Midi controllers

[Leighton]

I'm a new owner of a splendid Atmegatron, which I picked up as part of the B-stock sale. Sweet.

I got this to use in performance with my wind synth (Yamaha WX11)  and it works fine.
I was looking into getting a small keyboard controller and I noticed that many rely upon USB bus power, so I'm guessing they would not work with a straight midi plug usage? I'd be curious to know if there's a work around for this, like plugging into a powered USB hub just for power? Or if there are better solutions. I'd like to have a simple set up for live performance and not have to bring a laptop just to power my controller.

I'd also be curious to know what everyone else is using for a controller for the Atmegatron.

Thanks.

[paulsoulsby]

Hi - It depends on the specific keyboard. 
If it is just requiring USB for power, you can use any decent 5V USB power supply with a USB cable (eg an iPhone charger). 
If it is using the USB for MIDI and power and it doesn't have any MIDI ports, you'll need a "USB MIDI Host".  This can be a 1) a computer or 2) a stand alone device.
For 1) Just connect the Atmegatron to a USB MIDI device connected to your computer and the USB keyboard keyboard to the computer.  Then use an app like MIDI Ox (http://www.midiox.com/) to route the keyboard to the USB MIDI device.
2)  You can get a standalone device like this to connect the USB keyboard to the Atmegatron http://www.kentonuk.com/products/items/utilities/usb-host.shtml or http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/usb-midi-converter.  There's also a few DIY projects out there if you want to make your own!

[ChrisPi]

Hi Paul, can you recommend a noteworthy DIY project? I'd actually love to give something like that a shot this summer when I get some free time.

[paulsoulsby]

Hmm, well I was actually next to DIN Sync at Superbooth and he has a 101 DIY project that looks amazing! https://youtu.be/wB7yyMU_h24
Ginko have the new sampler slicer module if you're into modular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl-eEHc66Y8
Not too sure about 8-bit options at the mo.  Most seem to be preassembled.