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The Manta has an array of 48 hexagonal sensors.

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As a general rule of thumb, there are two types of MIDI controller in the world. There are the meat 'n' potatoes mass-produced keyboards and surfaces with knobs on – where you can pretty much tell what they do by looking at them – and there are more esoteric creations, such as the JazzMutant Lemur and Percussa's AudioCubes, where you have to dig a little deeper to figure them out.

Now, take a look at the photo above and see if you can guess which category the Snyderphonics Instruments Manta falls into?

Overview

The Manta's slimline wooden case makes it one of the flattest and lightest controllers around – slip it into the included black and green padded sleeve, pack it with your laptop, and you can carry this with you wherever you go.

The only physical connection is a mini-USB jack on the rear end. That's good news, because buss power is great for mobile musicians.

The surface is covered with touch-sensitive controls – 48 hexagonal sensors, eight buttons, and two faders, etched into a metal grid. Below that are 68 warm orange LEDs.

"The Manta's slimline wooden case makes it one of the flattest and lightest controllers around"

The Manta uses either OSC or MIDI to communicate with software, allowing it to interact with almost any music application – Supercollider, Max/MSP, Live, Reason, Logic, Cubase and so on – but it won't do anything until you install the Max/MSP patches it needs, and of course to do that you've got to install the free Max Runtime application, or the full version of Max/ MSP.

There's also a basic standalone MIDI routing application, but you'll get much better results using the Max/MSP elements. The Max/MSP router includes an editor window, where MIDI notes and CCs (continuous controllers) can be assigned to each control. There are also a couple of presets included, and it was easy to get the Manta sending MIDI to Ableton Live.

In use

Immediately, the Manta feels more like an instrument interface than it does a 'controller' – it's no mixer substitute. Playing chords into Live's Operator synth feels surprisingly natural, and although the default patch creates a 'normal' three-octave layout, the unusual arrangement of the notes makes it great for busting bad keyboard habits.

It's also great for sweeping fingers across the sensors to create glissando/ harp effects, and the velocity sensitivity makes for a truly expressive feel. Sometimes, the Manta feels more like a two-handed tapping instrument than a keyboard, and it might be worthwhile experimenting with different tunings based on those instruments.

The flat surface throws back to old-school instruments with 'flat' keyboards, such as the EDP Wasp, the Stylophone, and the Electro-Harmonix Mini Synth. We used the buttons to toggle audio effects on and off, and the sliders to control effect send levels.