Hi!
It needs to send that midi modulation like that thing on keyboards.
It needs to has standard midi din.
Do you know if there exists something?
And if it’s a portable joystick?
I’d like to modulate the digitone with it - but don’t want to use a full fledged keyboard for it (also no 25 key things ).
Thank you very very much for any tips!
I would prefer a solid plug & play option - I found some arduino / midi-shield solutions, but I’d prefer some ready to go solutions.
Thank you!
I would recommend the Expressive E TOUCHÉ. I use it for CV things, but it does have a midi out. I have also thought about using it with my Digitone, but have not ventured there yet. It is very expressive, and you can set it up how you like it with their software editor.
Have you ever seen these for sale anywhere?
I contacted the company and got no reply months ago.
I fear that it is vaporware.
Can you have it hold it’s position or does it bounce back to center?
Sorrily “no”. But time flows differently in Italy, you know? 6 months since the preview isn’t that much. Hope dies last, I guess … 
I’m looking at a ROLI Lightpad Block M for such purposes.
It may require a DAW as the go-between but anything that makes my A4 more AK-ish, could be worth it.
details on mapping/script: https://support.roli.com/support/discussions/topics/36000007583
yea, and that’s the non-M version
The new M version should offer an even greater “touch” experience
And these ROLIs are apparently USB-MIDI host compatible, so perhaps I could use it direct into the A4 via my iConnect host.
Any small tablet working as a XY controller should do the job (with just one device), right?
If you are cool with touch screens (glass), yea.
I’m not.
This is different thanks to the silicon layer.
And it also adds pressure sensitivity.
The physical device itself always springs back. But there is something like a hold function, where you hit the button, and it holds the values where they are, even if you let go of the device.
I went to manual for clarification. They call if “Freeze”, not hold.
“The Encoder also gives you a special feature called “Freeze” : pushing the Encoder will freeze the data sent from the four Shifings. Touché shows that it is freeze mode when its four LEDs are blinking. If you release your hand from Touché while it is in Freeze mode, or press it in any way, it will maintain the controlled parameters at the frozen value. Pushing again the Encoder will unfreeze Touché.”
Hmmm.
That Expressive E TOUCHÉ is really expensive.
I guess I will overthink it and tend to a custom selfmade wheel…
I will need to investigate.
Thank you!
Well, I already have a keystep, but actually hate the “wheels” of it very much - this, and portability if I want to go without a keyboard brought me to the idea.
I had an analog four times ago - and what I miss on the digitone is an performance macro. With the mod wheel I could emulate this in a proper way.
Now I need to take my time and look through all options. Thank you all for your input!
I made some progress that now works atm for me:
I put digitakt midi out into digitone in.
I now send with the digitone sync, transport and cc1, and notes over the keyboard I hooked into the takt.
Anyway, if I use a keyboard on the miditrack on the digitakt, i cannot pitchbend or modwheel with the keyboard (because I feed midi into the miditrack of the digitakt and not directly into the digitone) - I don’t know exactly why exactly, but if I’m on the road with digitakt+tone, this solution works great.
I guess I need a merger.
keyboard -> merger
digitakt -> merger
merger -> digitone
In the end I guess I really need to do a wheel on a teensy that sends cc1 on channel 10 or something.
I want to avoid that, I don’t like soldering and stuff.
When you already considering a DIY project: Doepfer sells a kind of mini MIDI board named Pocket Electronics. They sell it for 75.- Euro including a power supply.
Maybe its worth a look to reduce “soldering and stuff” …
And there is also this russian MIDI controller for 150 Dollar. I’m not sure if they are still in business though. Their last blog entry is at least from 31.3.2019. But, well, I can’t understand what’s written there … 
Hi tnussb,
the Pocket Electronics looks really capable. I guess I could get everything out of an old keyboard and use that in conjunction with it.
The russian box look interesting too!
Thank you!
I sat down that weekend and made my first steps with self built midi controllers.
I bought an arduino nano, and stuff and was baffled by the easyness of that platform!
I managed to make a knob where i can read out values.
I managed to connect a din midi and send notes to a synth.
Now I need to combine this and care about a good sized case for it.
If everything goes well I end up with a cig box sized kastl with four knobs on it.
It’s easier than I thought.
I will upload it to github and share.
Thank you all for your effort to show me options I have!
You could use the ROLI Lightpad Block with this:
It rocks! 