High resolution MIDI or OSC controllers?

when using max/msp (or another environment of that kind) there might be some alternative options.

for example you could use 2 7-bit controllers for "coarse" and "fine" - and do the math in your app.

i am dreaming of a 14-bit pocket control since ever, if there is a solution without soldering let me know.

It's true there are software workarounds. One is, as you say, to have two controls, one for coarse and one for fine adjustments. We see this often with pitch controls. But this does not allow the full movement (glissando in this case) that a pitch wheel provides.

The second option is to implement acceleration, so that moving the pot quicker changes values quicker. This allows one control to cover a wider range of values, but without the granularity that ensures smooth transitions.

A third solution is to build one's own controller with Arduino or similar. It's easy to get 10-bit serial data to a computer, and (in my experience) 1024 values is enough. We don't necessarily need the full 14 bits. One could even package the output as a MIDI stream and provide a DIN interface. This way the home-brew unit could work with other hardware devices, independent of a computer.

i was wondering about this, made an arduino controller with pots but it was less accurate than i thought, less than half than 1024, i don't want to flood serial all the time so it only send the sensor reading if it has changed greater than a number.

I wish there were more options for this myself - but to add to your list, the Faderfox UC3 also supports 14-bit values for all knobs and sliders. I have both the UC3 and UC4 for this reason, and I find I prefer the longer faders on the UC3.

Thanks, Jesse! The discontinued UC3 has 45mm faders, whereas the UC4 has 30mm, so they can fit in a row of 8 buttons. Nice to hear from someone who has used both.

Ben, you make a good point about usable data range. The maximum number of values the Arduino received is only theoretically 1024. The usable range on a given pot might be smaller.

I would favour using rotary encoders instead. Then the only data received is "increment" or "decrement", with no hardware-imposed limits on the values. This defers to the software (Max) how to interpret these values and constrain them to a usable range.

I've been in a similar boat, and my solution has been to go DIY with it.

I use a Teensy LC, which gives you 12bit resolution natively, and then an external ADC (Adafruit ADS1115) to get 14bit resolution.

I then wrote a bunch of support code around it which handles the bit shifting, smoothing (link below), and calibration routine, storing the min/max value in the EEPROM.

I found this guide on smoothing to be massively useful:
http://damienclarke.me/code/posts/writing-a-better-noise-reducing-analogread

Here is the Arduino code in question.

Excellent article!

I might well implement something with Arduino/Teensy myself, but wanted to explore off-the-shelf items too. Though the FaderFox units are not "cheap as chips", they aren't so much more than rolling my own solution, if I take into account custom fabrication of a case, etc.

DIY is definitely a good way to go, especially if you calibrate.

One often overlooked characteristics of MIDI controllers is the "physical resolution", which most have a ton of 'slop' at the top/bottom of the range, unless they have internal calibration routines (which better ones should).