Keith McMillen has been exploring new ideas for electronic music instruments for nearly 35 years, starting in 1979 with his company Zeta Music and more recently with Keith McMillen Instruments. His most recent creations are the QuNeo and the just-released QuNexus controllers.

Synthtopia’s Elisabeth Lewin talked with McMillen about development of the QuNeo and QuNexus controllers in part 1 of our Keith McMillen interview. In part 2, McMillen answers some reader’s questions on his instruments, discusses the state of MIDI, talks about performing with his own group and more.

Synthtopia: One of our readers asked, “What synths or software synths do you recommend using with your QuNexus controller?”

Keith McMillen: What synths? You know, we kind of passed on that by supporting all synths. We put in CV support and you can plug a MIDI expander into it, too.

Musicians are pack rats, a lot of them don’t ever throw or give any instrument away. And there’s a big resurgence in CV synthesis. And I think that people work differently if they have knobs and sliders and a bunch of patch cords in front of them.

For me, I don’t really have a preference for which synth people use with QuNexus. I think that there’s value in pretty much every version of synth that’s come out.

Synthtopia: That’s a really diplomatic answer.

Keith McMillen: (Laughs) That’s treacherous. I didn’t want to step in that one.

Synthtopia: You dodged that handily! Okay. Another Synthtopia reader asked when or whether there’ll be a Max developer kit for the QuNeo.

Keith McMillen: We are producing a developer kit for the QuNeo. It’s progressing and I expect something to be available within months. Continue reading →