So, I grabbed a Sensel Morph...

wim

There are few problems Duct Tape can’t solve.

3sleeves

@wim Always remember the old adage - If it can’t be Duck’d, it might be fucked.

ipadbeatmaking

Just updated my template for the sensel morph. I like color so here it goes

Here’s the paper print out. Used a laser color printer on brochure paper

Here it is under the innovators overlay

And here’s some Info about it overall

ipadbeatmaking

Does anyone have 3D printer recommendations? I’d like to make a more tactile feeling overlay

[Deleted User]

@ipadbeatmaking said:
Does anyone have 3D printer recommendations? I’d like to make a more tactile feeling overlay

I tried to print a few overlays last year. Even bought a printer. I recommend checking with your local libraries. Many have them free to use and it takes some practice.

ipadbeatmaking

@WillieNegus said:

@ipadbeatmaking said:
Does anyone have 3D printer recommendations? I’d like to make a more tactile feeling overlay

I tried to print a few overlays last year. Even bought a printer. I recommend checking with your local libraries. Many have them free to use and it takes some practice.

What!!!?? Care to share that experience? Pics? Process?

[Deleted User]

@ipadbeatmaking said:

@WillieNegus said:

@ipadbeatmaking said:
Does anyone have 3D printer recommendations? I’d like to make a more tactile feeling overlay

I tried to print a few overlays last year. Even bought a printer. I recommend checking with your local libraries. Many have them free to use and it takes some practice.

What!!!?? Care to share that experience? Pics? Process?

TBH... didn’t go well for me and at the time there was no info or thread like this with creatives like you folks actively working through ideas so I gave up.

Just thought I’d mention the Library angle because many public Libraries have 3D printers you just have to buy the raw materials. It’s a good way to practice or evaluate before purchasing your own printer. It was more complicated than I expected.

eross

@ipadbeatmaking said:

@wim said:
There has just got to be a way to leverage Duct Tape here somewhere.

(Kinda serious actually. Masking tape, electrical tape, clear tape... all those ready made straight edges and movable adhesive. Maybe stuck to a thin sheet of Mylar.)

Very interesting indeed. U might be onto something. I’m also wondering if scoring lines on the innovators overlay itself might be a viable permanent solution. Anyway to print images onto silicon?

maybe screen print or airbrush’s with the ink and or paint they use for hollywood or haunted house mask?

SMKArtist

Great video. this looks like an amazing option for music production. But of course the company still misses in one critical area; the editor is desktop only. What will it take to get hardware developers to include an iOS editor for their equipment? This needs to be standard. I guess another iOS developer wil be making some extra coin of off Sensel owners.

mojozart

@SMKArtist I think a web editor is the way to go. I requested this last year and was told it is on their radar. Perhaps they're still waiting for browser support to mature?

I'd like to see support for OTA firmware updates and programming. The Espruino puck.js and PunchThrough Bean can both be programmed from Android or iOS. The Web Bluetooth API is portable to browsers on any platform...

ipadbeatmaking

@WillieNegus said:

@ipadbeatmaking said:

@WillieNegus said:

@ipadbeatmaking said:
Does anyone have 3D printer recommendations? I’d like to make a more tactile feeling overlay

I tried to print a few overlays last year. Even bought a printer. I recommend checking with your local libraries. Many have them free to use and it takes some practice.

What!!!?? Care to share that experience? Pics? Process?

TBH... didn’t go well for me and at the time there was no info or thread like this with creatives like you folks actively working through ideas so I gave up.

Just thought I’d mention the Library angle because many public Libraries have 3D printers you just have to buy the raw materials. It’s a good way to practice or evaluate before purchasing your own printer. It was more complicated than I expected.

That’s a good idea. I definitely should check that out before I spend more money. I really want texture and physical separation on these controls.

ipadbeatmaking

@SMKArtist said:
Great video. this looks like an amazing option for music production. But of course the company still misses in one critical area; the editor is desktop only. What will it take to get hardware developers to include an iOS editor for their equipment? This needs to be standard. I guess another iOS developer wil be making some extra coin of off Sensel owners.

Thanks 🙏. It really is amazing overall, pretty nice to make any controller dream u have come true with all the customizability. And it is a little annoying to need to hook it up to a computer, especially when the app seems lightweight and perfectly capable of running on a phone or tablet. Idk what it will take but I’m sure us iOS users are always an afterthought with most hardware manufacturers. It’d be nice if we could get some of the basics though

[Deleted User]

@ipadbeatmaking judging by your work I have confidence you’ll figure something out. If you do, I’ll be among the first customers of your custom overlay.

audiblevideo

Maybe you could try just making a silicone mold. Carve out the relief and pour in FX grade silicone. Plenty of tutorials on that, vis a vis Halloween and prop making on youtube.

ipadbeatmaking

@WillieNegus said:
@ipadbeatmaking judging by your work I have confidence you’ll figure something out. If you do, I’ll be among the first customers of your custom overlay.

I appreciate the nod of confidence!

@audiblevideo said:
Maybe you could try just making a silicone mold. Carve out the relief and pour in FX grade silicone. Plenty of tutorials on that, vis a vis Halloween and prop making on youtube.

I definitely just might try that!

ipadbeatmaking

Here’s a quick video of the custom overlay in action highlighting the features

SMKArtist

@mojozart said:
@SMKArtist I think a web editor is the way to go. I requested this last year and was told it is on their radar. Perhaps they're still waiting for browser support to mature?

I'd like to see support for OTA firmware updates and programming. The Espruino puck.js and PunchThrough Bean can both be programmed from Android or iOS. The Web Bluetooth API is portable to browsers on any platform...

iOS does not support web midi.

Safari does not support web midi

The one and only web midi iOS app, developed 3 years ago, does not support web midi.

All iOS versions of popular desktop web browsers are built around a Safari framework and like Safari, on iOS, does not support web midi.

It is important that everyone, from us musicians to top end hardware developers, understand:

((( THERE IS NOTHING ON YOUR iPHONE OR iPAD THAT SUPPORTS WEB MIDI )))

Which means that for hardware developers to keep up with mobile musicians, and since the bulk of mobile music is on iOS, they need to make iOS versions of their editors/librarians.

mojozart

@SMKArtist Who said anything about Web MIDI? (Spoiler alert: I probably did.) But as I mentioned, the Espruino puck.js can be programmed from Android or iOS. The Web Bluetooth API is portable to browsers on any platform...

Ah, but this last statement is not yet true. On iOS, the Puck.js needs WebBLE, which is an app for iOS that supports the GATT Communication API. It was created initially for the Puck.js project.

https://github.com/WebBluetoothCG/web-bluetooth/blob/master/implementation-status.md

Why is it you hold out no hope for better web standards support on iOS?

SMKArtist

@mojozart said:
@SMKArtist Who said anything about Web MIDI? (Spoiler alert: I probably did.) But as I mentioned, the Espruino puck.js can be programmed from Android or iOS. The Web Bluetooth API is portable to browsers on any platform...

Ah, but this last statement is not yet true. On iOS, the Puck.js needs WebBLE, which is an app for iOS that supports the GATT Communication API. It was created initially for the Puck.js project.

https://github.com/WebBluetoothCG/web-bluetooth/blob/master/implementation-status.md

Why is it you hold out no hope for better web standards support on iOS?

Well it is nice to see that Sensel Morph is bluetooth. That’s pretty cool. And the morph has a bluetooth based web midi app to edit your morph templates?

Phil999

for detailed information it is always a good idea to go to the company website. At the bottom of the Morph page you see a list of currently supported operating systems for the SenselApp.

https://sensel.com/pages/the-sensel-morph

wim

Whooo Hooo! Sensel’s Holiday Sale is ON!

https://sensel.com/pages/holiday-sale

Been a long time since I actually really wanted anything for Christmas. Got too much stuff. But I’m really looking forward to this one.

auxmux

On sale now. May have gotten one.

wim

Bagged the Music Maker’s bundle at $50 off, the Innovator’s overlay, and the QWERTY overlay for half off. I can’t wait to tell the wife what she got for me for Christmas.

lukesleepwalker

Great price on a nice piece of kit.

ipadbeatmaking

@wim said:
Whooo Hooo! Sensel’s Holiday Sale is ON!

https://sensel.com/pages/holiday-sale

Been a long time since I actually really wanted anything for Christmas. Got too much stuff. But I’m really looking forward to this one.

Thanks for posting this!!!!!

@wim said:
Bagged the Music Maker’s bundle at $50 off, the Innovator’s overlay, and the QWERTY overlay for half off. I can’t wait to tell the wife what she got for me for Christmas.

😂 😂 😂

wim

So, I have it now, and for the most part am happy with it. I’m gong to list the things I was disappointed in only. Not to trash the product, but to help set expectations for others considering it in case any of these are show-stoppers. Also, I’m not complaining ... almost all of these things were assumptions about things the Morph would do that I could have researched better.

Again, I’m happy with the purchase overall, and am enjoying the controller. I think it was a good purchase.

1. I got the QWERTY keyboard overlay because there was a 50% discount if I bought two overlays. It’s pretty useless for iOS. It will only work with the onscreen keyboard showing at the same time. Sensel says it has to be this way because of overlay switching. It also doesn’t support iOS specific function keys. I have full fledged Bluetooth keyboards that cost less than the discounted overlay, and they work perfectly. Waste of money. Not great even on a PC or Mac either.
2. A PC or MAC is essential. There’s no iOS app for doing even the simplest changes.
3. Under Windows 7 (missed the free update period and too cheap to pay for Win 10), the Morph disconnects and shuts down every time you send any changes to the Morph. It then won’t reconnect until you reboot. I found one workaround. It will reconnect if you first establish a Bluetooth MIDI connection with iOS, then while this connection is still active, plug the USB into the PC. Works about 9 times out of 10, but is a royal pain in the butt. (OK, my bad for being on an old ... though supported by Sensel ... OS. But still.)
4. There’s no way to change the midi channel onboard. They have button functions you can add to customize just about everything, but not the global midi channel. Want to switch channels? You need to hook up to a PC and edit a map for every single control you want to change the channel for. Bleh.
5. Maps default to sending after-touch and pitch bend on the notes. I was surprised that my synths were playing out of tune until I discovered this. Setting pitch bend to default to off fixed this. The aftertouch needed to be disabled too as it was flooding a couple of synths like Pure Synth Platinum to the point of crashing them.
6. Badly needs some velocity curve options. You can set the “threshold” for how hard you need to press to get a recognized touch, but this doesn’t affect the range of the velocity that I can tell. I really have to hit a note hard to get full velocity.
7. It seems like I get random high-velocity notes occasionally, when I didn’t hit the key hard at all.
8. Latency seems higher than my NanoKEY Studio. I could be wrong on that.
9. The Innovator’s overlay is great. I’ve had a great time designing a couple of custom controllers that are really effective. My only beef is to change between my custom layouts, I have to hook up to the PC and download each design to the MORPH. There’s no way for it to recognize which design I want to use.

Again ... I’m happy with the purchase. Just pointing out the above in case they’re crucial to anyone.

wim

BTW, my first custom map. CC numbers are shown, but pretty hard to see them through the innovator overlay, which is only semi-transparent. I left note names off for that reason too.

lukesleepwalker

All valid observations, @wim. I've gotten so used to immediately turning off pitch bend and after touch that it's literally step 2 of turning the thing on.

wim

@lukesleepwalker said:
All valid observations, @wim. I've gotten so used to immediately turning off pitch bend and after touch that it's literally step 2 of turning the thing on.

I've turned off X/Y/Pitch Bend in the global settings. Doing this, the enable/disable button reverses its function. Pitch bend defaults to off but can be turned off by using the enable/disable button.

lukesleepwalker

@wim said:

@lukesleepwalker said:
All valid observations, @wim. I've gotten so used to immediately turning off pitch bend and after touch that it's literally step 2 of turning the thing on.

I've turned off X/Y/Pitch Bend in the global settings. Doing this, the enable/disable button reverses its function. Pitch bend defaults to off but can be turned off by using the enable/disable button.

Oh wow, didn't know you could do this! It's such a pain to connect to my laptop that I rarely do so. Now I have a reason.