Review: Keith McMillen Instruments QuNeo
In his ongoing quest to really play his computer, Keith McMillen’s latest controller adds a new dimension of feeling to pad performance.
1 November 2012
In November of last year Keith McMillen Instruments (KMI) sought public financing for the initial production run of its QuNeo controller via kickstarter.com. A target of $15,000 was set and supporters would be remunerated with factory fresh units, merchandise and other KMI controllers commensurate to their contribution. After less than two months the offer closed with the backer count at 678; having raised $165,914.
At only 397 grams the QuNeo is just over half the weight, and less than half the thickness of the Novation Launchpad. The QuNeo cleverly shares its dimensions with the iPad and as a result can take advantage of many of the stands and accessories already on the market. The class compliant USB device requires no driver and connects via a micro port at the centre of the left hand edge. Like the iPad, it’s so thin that every connector seems fragile and exposed so I’d advise caution. For those wishing to use the QuNeo to control other MIDI-enabled sound sources KMI offers an optional MIDI expander for $59.95. An Open Sound Control (OSC) bridge, currently in beta development, is freely available from the download page while a development kit and an API is offered to any and all capable of hacking their own software interface to repurpose the controllers’ sensors and lights.
NOT ANOTHER PAD CONTROLLER
On the face of it the QuNeo appears to be a 16-pad, nine-fader, dual rotary, 17-button control surface. In fact, faces and surfaces are all that’s on offer here with the eight 55mm sliders, two rotary encoders and single 100mm fader all provided as touch sensitive strips and regions. This first impression belies the QuNeo’s full power. At its most expanded configuration any one program may include 111 velocity-sensitive note triggers and 159 continuous controllers. Every one of the QuNeo sensors is both trigger and CC, some offering multiple of each; all at the same time.
The QuNeo is dominated by the now ubiquitous MPC-style four-by-four grid. At 29mm square these pads are consistent with equivalent Akai and Korg models. They differ, however, in a number of important ways. In Drum mode the pads operate as velocity sensitive note triggers, small X-Y pads and pressure sensitive continuous controllers. In Grid mode they each become four velocity sensitive triggers and pressure sensors — that’s a 64-pad scene controller and 64 CCs! Feedback is provided by multi-coloured LEDs in the corners of each pad with 16 levels of brightness. As one colour fades the next illuminates to denote corner promixity, velocity or pressure. LEDs can simply reflect local activity, be configured to respond to external messages, or both. With all this control at your fingertips there is a small trade-off. Perhaps to maximise the performance of pressure and location sensors the main pads do lack some of the additional cushioned thickness, present in competitors’ products. To my touch, this makes them a less ideal option for specialist pad drummers.
UNDER PRESSURE
For more general use, however, their advantages far outweigh this reduction in physical feedback. I was surprised at how quickly I took to the pressure sensors as a viable CC alternative. I enjoyed the relatively fine control I was able to achieve with little practice and it’s a lot easier to use multiple fingers on different pads than it is to twiddle multiple knobs. However, there is no pressure latch mode or threshold control so the pressure CC always returns to 0 on release. As X-Y pads they are slightly more difficult to master. It is possible to execute smoothish transitions when using large parameter modulation tools, like the full-screen MetaSurface in AudioMulch, but at present the pads are better suited to the type of coarse and momentary modulations that we’ve all become accustomed to in genres like Dubstep. Trigger a sample or launch a sequence and then keep your finger on the pad to sweep a filter cutoff or engage some chopper effect. If the software was tweaked, and per pad range-mapping added to the X and Y parameters, it would be possible to create a preset in which all 16 pads acted as a single X-Y surface, or indeed four medium-sized surfaces.
As a controller for Ableton Live the four-in-one QuNeo pads are not as instinctively easy to use as the smaller discrete pads of Novation’s Launchpad or Akai’s APC models, but my experience did significantly improve with practice. A number of cross-talk parameters are provided via the software editor to ensure that while it doesn’t look like a 64-pad matrix it behaves like one. The 16 smaller buttons also function identically to the pads in Grid mode, with velocity sensitive triggers and pressure controllers in each. Alternately, their shapes and locations imply other uses. At the top left, three of the buttons create a transport section while the remaining 13 (12 of which are presented in Up/Down and Left/Right pairs) can be switched into service as bank selectors for the remaining controllers. Disappointingly, each of these pairs, and the Rhombus button, can only be assigned to change the banks of certain corresponding sensor types — allocated by proximity. Again a software adjustment to support bank groups for multiple sliders would free up even more of the buttons for other triggering, pressure control and switching duties. At the same time I’d recommend they unify the LED bank colour sequence across all bank switches as I’m sure I’m not the only one to find the current
variations confusing.
NEED TO KNOW
Keith McMillen Instruments QuNeo
3-D Multi-Touch Pad Controller
GRIP & SLIDE
The final 11 sensors are grouped as a block of four short horizontal sliders, four short vertical sliders, a pair of rotary discs and a single long crossfader at the bottom of the unit. Like the pads and buttons, all are velocity sensitive triggers and pressure sensitive in addition to their primary function as touch emulations of traditional controllers. As alluded to above, this final bundle of sensors also differ to the pads and buttons in that they can each be configured with four banks of different MIDI controller assignments. Aside from the rotary controllers, which are paired as a bank group, all the individual faders can presently switch through their banks in isolation from other controls.
While the sliders unsurprisingly behave like traditional sliders, except for the large crossfader which is also capable of controlling min/max range parameters, the rotary faders will likely feel alien to new users. They have two modes of operation. The first, a standard pot behaviour with a beginning and end position, is controlled by running your finger around the outside of the ring. The second, a continuous rotary controller or jog-wheel, tracks the speed and direction of your revolution to send a series of maximum or minimum value ticks. Again a series of LEDs provide excellent feedback for both the sliders and rotaries. With the use of a third-party free VST plugin it’s even possible to trigger the slider lights as level meters.
Unfortunately, I found the surface material of all of these controls to be somewhat grippy for my skin; to the point of causing jumps in transitional slider movements. This combined with the slight recess of these controls, causing my chubby fingers to be lifted off the sensors at the ends of their travel, dented my confidence in these controls, particularly for applications where accuracy and consistency are critical. Notwithstanding, when it worked, or perhaps more accurately, when it and I worked together I was again pleasantly surprised by the touch and control achievable.
LEARNING CURVES
The QuNeo’s software editor, easily identified in your program or applications folder by the Darth Fader… I mean Vader icon, is worthy of its own article. Here you will find detailed settings for all 16 internal preset slots. The unit ships with presets tailored to a range of common software applications but from my own experience they are best thought of as starting points. You can save and update, export and archive and copy between these programs to customise your own personal layouts and calibrations. Indeed, one of your most important tweaks will likely be the disabling of certain sensors. I’d recommend that every user read the provided manual and get to know it backwards. The available global response curves and per sensor sensitivity adjustments do make a difference and dialling in the right feel to suit your touch will significantly accelerate your development as a QuNeo virtuoso.
In edition to the editor it’s essential that you master the Controller Mapping Assistant mode (CoMA) until you can perform its procedures in your sleep. Put simply, CoMA makes it possible to utilise various software quick-mapping functionalities with the multi-layered sensors without everything becoming confused. For example; a pad in Drum mode will send its trigger note when you press the top-left corner, pressure CC from the top-right, X-axis CC from the bottom left and Y-axis from the bottom right; and so-on. If you want to perform and improvise with the QuNeo it’s imperative that all of these locations and gestures be memorised. The CoMA mode is currently activated by a one-second depression of the blue Mode key (at the top left of the QuNeo — this is also used for preset selection) but I’d love to have the option to enter CoMA only while the button is held down. Not having to wait would speed up the operation during a performance and the momentary nature of this refinement would help to minimise mistakes.
DON’T JUST TAP IT
The QuNeo is best understood as a controller instrument that will reward practice and the development of your own gestures, style and configurations. Unlikely to be your first-choice drum trigger pad or DAW mix controller, it is a hardware interface designed to further expand your chosen software’s playability. By experimenting with how you map certain sensors to certain parameters you may find that you not only discover a deeper interaction with your software instrument but a new sound as well.
RESPONSES