Building your own midi controller

SteveDon

Ive been looking up this topic on the internet and im very intrigued but its a bit daunting considering i have no background in anything like this, just wondering if anyone has tried it before and what was your experience?

Progger

I dont know much about the subject either but am very interested in it also. I do know sven vath uses his home made midi controller for some of his live gigs.

PaulBrewer

Do either of you have any background in electronics at all?

fabbydabby

Would you really need one? You could butcher an existing controller for parts if you needed to.

red_ice

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Do either of you have any background in electronics at all?

shh!! They have it figured out, let them go at it. Keep me updated pls :pac:

PaulBrewer

red_ice wrote: »

shh!! They have it figured out, let them go at it. Keep me updated pls :pac:

Would you really need one? You could butcher an existing controller for parts if you needed to.

Sound On Sound has a lot to answer for ...:o

madtheory

You're looking for something that'll turn voltages and switches into MIDI. The best thing I've found is the Doepfer Wheel Electronics Box. Only €40, but you have to pay direct to their bank account (like most german companies). I use it for a breath controller interface. But you can plug in anything you like, and assign to a MIDI cc number.

Check out Thomas Dolby's live rig. He bought a bunch of old oscillators and other cool looking electronics gear, and installed something the Doepfer in them.

ogy

maybe a kit like the monome one would be cool?

http://monome.org/40h/kit

PaulBrewer

ogy wrote: »

maybe a kit like the monome one would be cool?

http://monome.org/40h/kit

How bonkers are the vids on their site!?

jimi_t

Monome is the schnizz, but a little too esoteric for myself - I prefer a more tactile set up.

Have a gander at midibox or one of the THOUSANDS of ableton controller projects custom built over at make or CDM or wherever else google brings you - even the big boys like monolake build their own stuff.

(That said, with the APC40 coming out in April do you really feel you need to build something?)

studiorat

To do this you really need to get into an application called Max MSP. It allows you to take any controller information (motion sensors etc) and convert it into a midi value. Another program like this is Pure Data and available free, it's pretty much the same as Max and would be a good learning platform.

http://www.uchobby.com/index.php/make-controller-kit/ Something like this will connect to the computer. You can also try a company called Arduino who make controller devices suitable for this use.

Here's a nice article on how to circuit bend a games controller into a Midi device using Pure Data. http://www.randomfunction.com/?q=node/66

madtheory

IMO that's the great thing about the Doepfer. You don't need MAX or PD.

studiorat

madtheory wrote: »

IMO that's the great thing about the Doepfer. You don't need MAX or PD.

Tis true. That's a good point and a nice looking piece of kit. I really like the look of the 16 way continuous controller board (Dial Electronic).

Though I think with using software it would make it easier to control the parameters, give them a limit, and adjust the rate of change of values. Would you agree?

Also considering Ableton now have a set-up where you can use Max patches I think that would be a good direction in the long run.

madtheory

studiorat wrote: »

Though I think with using software it would make it easier to control the parameters, give them a limit, and adjust the rate of change of values. Would you agree?

Absolutely! I was primarily drawn to it because I wanted a breath controller, and felt MAX was OTT for this particular app.

Ableton with MAX/ MSP is a bloody brilliant idea.

studiorat

Breath Controller!!!
I thought you said breast controller there.
My bad...:D

madtheory

Ya, so I'll be blowing in to a plastic tube and dribbling spit in order to create a more expressive performance