Ribbon controller

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A ribbon controller is a user interface used to control parameters of electronic musical instruments, primarily used with analogue synthesizers. (See fingerboard synthesizer). A ribbon controller is similar to a touchpad, but a ribbon controller only registers linear motion.

Although it could be used to operate any parameter that is affected by control voltages, a ribbon controller is most commonly associated with pitch bending.

The ribbon controller has no moving parts. Instead, a finger pressed down and moved along it creates an electrical contact at some point along a pair of thin, flexible longitudinal strips whose electric potential varies from one end to the other.

The most well-known user of the controller is rock musician Keith Emerson, who used it with the Moog modular synthesizer from 1970 onward.