Ableton and is built for it.
It depends what you want it for tbh, because if you’re doing 30-band EQing or something like that, 8 pots isn’t going to cut it…

14

what about the nano kontrol 2?