[LAU] another control surface question

I am wondering how those who like tactile feel in a fader would feel about a sideways rotary control. I am thinking of something like the pitch or mod. wheel on a synth. But no middle detent. Rotary encoders are great for control surfaces, but the feel of a fader as compared to a rotary knob makes faders easier to think with. I am thinking if I can use the same idea with a fader feel where the control is endless, it would work well. The box would have to be thicker of course and may be less use for stage. The box could be made thinner by making it touch sensitive and self centering like the pitch wheel, but I think that starts to make the motorfader look better. The up side of the sideway encoder is that the midi messages are just direction/number of ticks. My first thought was a touch strip like the old guitar style stage keyboards, have it inside a slot so it is easy to feel without seeing it. Moving the finger up just sends up tics and moving it down gives down ticks, so the finger can start anywhere on the strip which will be where the (virtual) fader is now and move from there. I would have to use a adc and take ticks off the LSB after doing a greater or less than calc. The encoder has this out directly. Also, ticks and direction happen to work well with the control board I have on hand... the software can change that to a hard value if required though. -- Len Ovens www.ovenwerks.net