my name is Mick Baumeister, I am a german filmmusic composer and pianist and a new member here in this forum.
I am a long-standing user of Digital Performer and a big fan of „Your“ motunation forum.
Besides, I do research in the area of MIDI controllers, in the special breath controllers.( for 25 years)
My friend and electronics engineer Martin Raschke and I have developed an absolutely new Breath Contoller concept: a "Breath Station" - the new " hb1 MIDI Breath Station ",
Our company is called " Hornberg Research " and is accessible under link: www.hornberg-research.de
I would be pleased about a feedback of you very much.
Kind regards
Mick Baumeiter
A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Moderator: James Steele
Forum rules
The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other matters outside deemed outside the scope of helping users make optimal use of MOTU hardware and software. Posts in other forums may be moved here at the moderators discretion. No politics or religion!!
The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other matters outside deemed outside the scope of helping users make optimal use of MOTU hardware and software. Posts in other forums may be moved here at the moderators discretion. No politics or religion!!
-
stubbsonic
- Posts: 4637
- Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:56 pm
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Contact:
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Hey Mick, welcome!
I'll confess I nearly break my mouse button clicking on posts about breath controllers, so obsessed am I.
We've had some good discussions here about recent replacements for the Yamaha BC series.
As far as I know the list is pretty short. We have Nick Batzdorf's Air Command (and his brand new iPad app called Blowfinger), we have TEControl's two versions of Breath Controller, and a product by MRT Audio, I've also tinkered with BreathOSC as well. There are also a handful of DIY designs out there.
I have the TEControl USB version and it works well, but balancing the airflow and sensitivity, and getting it to feel comfortable is a challenge. The included hoses & valves are from the hardware store.
It is great to see a high-end offering, especially one that seems to have upped the bar in terms of thoughtful and elegant design. "The precious wood of the service tree" sounds pretty snazzy.
What is kind of interesting is that there are people selling BC2 & BC3's on eBay for up to $500, and for that you don't get much in the way of adjustability. Though the price for your high-end device is out of reach for many, I suspect that you may find folks who are more than willing to invest in that technology if it is doing just what they want. The challenge will be to take the risk out of the investment (perhaps with a good refund policy, and/or with very thorough reviews written by trusted artists).
Looking forward to seeing & hearing some demos! Best of luck!
stub
I'll confess I nearly break my mouse button clicking on posts about breath controllers, so obsessed am I.
We've had some good discussions here about recent replacements for the Yamaha BC series.
As far as I know the list is pretty short. We have Nick Batzdorf's Air Command (and his brand new iPad app called Blowfinger), we have TEControl's two versions of Breath Controller, and a product by MRT Audio, I've also tinkered with BreathOSC as well. There are also a handful of DIY designs out there.
I have the TEControl USB version and it works well, but balancing the airflow and sensitivity, and getting it to feel comfortable is a challenge. The included hoses & valves are from the hardware store.
It is great to see a high-end offering, especially one that seems to have upped the bar in terms of thoughtful and elegant design. "The precious wood of the service tree" sounds pretty snazzy.
What is kind of interesting is that there are people selling BC2 & BC3's on eBay for up to $500, and for that you don't get much in the way of adjustability. Though the price for your high-end device is out of reach for many, I suspect that you may find folks who are more than willing to invest in that technology if it is doing just what they want. The challenge will be to take the risk out of the investment (perhaps with a good refund policy, and/or with very thorough reviews written by trusted artists).
Looking forward to seeing & hearing some demos! Best of luck!
stub
M1 MBP; OS 12, FF800, DP 11.3, Kontakt 7, Reaktor 6, PC3K7, K2661S, iPad6, Godin XTSA, Two Ibanez 5 string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FM3, SY-1000, etc.
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Hi Stub,
thousand thanks for your feedback.
As you have read, is "hb1" no normal Breath controller. There are not the known "weaknesses" with "hb1"! Exactly, therefore, we have developed so long and the result of this development is very adequate.
At the moment I still work on a new soundtrack, but I will put at the latest in two weeks a video on our website. I will send a message as soon as the tutorial is done.
My best wishes and see you soon.
Mick
thousand thanks for your feedback.
As you have read, is "hb1" no normal Breath controller. There are not the known "weaknesses" with "hb1"! Exactly, therefore, we have developed so long and the result of this development is very adequate.
At the moment I still work on a new soundtrack, but I will put at the latest in two weeks a video on our website. I will send a message as soon as the tutorial is done.
My best wishes and see you soon.
Mick
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
I have it too and would recommend to get their new headset, which has a really good BC3a style mouthpiece. This allows much finer control of the airflow and it makes the excellent TEControl BC even better in my opinion.stubbsonic wrote:I have the TEControl USB version and it works well, but balancing the airflow and sensitivity, and getting it to feel comfortable is a challenge. The included hoses & valves are from the hardware store.
http://www.tecontrol.se/products/breath ... er-headset
There is also a video showing it in comparison with the BC3a:
http://www.youtube.com/QUJBW9w_MQo
It costs nearly 900 EuroIt is great to see a high-end offering, especially one that seems to have upped the bar in terms of thoughtful and elegant design. "The precious wood of the service tree" sounds pretty snazzy.
!!!!-
stubbsonic
- Posts: 4637
- Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:56 pm
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Contact:
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Thanks, I was aware of that headset, but it's good to know that it works well. I've still got the yellow plastic bleeder.minimidi wrote: I have it too and would recommend to get their new headset, which has a really good BC3a style mouthpiece. This allows much finer control of the airflow and it makes the excellent TEControl BC even better in my opinion.
It costs nearly 900 EuroIt is great to see a high-end offering, especially one that seems to have upped the bar in terms of thoughtful and elegant design. "The precious wood of the service tree" sounds pretty snazzy.
Yea, I had a similar initial sticker-shock reaction. I wonder how many synth players in the world consider a breath-controller to be a central part of their creative expression? How many of them will pony up that amount of money to have an impeccably well-executed piece of hardware?
M1 MBP; OS 12, FF800, DP 11.3, Kontakt 7, Reaktor 6, PC3K7, K2661S, iPad6, Godin XTSA, Two Ibanez 5 string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FM3, SY-1000, etc.
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Hi all together I'm Martin and I'm the co founder of Hornberg research. Together with Mick I developed the hb1 breath station.
Thanks for this discussion. Of course we know about the high price of the hb1. But let us give some explanation.
The hb1 was mainly developed to satisfy the needs of people that use a breath controller as one of their daily tools.
To use it as a seldom utilized effect it is not the right thing. A simple and cheep breath controller may be enough for doing this.
But if you are looking for a stable, durable and high flexible tool that gives your work more expression and makes your daily work more easy, the hb1 would be the right choice from our sight.
This is why we have developed the hb1:
Mick worked for a long time with the BC3 and because there was no alternative he learned to life with all the weaknesses of it.
The permanent output signal and the instable gain and offset of the BC3 sometimes drove him crazy and there was a lot of rework to do after the breath controller track was recorded.
Therefore, after the production of the BC3 was stopped and Micks last BC3 was broken (he has demaged about 10 in the last 20 years) we
decided to develope a completely new breath controller that did not have the weaknesses of the BC3 and has some new and usefull features.
The bh1 is the result of this work. Because we don't want to have any compromise in functionality and durability we thought a lot about the right materials and the best construction.
So the price was not the most important criteria and admittedly with nearly €900 it is not cheep.
But think, what you get.
You get a very usefull and durable tool that can attend and ease your work for many years (long live MIDI) hand crafted of the best and natural materials (no plastics).
There is a high precision mouthpice combinde with MIDI and USB, a MIDI-merger and a USB interface also.
It is useable in live- and studio situations without any aditional software.
Because of the high stability and the new parameters Attack and Release combined with a smart data reduction the rework of the controller data is mostly not necessary.
As we think the hb1 gives you the freedom and the posibility to realise your inspiration.
Anyway there is a lot of fun working with the hb1 because it let you do what you realy want to do.
Thanks for this discussion. Of course we know about the high price of the hb1. But let us give some explanation.
The hb1 was mainly developed to satisfy the needs of people that use a breath controller as one of their daily tools.
To use it as a seldom utilized effect it is not the right thing. A simple and cheep breath controller may be enough for doing this.
But if you are looking for a stable, durable and high flexible tool that gives your work more expression and makes your daily work more easy, the hb1 would be the right choice from our sight.
This is why we have developed the hb1:
Mick worked for a long time with the BC3 and because there was no alternative he learned to life with all the weaknesses of it.
The permanent output signal and the instable gain and offset of the BC3 sometimes drove him crazy and there was a lot of rework to do after the breath controller track was recorded.
Therefore, after the production of the BC3 was stopped and Micks last BC3 was broken (he has demaged about 10 in the last 20 years) we
decided to develope a completely new breath controller that did not have the weaknesses of the BC3 and has some new and usefull features.
The bh1 is the result of this work. Because we don't want to have any compromise in functionality and durability we thought a lot about the right materials and the best construction.
So the price was not the most important criteria and admittedly with nearly €900 it is not cheep.
But think, what you get.
You get a very usefull and durable tool that can attend and ease your work for many years (long live MIDI) hand crafted of the best and natural materials (no plastics).
There is a high precision mouthpice combinde with MIDI and USB, a MIDI-merger and a USB interface also.
It is useable in live- and studio situations without any aditional software.
Because of the high stability and the new parameters Attack and Release combined with a smart data reduction the rework of the controller data is mostly not necessary.
As we think the hb1 gives you the freedom and the posibility to realise your inspiration.
Anyway there is a lot of fun working with the hb1 because it let you do what you realy want to do.
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Hi all together. Some time has passed by since our last writing. We have used this time to create one more video. This video explains all the parameters and features of the hb1 MIDI Breath Station. We hope that this video is suitable to give an short overview to show what is special with the hb1.
The attentive observer will notice, that there are two new parameters now. "Boost attack" and "boost release". We have added this parameters to give the player, who uses the attack or release parameter of the hb1, the possibility to reach the highest- or lowest output value nevertheless at any time and very quickly.
If you are interested in our new video please follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdgGWeHj4rc
or visit our homepage. There you will find some new testimonials also.
http://www.hornberg-research.de
The attentive observer will notice, that there are two new parameters now. "Boost attack" and "boost release". We have added this parameters to give the player, who uses the attack or release parameter of the hb1, the possibility to reach the highest- or lowest output value nevertheless at any time and very quickly.
If you are interested in our new video please follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdgGWeHj4rc
or visit our homepage. There you will find some new testimonials also.
http://www.hornberg-research.de
-
HCMarkus
- Posts: 9745
- Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:01 am
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: Rancho Bohemia, California
- Contact:
Re: A new Breath Controller concept from Germany
Beautifully executed Martin. The attack and release controls and presets bring BC to a completely new level of utility; the strings in your demo video are excellent example of this. Like others posting here, am hopeful a lower cost model might follow in the future, but wish you much success regardless.
BC- owners, If your BC-3 still serves adequately, but has a broken or threatens to, may I refer you to a prior post of mine:
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... ir#p359717
One improvement: a little super glue holds the heat shrink tube-encased parts together nicely. All three of my repaired BC-3s are still functioning properly.
BC- owners, If your BC-3 still serves adequately, but has a broken or threatens to, may I refer you to a prior post of mine:
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... ir#p359717
One improvement: a little super glue holds the heat shrink tube-encased parts together nicely. All three of my repaired BC-3s are still functioning properly.