Three Ways of Control
I have developed a way of playing the synthesizer that involves 3 separate MIDI controllers to be played together as one instrument.
The first is a keyboard with my 'Vibe Bar' attached - the keyboard to play the notes & chords and the Vibe Bar to add vibrato & pitch bend. This is done using the one playing hand.
Secondly there is a foot pedal to continuously change the brightness of the sound in the same (but different) way a pianist continually changes the damper. The foot pedal can be swapped for a breath controller to achieve the same result but with finer control.
And lastly is the 'Claude Controller' which is an array of 57 wheels (& 2 joysticks) all arranged like a musical keyboard with an extra row at the back. The purpose of the layout is to allow the player to quickly see and get to any control(s) quickly. The vertical arrangement of the wheels means the player can independently articulate up to 5 at once with their 5 fingers.
The combination of these 3 elements means you have the ability to infinitely alter the the structure of the sound in real time - something that I believe is what makes acoustic instruments like the saxophone or violin so appealing.
The Claude Controller takes all the controls involved in making an electronic sound - synth parameters, effects controls and levels (a LOT of knobs spread all over the hardware or computer screen) and puts them in a musically familiar order under the player's control.