GForce impOSCar2 Hardware Controller?

This ‘much-anticipated’ next version of the Imposcar softsynth is in its final development stage. According to their own website, GForce are putting their heads down once more and get on with the job of completing this instrument. So we have to wait just a few until GForce is unveiling the final version. That said, … we came across a very interesting ‘sometin’ ‘sometin’ on the internet. A GForce Imposcar2 hardware controller! Looking at the pictures, … that is a sweet controller, right? To be completely clear, the persons in the picture below are members of Underworld together with Dave Spiers from GForce. The guy playing with the controller is Darren Price of Underworld, contributor of many sounds to the (version 1) impOSCar soft synth. So there is an onvious connection between Underworld and GForce.

However cool and awesome and sweet you think this controller is (maybe). It is not all good news! Nope. This controller seems to be a ‘one off‘. Made exclusively for Underworld. There will be none extra for sale! Again, … there are no plans for future production as of yet!!! Unless there are so many calls for purchase, … who knows?

This is what Dave is saying about it himself:
I don’t know what people really know about this controller so I might be imparting old info that’s of no use to you at all. I do know that someone at KVR spotted it on the website of the guy who built it and as soon as it appeared on KVR, both ourselves and the chap who built it were inundated with requests asking “How much?” & “When?” & the usual “I’m a famous producer, you should build me one for free”!

However, it’s a one-off controller that was built for us by Mario Jurisch at http://www.synth-project.de and at the moment we love the idea of it being utterly unique so there are no plans to take it into production.

After we took delivery, I used it to create several patches on the imOSCar2 because I wanted to see how different it would feel to use a bespoke controller, as opposed to a generic one (or indeed a mouse). Needless to say I found the difference pretty stunning and it really did evoke loads more subtleties when it came to sound design, particularly after Chris here built me a bespoke GUI that matches the controller exactly.

The idea that the brain doesn’t have to make a connection between the hand, the knob, the parameter and the screen is something I find utterly fascinating from way back when Chris and I made a MIDI controller called the Phat Boy.

The Phat Boy was the first of the generic MIDI controllers and at the time we observed people using and talked about this ‘connection’ quite a bit because, while the Phat was brilliant in it’s immediacy and simplicity, there was still a mental translation process due to its generic design.

However with imp2 and the controller, once you’re familiar with the layout of the instrument, it’s as organic an experience as tweaking something like a real OSCar, and it’s my belief that with the ‘mental translation’ out of the way, the ear takes over and you find yourself programming with all the grace and subtleties you think is only available from hardware, but actually is equally available from software.

As a result of that, I thought it’d be interesting to take it to various musician friends and see if they had the same experience.

That pic was taken at Underworld’s studio with Darren Price, me & Karl Hyde in the pic (left to right). Darren had contributed some great sounds for the impOSCar 2 and knew he’d be a great candidate to watch and assess. Unsurprisingly, he had exactly the same experience as me and after watching him vanish into a programming abyss for hours we ended up leaving it with him until next week. LOL

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be taking it to a few artists you may recognize and depending on the feedback, we may look at trying to take it further.”

For more details and a better picture (for legal reasons not allowed to post here!) please visit Mario Jurisch’s website.

 

(Original story via Failed Muso blog)

 

 

 

 

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