For as much as synths are associated with keyboards, the keyboard is really just one way in. A controller can shape not only what notes you play, but how you think about the instrument in the first place.
Chord generators can turn harmony into something more immediate and tactile. A theremin can make pitch feel fluid and physical. A MIDI guitar setup can translate fretboard instincts into synth voices. Contact mics on drums can turn rhythm, impact, and vibration into triggers for an entire modular system.
In this video, we explore those ideas through a handful of unconventional synth-control setups, including a Suzuki Omnichord OM-300, Telepathic Instruments Orchid, Moog Etherwave Theremin, Roland GK-2A/GI-10 MIDI guitar rig, and drums fitted with contact mics.
Across the examples, those controllers are used with synths and modules like the Prophet-5 Desktop, OB-6 Desktop, Moog Matriarch, 4ms Spherical Wavetable Navigator, Make Noise Mimeophon, 4ms Percussion Interface and Expander, Noiselab Tailgater, and Befaco VCMC.
The point isn’t just that you can control a synth with something other than keys. It’s that the interface itself can lead you somewhere different—toward parts, textures, gestures, and accidents you might never have reached by playing a standard keyboard.