OB-6: bad location for the Volume control

[engineerjoel]

Looks like the master volume control for the OB-6 is located on the far right-side of the keyboard.       This location makes it very difficult-and-awkward to control the volume while playing chords and solos with your right hand as you would have to have cross over with your left arm to reach the volume control.

You could have easily swapped the location of the Aftertouch Amount knob (upper-left hand) with the Volume Knob.  At least the volume knob location would stay consistent with the Prophet 6 as well the original OBXa/OB-8.   

Please consider.

thanks,

[Prints]

This is a weird request. How about people who want to play chords with their left hand instead? Why is this so important? I'd rather be tweaking the filter knob than the master volume. I'm still scratching my head.

[engineerjoel]

@Prints:    It is a fact that the majority of keyboard players (and) the more traditional way to play the melody/leads/soloing and chords are played dominantly with their right hand.---hint, that's why 100% of all synth Pitch/MOD controls (and most other primary controls) are justified to the left side of the keyboard.  I would assume the Volume Control would be a primary parameter that would need to be accessed quite often and should be accessed quite easily.  Please, show me ANY synth that has Pitch-&-Mod controls on the far right-side of a keyboard.   Though (for argument sake); yes, their maybe very few keyboard players that favor their left hand as the primary appendage.



   

[black953mj]

My Minimoog Voyager has the master volume on the right, not really an issue for me, although at first I thought it might be.  Can definitely be concerning if you are needing to actively control your volume on stage - but it doesn't seem to far out of the way for the occasional tweak. 

Hopefully after a sound check you are not having to ride the volume knob continuosly - if so, and it is too far out of the way, a volume pedal could be a solution.

[peter m. mahr]

When I started working with the OB-6 I found myself always turning the "Volume" but tweaking "Aftertouch". With the P6 background this is the logical consequence. However, one gets used to it very, very fast.

Peter

[dsetto]

a digression on this topic …

I noticed that generally speaking the knob layout of the OB-6 was sufficiently different from that of the P6. Does this reflect a difference in the internal layout of the chips? This question is not important; simply curious. 

[bobule]

there are inputs for volume pedal and filter cutoff..

[DavidDever]

a digression on this topic …

I noticed that generally speaking the knob layout of the OB-6 was sufficiently different from that of the P6. Does this reflect a difference in the internal layout of the chips? This question is not important; simply curious.

The mainboard is the same in both, such that the external controller inputs / audio outputs should be located in the same places. I believe that it was indicated that the OB6 voice card control voltage pin assignments are different, as they require different control voltages than the P6 voice cards, though these would be defined in firmware. The front panel connection assignments are also likely the same pinout, but the register values would be different.

This is all IMHO smart engineering on DSI's part, as the same PCB could be used for four different products (P6 kbd, P6 desktop, OB-6 kbd, ... OB-6 desktop?).