DIY MIDI Controller Roland JD-Xi
Maker and musician Oliver Hagen has designed a custom MIDI controller for the Roland JD-Xi synthesizer, the DivingBoard.
The Roland JD-Xi has a very powerful synth engine – boasting a basic analog voice, a drum machine and a 128-voice digital synth – but is minisynth, with limited controls, making patch programming slow. Developers have created multiple JD-Xi patch editor options, as a result.
The DivingBoard, though, is a home-made MIDI hardware controller. It’s designed “to solve the lack of parameter accessibility on the Roland JD-Xi synthesizer,” notes Hagen. “It differs from other solutions I’ve seen, in that customizability and potential ease-of-use are greater, and general use with a range of synthesizers is possible.”
It is a DIY project, and materials are estimated to be about £60-£70. Find out more on the project website.
