First Off…
Apologies to Spaniards if they were offended by the stereotype of ‘Manuel’ portrayed by the late Andy Sachs in the 70’s on ‘Fawlty Towers’. I still love that show and never felt that Mr. Sachs’ character was patronizing or malicious. I decided to name this MANUAL controller after Manuel because a few of the scripts exploited the Manuel/Manual pun pretty hilariously.
My ‘Manuel’ is a collection of 4 types of touch controllers that output control voltages.
From top to bottom in the photo above, there is a slider with a touch-wire in the handle that outputs a gate when touched. Below the slider is a ribbon controller, and below the ribbon are 3 flex-controllers that output control voltages when pressed and a gate with an adjustable threshold.
The Slider
The slide pot is a high-performance DJ-mixer style crossfader. It’s not implemented to crossfade. I just wanted a slide pot that was extremely high-quality and perfectly smooth. I modified the slide pot handle with a touch-wire that outputs a gate whenever it comes in contact with a finger.
The Ribbon
I implemented a very eccentric function for the ribbon. The ribbon outputs repeating ramp (down) waves and trigger pulses at the start of each wave. The rate of repeat is determined by where you touch the ribbon. The polarity of the ribbon is switch selectable. The twist is that the ramp voltage will freeze at whatever level it’s at when you lift your finger. In this way it functions as a kind of perverse Track & Hold.
The Flex Controllers
I built 3 other tactile controllers that use flex sensors on bendy plastic strips to send control voltages. The haptic ‘feel’ of these controllers is markedly different from the feel of fingertip-sized pressure sensors. These flex sensors output a roughly 5-volt range and a gate with an adjustable theshold
The Meter
I added a volt-meter to make it convenient to adjust controller offsets, ranges, and gate-thresholds.
The Output Panel
Each of the controller outputs is routed to a banana jack and a 1/8″ jack. This panel also includes the meter inputs and some of the adjustment controls.
There is a demonstration video of Manuel, here.
This controller started life as a dedicated controller for the Mrs. Cleaver electronium. (see the Flex Sensor & Ribbon photo above) But I liked the way the Flex sensors worked so much that I decided to rework the controller into a form that could be used on any control voltage analog instrument.
I think Manuel should have the final word in this article…
“I say to man in shop, ‘Is rat.’ He says, ‘No, no, no. Is a special kind of hamster. Is Filigree Siberian Hamster.’ Only one in shop.”