Storm Summoner, a MIDI controller for effects pedals

(kabaragoya.com)

21 points | by peteforde 3 days ago ago

7 comments

  • smitty1e 2 minutes ago

    Of possible interest:

    Chris Cassone "ART OF THE STOMP BOX: Celebrating The Visual Artistry of Effects Pedals"

    https://a.co/d/04CPClC8

  • c-hendricks an hour ago

    Watched the video but don't really see why the title mentions pedals. This is decidedly not a pedal. A neat interface for sure, but not a pedal you can stomp.

    • Karliss an hour ago

      From what I understand the whole point is avoiding the need to stomp pedals or otherwise touch them during live performance.

      Some pedals have a bunch of knobs which are a pain to adjust during live performance between the songs. So some pedals support changing the settings using MIDI interface. This device has builtin library of control codes fur such pedals. That way you can program presets for your MIDI controlled pedals in the storm summoner and during live performance quickly switch between presets with a click of single button as opposed to remember which of the half dozen pedals need to be stomped on/off for each song or worse adjusting the knobs.

    • dmkolobov an hour ago

      > No stomping required. Storm Summoner is a touch-based MIDI controller purpose-built for effects pedals.

  • simonbw 2 hours ago

    Does anyone have more context on how this would be used? Is this like an alternative to using a midi keyboard to control synths? Is the appeal of it that it is small and meant to be played one handed while your other hand does something else?

    • peteforde 24 minutes ago

      There are lots of pedals these days that are designed as performance instruments in their own right. Check out the Erica Synths Nightverb; it's all chonky knobs and it doesn't even have stomp switches. You'd never put it on your floor.

      Storm Summoner takes a pedal with lots of parameters [that would normally be set-and-go] and gives it that missing live performance UX. Singers in particular could use the sensors to modulate their voices.

      What excites me is the flag-based system described in the review video at 11:45. You can set up stuff to happen (launch an LFO?) in response to other things that happen, like a value crossing a threshold. That takes it out of the realm of a dumb controller, and we already have enough dumb controllers.

    • ingvay7 34 minutes ago

      You configure a preset, then touch to change presets while playing instead of kneeling down. Its like a remote control for MIDI effects pedals. Probably more useful if you have complicated live setup with a long setlist filled with a lot of effects.