Owners Manual, page 60 The Bender Control. It definitely says the flipper works horizontally and vertically. My Super 6 does not move vertically, like the Roland flipper, and I don’t want to break it applying a lot of pressure. What’s the story? Were they unable to source an X-Y flipper, or can I safely apply more vertical pressure?
Hi Udoboe,
Although the bender doesn’t move vertically like it does horizontally, you can push the bender upwards. You can also combine this vertical movement with any horizontal movement, meaning: You can push the bender to the left or the right and apply pressure in the upwards direction at the same time. The latter wouldn’t be possible if there was a fixed slot for the vertical travel.
I had the same impression. When I took S6 out of the box, I thought that the bender was broken or blocked. Unfortunately, this is by design and there’s no vertical movement, just a vertical pressure sensor. It does feel rather unpleasant.
Loopop makes the same point in his review.
This is incorrect. The Roland joysticks on other keyboards move both horizontally and vertically and there’s no “fixed slot for the horizontal travel”.
Yep, I can move my bender forward indeed as intended.
However I avoid to to so, as I have to exert a significant force to get a sonic response.
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Thanks for drawing my attention to a typo I’ve made. Of course it should have said “vertical” instead of “horizontal” in the part you’ve quoted. I also didn’t mean to imply that Roland benders were using a fixed slot for their vertical travel. I simply wanted to say that if you’d want the vertical movement to be similar to the horizontal movement, a fixed slot for the vertical axis would be required, that’s all. This, however, has nothing to do with the Roland benders having more vertical wiggle room.
Some Roland benders have vertical movement, some provide only a pressure sensor. I prefer the former, S6 has the latter. It’s not a technical limitation, it’s a design choice.
Many thanks for everyone’s comments. I had thought UDO had been unable to source an X-Y type bender for the production version, and did not notice the inconsistency in the Owner’s Manual. As I play my Super 6 from a weighted 88 note keyboard, which has a Mod wheel, the flipper does not need to be used at all. Just nice to know I’m not going to break it, so thanks everyone.
A Roland product I own has the X-Y flipper, which moves freely, not through a gate, like a car manual gearbox! Nord’s pitch stick is nicer, in my opinion, though they have a regular Mod wheel. Both these brands I assume use custom components not available to UDO.