There is a new kid in town, matching a hipsters need for a stylish controller on the desktop, called Palette Gear (http://palettegear.com/). Actually I quite like it, since the controllers are rather small compared to classic midi controller with faders, and two or three pieces would fit nicely beside a keyboard on the left side.
Classic midi controllers like the Korg nanoKONTROL are much cheaper though. But the faders are small and have a short travel, so maybe not that adjustable. But $50 compared to $200 is a difference!
Alternatives from the software side are (posted from user Prokrastes at the Heise.de forum):
https://sites.google.com/site/dorfl68/ (Windows)
http://www.knobroom.com/ (OS X)
http://www.pusherlabs.com/ (OS X)
http://thegouger.github.io/MIDI2LR/ (OS X und Windows, Open Source)
Questions for me would be:
- more alternatives?
- build a fader in a classic do-it-yourself style?
- useless gimmick?
- DT user field reports?
The usage I could imagine for a fader or dial wheel are making a brush smaller or bigger, and in general changing brush options. Maybe undo/redo would be also interesting (I already have undo/redo on my Wacom tablet on the buttons). Maybe interesting for a dial wheel would be switching between desktop applications (ALT/CMD + TAB).
