The Opal controller
By reading this guy’s site, one gets the feeling that he was the original designer of the C-Thru controller. And it looks as if he and C-Thru had a falling-out. So now he’s making his own version. It appears to be the same key layout as the C-Thru. No prices are mentioned. (Not likely to be a bargain.)
I only found out about this because an Opal owner put his hamster in a plastic ball and let the little bugger roll around on his Opal controller. And put it on Youtube. (I really do wish the “Web 2.0 Revolution” would allow us to tag Youtube videos for stupidity.)
I’m having a hard time conclusively connecting the dots between these two companies. The “playing technique” page has some clues that have nothing to do with “playing technique” but nothing that really tells me anything about any kind of “falling out”. The History page seems limited to facts. Alternative Controller people are as crazy as poets and I am usually as fascinated with the stories behind the instruments as the instruments themselves. If y’all have any better story here, I’d love to hear it.
What do you mean, “stupid?” That hamster is a genius! He sounds just like Olivier Messiaen.
Crazy as poets eh! Cheers. Truth is I’m a guitar tech who invented a MIDI controller by default. History page refers to how that came about. Sorry for lack of detail, I don’t want to get into trouble 🙂 We developed the Opal before C-Thru’s product but work on very limited resources, hence minimal promotion – ditto wesite updates. Opals are hand-built to order so not quick to produce. There will be a real techniques page when we’ve fulfilled our current orders; we work day and night!
Falling out? Well we didn’t quite kill each other! we just differed over what these controllers should be like and how they should be made. So that’s why there’s 2 separate companies. Hope this helps.
Just realised I hadn’t also responded to Rob… I just had a listen to Olivier Messiaen and, yes, I agree with you, I do detect an influence there! I didn’t know the little furry bugger knew how to browse the web and check out other composers! 🙂
it looks remarkably similar to the axis 64