[I've also sent this to our mailing list, apologies if you've seen this twice]
In our continued quest to come out with the best MIDI controller we can, we've decided to investigate a new option...
What if we were to remove the touchscreen from the Mastermind GT, replace it with a more standard LCD display, and do the all of the editing on an iPhone, iPad, PC or Mac? This is something that a number of people have suggested since showing the prototype at NAMM, but until recently, we weren't really considering it as a possibility. We're having terrible trouble sourcing the exact right kind of LCD touchscreens, so it made us think outside the box a little.
There are pros and cons to this approach, of course:
Integrated touchscreen advantages:
iPhone/iPad, etc. advantages:
We'd love to hear any opinions you have on this idea - we're trying to deliver the most useful product we can, and hearing from all of you is the best way to do that.
In our continued quest to come out with the best MIDI controller we can, we've decided to investigate a new option...
What if we were to remove the touchscreen from the Mastermind GT, replace it with a more standard LCD display, and do the all of the editing on an iPhone, iPad, PC or Mac? This is something that a number of people have suggested since showing the prototype at NAMM, but until recently, we weren't really considering it as a possibility. We're having terrible trouble sourcing the exact right kind of LCD touchscreens, so it made us think outside the box a little.
There are pros and cons to this approach, of course:
Integrated touchscreen advantages:
- No additional hardware required to program the controller. Can do everything you need without using a PC, iPad, etc.
Looks more high tech.
It has a full color graphic display (can configure colors, font sizes, etc).
iPhone/iPad, etc. advantages:
- Preset name display could use a standard monochrome LCD, which is the most visible in a wide range of lighting conditions. (We're still having trouble finding color displays that look good in all lighting conditions).
GT's cost would be lower without the touchscreen (probably $200 or so less).
Screen size would be larger (The preset name display would be larger on the controller, and of course iPad/PC/Mac editing would be on a much larger screen)
Less worries about breaking the touchscreen during performance.
We'd love to hear any opinions you have on this idea - we're trying to deliver the most useful product we can, and hearing from all of you is the best way to do that.