I was in the same boat some weeks ago and in the end decided for the Eowave Ribbon.
From what I read, the Doepfer has limited pressure sensitivity and that was actually one of the things that I hoped to use a lot. I also didn't feel like I would use the functions of the controller much with the available interface.
And as sturdy as it looks, it seemed a bit clunky
So this is a "short" review of the Eowave Ribbon:
Overall, I'm slightly mixed about it. For what it is, it feels a bit on the expensive side, but as I understand it its made by hand in France...
The Body is one massive stick of transparent perspex, 1.4 cm thick. Very solid. It's illuminated by a blue LED from the inside and looks gorgeous in the Dark as soon as it's attached to USB Power.
Four little rubber-feet are in the box that you can attach to it to avoid scratching it when laying it on a table.
It has two connectors: A mini USB (comes with a cable) for connection with a computer and getting it's power and a 3.5 mm stereo plug that can either output the sound of the internal synth or CV signals.
By default it sends Notes when you press down, Volume (cc 7) for pressure and if you move your fingers around: Pitchbend. On one End of the Stick there is an additional pressure sensitive Pad that outputs Modulation (cc 1) by default. The area you can play is 50 cm long, the whole Stick is 60 cm.
By default the ribbon is spanning 4 octaves and there are little circles printed on the ribbon that give a relatively accurate account on note placement.
The first thing that surprised me was, that the ribbon area feels rather soft, a bit like expensive black gaffa tape. They write in the docs that it is to be handled carefully and I think I would subscribe to that - so no hitting the thing with sticks for drumming
How long it will hold is to be determined. It's not as if it falls apart, just not meant for rough treatment.
The internal "Synth" was never why I bought it - it can output some basic waveforms and has simple FM built in that you control with the modulation area, but I guess it was easy to implement and they thought "why not". Fun to play for 5 minutes but not a serious instrument with any depth (well, for me anyway
).
The Settings are controlled with a max patch. You need to download it from Eowaves rather simplistic website (grab the documentation PDF as well when you are there) and you need a Max Runtime installed. Version 1.0 seems to be for Max 5 and 1.1 for Max 6, but that was not documented anywhere, I just deduced it from where it worked or didn't. Otherwise they seem identical.
In the software, you can Switch between Audio out and CV out, scale the ribbon between "full scale continuous", "full scale halftones", "4 octaves continuous" and "4 octaves halftones". You can select a Waveform for the synth (sine, noise, triangle, square and saw), set the pressure pad to control AM or FM, you can set the direction of the ribbon depending on how you want to hold/play it, the base note (C-2 to G8), midi channel 1 - 16 and the destination for CC Pressure and CC Pad.
For those two you can select from all 128 CCs, but there seems to be no way to use pressure for Aftertouch - which I would have preferred.
You can save 16 different presets but I haven't looked into that to be honest.
On Windows a midi device can only be connected to one application, so you you can't leave the editor open while playing in Live, which makes it a bit hard to change anything on the fly (and Live can't re-scan midi devices while running so a restart is required).
All of this feels a bit simplistic and I would say there is quite some potential to improve it, but so far it works well enough.
And now to the ribbon itself
I totally love it!
It is such a nice difference from playing a keyboard (although you can also combine them very well).
I think those of you looking for a 1 string fretless should demo it.
Especially with softsynths like Diva, Zebra, Diversion etc. where you can set wide ranges of Pitchbend with them still sounding very good it is awesome how natural you can move around the ribbon.
But even with Kontakt playing for instance Soniccoutures "Broken Wurli" you get interesting things out of sounds that you may have never expected. Vocal samples are also extremely interesting to play with it in a way more natural way than with a keyboard and a mod wheel (IMO).
As a direct result, I recently bought Max for Live and that makes it a killer controller. My first patch was a tool to more flexibly route the output without changing the ribbons settings all the time
Would be nice to have the control/editor-patch as a M4L device actually - not sure if it would work though.
Some last things:
- The sensitivity is not such, that you can just gently lay your finger on it and it reacts (like a touch screen). You need a certain pressure to make it send a note.
- With 4 octaves and half notes, it is very accurate to play, but sometimes a different note comes out anyway.
- The Mini-USB makes it a bit fragile feeling. Again, it's not meant for rough stage handling and it may fall out, there is no way to secure it other than applying some gaffa tape ...
- Worked on every machine I tried by just plugging it in - no drivers needed. I tested on Mac and Windows.
- The additional Pressure Pad uses a different Technology and isn't very accurate. It seems to depend on the weather and how moist your fingers are, so don't expect any accurate control from it. Eowave recommends un- and re-plugging the stick to re-calibrate the pad, but in my tests that didn't help too much and at least on Windows, this isn't something you want to do often.
My vote:
Overall design: 4.5 stars.
Sturdiness: 2 stars.
Control Software: 2 stars.
Playability: 4 stars.
Functionality: 4 stars.
Finally: even with the shortcomings mentioned above, I totally love the device.
Cheers,
Tom