Using Teensy and a LOT of multiplexers to build something to control all my music gear…
Not quite fully operational yet, but the box I cut at the space is looking good!
Bespoke Midi controller
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Sick
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Looks good! Is it painted ply or acrylic?
Is that buttons above the faders? Any specific plans for what they will control?
I wonder if it’s possible to find rubber pad-type buttons- they could be a good option where you have the arcade-style buttons at the bottom. (And have velocity sensitivity?)
I got an MPC Touch going cheap on ebay and the pads are great. On the other hand, it has rubber buttons for all the other controls which aren’t so great.
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it’s acrylic (fancy matt effect acrylic, which as it turns out soaks up paint really badly and I will never use again!)
for each channel:
top pot is filter resonance
next pot is hi/lo pass filter cutoff
the next three buttons down send 100% to effects returns (delay/Spring reverb/something else) (and should light up when activated if I know what I’m doing!)
fader for channel gain
then the arcade buttons are solo’s for each channel
then over to the right, there are some buttons for ableton navigation, so I can trigger clips which control which patterns the Sequencer is playing with PGM Change messages.
basically - it all hooks up to ableton live so I can use that to dub mix the outputs of an external sequencer/drum machine and three synths.
I am using this teensy library, which makes it all very simple code wise;
This guy seems to have had success DIY-ing MPC style pads…
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OK, nice. I have been exploring the use of dedicated hardware for music making, after working with software for a long time, so I can see the value of controllers like this. I built a monome years ago, and have been exploring modular, but I must say the MPC is also really inspiring to use, and is a good bridge between software and hardware. They have a new stand-alone one which is more Ableton-like with clips and scenes, but quite expensive.
Good find on the DIY pads, I may use that in a future project.
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Likewise have just got into using more hardware in the last few years…
I just bought an MPC500 for it’s portability actually! haven’t quite got to grips with it yet, but the little go I had the other day made me think about maybe replacing my current sequencer with an MPC1000 at some point…
That MPC Force thing does look fun too!
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