Electronic musicians are the electric guitar players of the 21st Century. Much like the rockers of yore, they’re burning up stages across the globe with a new instrument and making us reconsider everything we once assumed about music. “But,” one might ask, “how does someone play a laptop?” Enter Faderfox, a one-man company making unique MIDI controllers for laptop performers, DJs, and anyone else who needs tactile control over their computer. To those unfamiliar with laptop performance, Faderfox products might look futuristic, something you’d expect to see on a spaceship in a decade or so, but those knobs and buttons have many applications for today’s musician. Each controller is optimized for a different type of performer. Like to use NI’s Traktor? Try the DS3 or DJ3. Need a customizable universal controller? Get the UC3. Want a monster DJ controller with all the buttons, knobs, and displays you could ever want? Check out the 4TrackTrigger, a collaboration with Glanzmann Digital DJ Solutions in Sweden. Faderfox MIDI controllers are designed for the road, packing lots of control parameters into small, sleek rectangles of power. Faderfox owner and designer Mathias Fuch is based in Hamburg, and enjoys keeping personal contact with his customers via e-mail. All Faderfox products are made in Germany.
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Faderfox UC3 – $223
The UC3 is a universal MIDI controller for Mac, PC, and iPad with eight push-encoders, nine faders, and a 4-digit-display showing control values and programming data. Each control surface is independently programmable and easily mapped to any controllable parameter, perfect for use with most DJ and video software straight out of the box or, if you’re into Ableton Live, the UC3 also comes with a special control surface script specialized for Live 8/9. The encoders (knobs) and faders are switchable to eight groups, allowing control over 136 parameters in a single setup. The UC3 is cased in black plastic with a metal casing and is interfaced via class-compliant USB (no drivers necessary).