Fatar is an Italian manufacturer of keyboard "beds", the basic key/spring/switch assembly. They sell their own controllers under the Fatar name, but those are hard to find in North America. Most of their keybeds end up as components in other manufacturers' products, which is why so many synths and MIDI keyboards have a similar feel.

I have no problems w/ the joystick for modulation - you go up and down.  L/R for pitchbend is harder, since the joystick is pulled back to the center.  It just makes it wobblier and less precise for me.
 
@

Can you use the joystick to go left/right AND up/down at the same time so you increase modulation and up the pitch simultaneously?

Sure, 3 D is what the joystick is all about.  And the reason it is less controllable.  Better for smaller control increments and experimental things.  If you just want to alternately control mod and pitch, wheels are your best bet for traditional sounds.  But put a single pitch step across one axis and do micro bends.  Then do the same w/ filter resonance on the other axis.  Drone away, bro, drone away!
 
That being said, I'm sure one could get good w/ more traditional control if you worked at it.
 
@

Thx for the help, I just purchased an Edirol PCR-300.