Back at the start of September, Sheffield-based electronic group The Black Dog launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund development of a new MIDI controller, the CS X51.
Working under the company name Machinewerks, the techno three-piece founded the project out of, according to their Kickstarter page, "sheer frustration of not being able to find the Control Surface we wanted."
As of this week, the CS X51 project has passed its £27,000 fundraising target and is moving into an initial production run.
The controller itself is an aluminium unit featuring 28 rotaries, six faders, a crossfader and a grid of 16 back-lit buttons, all of which are fully assignable. It can run on either USB or mains power and features MIDI in and out connections.
Martin Dust of The Black Dog said of the project: "The last 30 days have been a fantastic and nerve racking journey. We are absolutely overwhelmed by the success and support we've received from our Kickstarter campaign. It's really heartening to know that there are people out there who not only want our products but are willing to support the project as a whole. It's also a great thing for our city, Sheffield. Being able to bring some manufacturing back to SoYo™ makes us really proud, it's something we take very seriously.
"We are now in the process of finalising the CS X51 and scheduling the first production run, with our KickStarter supporters receiving their units early in the new year. With trade and distribution enquires already coming in, we're also looking to substantially increase the number of units we'll be producing over the next couple of months. The future of Machinewerks is looking very promising."
At the currently available early bird price, the controller is available for £275, and is due to start shipping in Jan 2014. Check out the CS X51 Kickstarter page for more info.
