The iVCS Controller

ivcs3-controller

Saturday Synth Porn: The iVCS3 Controller is another fantastic custom controller design from Synth Project.

The iVCS3 is specifically designed for the iVCS3 iOS app. It features an iPad slot to hold your tablet. The upper front panel has additional knobs and switches for the step sequencer and the flanger. 

ivcs3-controller-synth-porn

The custom design is built around the Doepfer MIDI USB64 interface. The 2-octave keyboard is a Fatar keyboard.

Synth Project designs are created by M. Jurisch, who builds custom controllers because they offer the tactile feeling of old school synthesizers. His custom controllers are created as a hobby – not as a business.

19 thoughts on “The iVCS Controller

  1. I can’t really see the point. For a couple of hundred dollars more you could build a real analogue VCS3 clone? Having said that, it wouldn’t have memories, nor would you be able to read Synthtopia on it either? 😉

  2. it would be great if software companies built hardware
    – it would cut down on piracy and really ad value

    plus it would be “more real ” rather than living in a folder on my computer

    the Audio Damage euroracks are a perfect example of this –

    1. But then you’d be forced to pay more for software just because of the hardware bundle (which you might not want).

      That said, I wish more software companies would start producing hardware because they have a very different approach and it gives out pretty interesting results sometimes like the Arturia Minibrute and the Audio Damage euroracks you mentionned.

  3. I really like Hawkwind, the superior psychedelic space rock band that started in the late 60s and leaned heavily on VCS3s. Actually, it was THE synth for many European bands, as Moogs and Rolands only filtered in piecemeal. It was often used more for effects than linear playing, partly due to being less than perfectly stable. I’ll bet people who struggled with the real thing will laugh at how this fixes everything that drove them nuts with the original. It may be a tradeoff in purist terms, but it gives me such a vintage boner, I’d like to use it for a night light. Double thumbs-up for not having to stick little patch pins in a tiny grid.

    1. the frickin matrix seems to be on the ipad screen so
      you don’t need to “stick little patch pins in a tiny grid”
      but to “touch little circles on a tiny grid”

      : )

      1. Yup, I know, I have the app. I should have been clearer — it seems a pity to do all that hardware work, and leave the pin matrix in software. The pin matrix on ivcs is really, really, a pain to use. I don’t mean to come off as ungrateful, but the UI of ivcs3 is very beautiful but difficult to use, requiring a lot of fiddly touches. So a hardware version is a fantastic idea, but odd to miss out on the part that could use the benefit. Ghilimetti matrices are very expensive though, so it’s understandable.

  4. Tablet users always have this habit of neglecting to amortize the cost of the actual tablet into their $10 app calculation. If you have one app on a $600 tablet, then you are using a $610 app. Even if you have ten $10 apps, in reality they cost $70 each. And then all you have is a little glass touch screen to control each one. And I still have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of connecting a tablet to a set of studio monitors, let alone stage amps. Oh, brave new world that has such weenies in it.

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