Dedicated 100mm faders

[LPF83]

Since my primary MIDI controller (Komplete Kontrol S61 MKII) has only knobs and no faders, I was looking around for custom MIDI controllers... specifically I wanted 100mm faders.

I've been pleased with the Midimaker Sparrow 8x100.  https://themidimaker.com/

Build quality is unremarkable, just 3D printed plastic, but do they feel "right" to play so I'm quite pleased for the asking price.  The 8 fader version has enough width and weight to it so it doesn't slide around. You assign MIDI CC's by accessing a website (no software install) and it all just works. 

My primary use for it for now is to control the Filter and Amp ADSR envelopes on the Toraiz AS-1.  If you've looked at the knob layout (or lack thereof) on the AS-1 you can understand why this is a substantial upgrade accessory for what is (aside from physical control limits) an outstanding monosynth.  I use knobs on the KK S61 to control other parameters like oscillators, cutoff envelope amount etc.

The reason I think 100mm faders work so well is the relationship between the resolution of the physical control (the travel of the fader basically) and the range of MIDI CCs.  If a physical control feels too sensitive or not responsive enough,it tends to not "feel right".
I find it really adds something to how I play the synth, and it opens up sound design quite a bit for the Toraiz without menu diving, because there is a difference sonically when the ADSR for filter and amp are not in sync... there's not really a way to do that with the panel knobs (not to mention there's no S knob and the D/R knob is combined as one).

If you're specifically looking to add a set of dedicated 100mm faders to your setup, there are not a lot of options out there.  There are some features I'd love to see added to future models, such as a button to send values from the current fader positions to the synth all at once, and on-board support that would let me quickly change profiles (i.e. new MIDI channel and CC assignments) on the fly.  But at the price point, and given the lack of options out there, I suppose beggars can't be choosers?

Overall I do recommend the Sparrow.

[timboréale]

If you're up for a little hardware hacking, putting 100mm faders on this project (https://github.com/16n-faderbank/16n) would be trivial. Then you can adjust the firmware to your liking, too. Certainly an upgrade to touch sensitive or motorized faders would be an obvious next step.

[LPF83]

If you're up for a little hardware hacking, putting 100mm faders on this project (https://github.com/16n-faderbank/16n) would be trivial. Then you can adjust the firmware to your liking, too. Certainly an upgrade to touch sensitive or motorized faders would be an obvious next step.

It looks like fun, but I'd be a potential customer and not a creator of something like this.  I write code all day at work, so increasingly I'm trying to stay out of the technical weeds when in the presence of my instruments.  I am very prone to getting distracted by the technical stuff and spending hours on that, then realizing I made no music that day.