Steven_C

What is a CI? Is it like a bezel? It would be cool if some manufacturer could make a bezel that the LED's push into, with a centre hole to mount an encoder into. Then the hole lot could be mounted to the frontpanel of a midibox, just by drilling one hole with a simple holesaw. But the original midiboxLC that Thorsten made is probably the best, cheapest, and easiest solution... Just do a CAD drawing and let the lazer cutter do all the hard work!

Wireless midi has been brought up on this forum before. Do a forum search. You should find some ideas, but no-one else here seems to have ventured down that road yet. (though there is mention of an integrated RF tranceiver that the manufacturer claims can be adapted to midi) Kenton make a commercial solution, but is is REALLY expensive.

Well done! Maybe this is why TK is suggesting people try using that new programmer... due to all the hassles of the JDM?

OEM pricing?

Its a pity the behringer BFC2000 dosen't have touch sensors... It would probably be quite cost effective to buy a bulk lot of these and rip them apart! Maybe a competitor to Behringer will soon release a copycat version of the BFC2000 for a similar price, with better features (like touch sensor) that we can pull apart! (or just use as-is!) BTW, I have seen someone on the Sound On Sound forum complaining about the faders on the mackie control. I know that hi-end console manufacturers spend a lot of time getting their motorfader driver algorithms just right, so maybe it is out of the league of even mackie to get it perfect. BTW, If Penny and Giles (reguarded by many as the best) have quality problems, then we probably don't have much chance of manufacturing our own without problems, without a large investment. (ref to original post)

Just an idea... Maybe we could commission the manufacture of custom motorfaders, maybe it will be cost effective... maybe not... Then we can have the features we want! parts we need to design/get manufactured... outer chassis... laser cut steel. Can be formed by a metalwork professional (like me ;)) resistive tracks PCB's... ripped from commercial linear fader... but not enough elements on a standard fader. Maybe we will have to get these made custom ??? motors... too easy pulleys and belts hmmm sliding contact springs and non-conductive sliding part OK now I'm starting to see it is a lot of work! Oh well just thinking out loud... We must have considerable buying power by now, maybe we can get wholesale pricing from ALPS direct? All we need is a good contact inside ALPS or Panasonic...

Most of europe is 240V 50Hz ? Putting a new plug on your transformer/wallwart will blow it up! I Think the technical name for a transformer becomes a powersupply when it has conditioning components added.. i.e. filter caps, soothing caps, rectifier, regulators etc... FYI. I sometimes use powersupplies from old computers... people throw them away. But no 15V output... bummer. But lots of other stuff people throw away will have what you want. Its best to stick with PSU's that are in their own case and the different voltage outputs appear on the end of a lead that plugs into the device... like old video camera powersupplies. Inside a case=safer/ good luck

Back to the original question... (I hope its not too late!) I am sure that the output of a simple midibox (core and a din module) could be merged with the output of the BCF to add a touch function. But this would have to be implemented by adding buttons at the bottom of each fader on the BCF2000, that you press when you want to activate the 'touch'. This just leaves one problem... no LCD to tell you what is going on... maybe a midi thru box (easy to make) between the PC (or mac) and the BCF2000, with one of the outputs going to the midi in of a midibox LC core, with just the LCD(s) connected. Possibly a cheap and slightly easier way of getting an LC (though with a few less buttons, functions) ...Steve

You will need a serious power supply for the motorfaders... maybe 8 amps! You might be able to use the mf_example2_v1_3 loaded into each of the cores, daisy chained, and used in conjunction with a sequencer to record your fader movements... but I'm only guessing, I havent used the mf_example2_v1_3 yet (someone to confirm?) I've only used the midibox LC emulation. (which needs a single midiport for each 8 faders) Maybe someone can suggest a suitable sequencer/motorfader protocol combination. If you go for LC you may be able to find a used copy of logic on ebay for a reasonable price. (you will need a copy of Logic Audio 5.5.1 for PC or logic platinum 5 or higher) Does the MB LC application's GPC mode support motorfaders? (someone who has tried it to answer, please) If so then you should be able to use a decent sequencer to automate your faders but the resolution will only be 128. And you probably won't get accuracy better than that anyway, with MIOS controlled motorfaders with an analogue track. If I was trying to build an automation system for a console, and I would use Logic audio on PC due to simplicity of setting up. Cheaper than Protools+motormix, more reliable than Cubase SX and Housten protocol. I don't know how to set up motorfaders on older sequencers. BTW, many commercial console automation systems use VCA's controlled by the motorfaders, as having a motor close to an audio path (resistive track in this case) can cause noise problems. I have been told that Penny and Giles put a lot of work into designing motors that didn't make a lot of RF noise. There is also another manufacturer (outboard electronics) that made solenoid-actuated flying faders, I imagine that they would be RF/EMI quiet too. Maybe it would be easier to find a second-hand automation system? Avoid early Sony systems though, I know someone who lost a lot of money and studio time because of one of those Sony's! There are used pro-studio dealers on the net. If I remember any of them (or where I wrote the addresses down) I will post them here! This post may sound complex, but I'm just letting you know of what you may be in for.

I could never get my panasonics to move smooth enough to avoid this. But... this thread solved all my problems nontheless... http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=troubleshooting;action=display;num=1094463330 (when used with touch mode 2) the hot 4427 is a bit of a worry. The design of the P+G faders must be a bit inefficient.

This would be a very cool idea, if you can get the motorfaders with an audio track (expensive, I think) The system described is exactly how the big automated analogue desks worked in the 80's. (with a computer running the software for the automation) If you get in touch with a service engineer who works on large analogue consoles, I am sure they can recommend the best fader that is value for money. dunno about the midi thru question.

In Australia, donations to World Vision can be made at ANZ and National Australia Banks.

According to Thorsten's experiments with Windows XP the midisport 2x2's latency is pretty bad. http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=mios_toy;action=display;num=1077232194;start=1#1

The random pitchbend data shouldn't be happening. Do a forum search "jitter" and you will find out what is wrong. There is heaps of advice on minimising jitter both on ucapps.de and on this forum. Oh... have you got the eight pots connected? Unconnected pots=random pitchbend data.

back to your original question, I really don't know what the midi implementation within reason is like. I doubt that it would be possible to use the MBLC the same way as it would work with Logic or Cubase, though I could be wrong. ...Steve

Glad we cleared that up! Yeah, you use the bank left/right keys to change to the next 8 (or 16 if you have two MBLC's) faders. When you do this, the LCD becomes quite important to identify which channels you are controlling. (a disadvantage of those cheap behringer units) ...Steve

I also found some feet like this at a 'junk shop' near my house... cheap too! Though I think that (if) I rebuilt my MBLC (16 faders this time! ;)) I would probably just use the same tactile switches as before. Maybe I would fill the centre hole with glue or something... ...Steve

I have thought of controlling an analog mixer with a MBLC derivative. Maybe you could put the analogue motorised faders on a separate panel, and route them as attenuators on your mixer's inserts, and leave the inbuilt faders on 0dB unity. (only ones I know of are penny and giles, for around $80 US each... better you find a way to build your own faders... alps motorised faders, plus some logarithmic alps faders strapped together in tandem... or buy an old console with an automation system at an auction or something... maybe not worth the hassle :'() anyway, drjazz, I'm not sure if you are aware that most of us just use the MBLC (like axels) to control the mixing functions digitally within applications like logic audio...

Hey there, I'm wondering how hard it is to configure a midibox to transmit sysex data from it's sliders for synths that don't use standard continuous controllers? I tried to use midi learn on my V 0.31 MB64, but it only works for CC's. ...Steve

I don't know, but I've read that it isn't possible to substitute an encoder for increment/decrement buttons, unfortunately.

from memory, I think the ledrings on the behringer units have more than 11 led's, so no, not a mios ripoff. (unless they did a bit of their own customising!) Shame the BCF has no scribble strips, they are so cheap! (I also thought about using these units for parts... but I didn't realise that they had no touch sensor...)

from the thread "Re: Module connection for Mackie Clone" Maybe controlling protools with the logic control protocol would be better than CM motormix? (go to a music store that sells the mackie control and ask to play with protools with it! :P Try before you build! ;)) But I don't really know, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to do what TK is suggesting either. I guess I'm just pondering! I too wanted to buld a midibox for protools, but I can't afford to buy protools, and windows XP to be able to run it!

No idea!

No idea!

Thats harsh. He already agreed not to do it anymore. If someone was silly enough to do this once, they wouldn't do it twice due to all the work involved! ;)