> as a knob. I have yet to buy the controller so I'm open to suggestions. It
Yeah, there are plenty of these out there. I know off the top of my head that Roland, Yamaha, and Behringer make 'em. I've got a Behringer. It's cheaper, uses a standard AC power cord, so no wall wart, and has an extra built in variable pedal. The only issue is that even though the casing is made out of metal, the pedals themselves are made out of plastic, tough plastic, but still... it makes me nervous sometimes. > would work with USB or MIDI, or better both. If MIDI, then I also need a Hrm, can't think of any USB pedals... > MIDI input card. Ultimately I would like the software to be as compact as The most practical midi I/O interfaces I've seen probably come in the form of breakout boxes. I've seen them in USB, Serial and Parallel versions. You can also get a cable that breaks out the two midi ports (in and out) and a joystick port without the midi pins from a standard PC joystick port. The only thing you've got to watch out for here is that newer 'soundchip' based 'cards' (this includes most motherboard audio) or standalone gameport interfaces won't have midi. If you've got an ISA interface though (don't know how 'old' your hardware is) and an old sound blaster 16 or somesuch kicking around, those usually have rather decent midi capabilities. Not only that, but you can usually find them pretty cheap, or in some 486 somebody threw in the trash, and they're supported by just about everything ever made (though the sound output is noiser than a tractor trailer truck). Well, I hope this helps! Cheers, - Mike