Musikmesse 2012: QuNeo Controller Demo

April 7, 2012 By 1 Comment


We were very fortunate at Messe this year to get a hands on, back room, all sorts of super special look at the QuNeo by Keith McMillan Instruments. I’ve been very vocal about my personal excitement for this unit, and I know the rest of the team is getting just as excited the more I make them look at it. We got to get a first look at NAMM, where we dragged almost anyone who would listen to us to their little booth. This time, though, our behind-closed-doors little demo was much more in depth, and far more exciting.

What I really love about the QuNeo is that each user can really make this thing do exactly what they want without needing to sacrifice the integrity of the device, or needing to hack too much MIDI together to make it kind of work. At first look it’s a great MPC style controller, and change a mode and it’s a much larger Monome style controller, and then turn in 90 degrees and all of a sudden it’s a really elegant 4 deck DJ controller. If you’ve always wanted an M-Audio Trigger Finger then this could be the perfect alternative. It’s got more controls than most utility and drum controllers, and they all have added functions (like the X/Y pads) to make them far more powerful.

My first question was what this was going to function with, and out of the box it’s going to have templates for Reason, Ableton Live, Serato and Traktor. That’s a good breadth of software for a new controller to work with out of the box, at the least, and we were assured that eventually they’d open the MIDI engine for people to really have some fun with in something like Bome MIDI Translator. Until then the API is open for people to create their own templates and share them on their website.

It’s been really great to be able to follow the progress of the QuNeo over the past few months. I know I am more than excited to get my hands on one and start making it do all the crazy things I’ve wanted controllers to do for a while. Rest assured there will be more updates from us as new features and functions are added to this unit.

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About Jared Helfer

Jared spends too much time staring at MIDI to have time to cut his hair or shave. He is also a DJ. He currently holds the record as the "Most Fired" at DJWorx, and is willing to challenge anyone to the title. He spends his time DJing in his office and releasing mixes on his website and mixcloud, as well as playing violent video games, reading books, and beginning to get involved in production. He also enjoys tormenting Gizmo about his age and Britishness.