robin303

Dazzystar, your idea is WAY beyond the whole MBHP filosophy :'( This project is not just about the cheapest way of getting your hands on a control surface. It's not about starting your own business (utilising Thorstens hard work). MIDIbox is NON PROFIT and for FUN! ;) And my Reichelt order will be coming in any day now! ;D

The overlay idea is great! Funny, I have the same idea http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=parts_q;action=display;num=1052951961 before seeing this device from Evolution  :D Real inspiring!

The overlay idea is great! Funny, I have the same idea http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=parts_q;action=display;num=1052951961 before seeing this device from Evolution  :D Real inspiring!

Well, it is more work probably, but I really like the idea to be able to change the frontpanel layout instantly. Maybe the plexi plate isn't needed if I can find deskjet-printable paper that has a protective coating to protect it from the enzymes of my hands :-/

Well, it is more work probably, but I really like the idea to be able to change the frontpanel layout instantly. Maybe the plexi plate isn't needed if I can find deskjet-printable paper that has a protective coating to protect it from the enzymes of my hands :-/

I think you should work with the materials you are comfortable working with. For me, that's wood. I will make my casing and frontpanel out of MDF (that's some sort of pressurized wood) or multiplex. The good thing is that it is very easy to work with. Under the wood panel, I will lay a rasterplate to solder the pots and knobs on. These will then poke through the holes. Above the wood panel I want to lay a printable sheet, where I can note the knob/button assignments and on top of that a plexiglass protection layer. Now I am only waiting for my parts to arrive! :P

I think you should work with the materials you are comfortable working with. For me, that's wood. I will make my casing and frontpanel out of MDF (that's some sort of pressurized wood) or multiplex. The good thing is that it is very easy to work with. Under the wood panel, I will lay a rasterplate to solder the pots and knobs on. These will then poke through the holes. Above the wood panel I want to lay a printable sheet, where I can note the knob/button assignments and on top of that a plexiglass protection layer. Now I am only waiting for my parts to arrive! :P

The way I see it, there are two options: You create your own frontpanel. You can do it with wood, plexiglass (lexan like), plastic, carton or of course aluminium. Â :) You let someone do it who is better at it. Like Schaeffer Apparatebau (http://www.schaeffer-apparatebau.de) ;) In my opinion, option two is always better, as it is always more professionally done. However, option two is also more expensive and it may turn out not the way you planned it. Therefore, for my project (http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=concepts;action=display;num=1052265794) I have decided to make my own frontpanel. It will look less professional than a laser-cut aluminium frontpanel from Schaeffer, but it will be fully under my control. I have used Photoshop to create my frontpanel. The panel will be wood (MDF) because I am good, working with wood (and not good at working with aluminium). I will lay the print out of my design on top of the plate of wood and prime the places for the holes in. Then, I will use a speeddrill for the pot holes and a fine-saw for the square knob holes and LCD.. Of course some paint and laquer will be required as well. It's your box and the fun thing about this project is: You create it the way you want it. And that's better than something from the shop (in my opinion).

The way I see it, there are two options: You create your own frontpanel. You can do it with wood, plexiglass (lexan like), plastic, carton or of course aluminium. Â :) You let someone do it who is better at it. Like Schaeffer Apparatebau (http://www.schaeffer-apparatebau.de) ;) In my opinion, option two is always better, as it is always more professionally done. However, option two is also more expensive and it may turn out not the way you planned it. Therefore, for my project (http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=concepts;action=display;num=1052265794) I have decided to make my own frontpanel. It will look less professional than a laser-cut aluminium frontpanel from Schaeffer, but it will be fully under my control. I have used Photoshop to create my frontpanel. The panel will be wood (MDF) because I am good, working with wood (and not good at working with aluminium). I will lay the print out of my design on top of the plate of wood and prime the places for the holes in. Then, I will use a speeddrill for the pot holes and a fine-saw for the square knob holes and LCD.. Of course some paint and laquer will be required as well. It's your box and the fun thing about this project is: You create it the way you want it. And that's better than something from the shop (in my opinion).

vMidiBox is a software emulation of a 'real' MIDIbox. You can use it to test Midi Remote functionality of the software you plan to control when you have built a 'real' MIDIbox. 8) To use it, you will need to install the Midi Yoke driver. This is an 8 port driver with which you can virtually connect MIDI enabled software. After installing MIDI Yoke, it will show up in your software as a virtual in/out device. vMIDIbox can be found here: http://serge.ucapps.de MIDI Yoke can be found here: http://www.midiox.com/index.htm Now you can emulate having a 'real' midibox by (for instance) selecting Yoke Channel 1 as Midi Remote Input in your favourite software. Then select Yoke Channel 1 as output on the vMidiBox and start configuring and turning those knobs and buttons. ;D This way, I have found out what can (and cannot) be controlled in Reason if I was to build a MIDIbox. The results were satisfying and so now I am actually building this: http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=concepts;action=display;num=1052265794 Hope this will clear up some clouds!

vMidiBox is a software emulation of a 'real' MIDIbox. You can use it to test Midi Remote functionality of the software you plan to control when you have built a 'real' MIDIbox. 8) To use it, you will need to install the Midi Yoke driver. This is an 8 port driver with which you can virtually connect MIDI enabled software. After installing MIDI Yoke, it will show up in your software as a virtual in/out device. vMIDIbox can be found here: http://serge.ucapps.de MIDI Yoke can be found here: http://www.midiox.com/index.htm Now you can emulate having a 'real' midibox by (for instance) selecting Yoke Channel 1 as Midi Remote Input in your favourite software. Then select Yoke Channel 1 as output on the vMidiBox and start configuring and turning those knobs and buttons. ;D This way, I have found out what can (and cannot) be controlled in Reason if I was to build a MIDIbox. The results were satisfying and so now I am actually building this: http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=concepts;action=display;num=1052265794 Hope this will clear up some clouds!

Ok the 4 buttons on the right under the LED are the <-, ->, exec and Snapshot buttons. So I have that covered. Do you know where I can read more about what can be done with the freely assignable buttons F1 to F4 and the other 8 you mentioned? Cos that's 12 buttons, while I only have 6 I must know what I am missing  :D I was thinking of making A4 sized, deskjet printable overlays templates, with holes for the knobs in it. That way I can change buttons assignments on the fly  8) The idea is that the paper overlays go on the empty front panel, with a plexi-glass plate on top for protection. If I want to switch from using Reason to Rebirth, I just lift the plexi-glass, change the template paper, and voila! Cheers Robin

May I add that I received my boards from Mike today? That's very fast, considering that I mailed my envelope with cash thursdaynight from Holland to Germany!! And the boards are really small when you first see them ;D Thanks Mike!

Thanks for the good feedback guys! I definately will keep this in mind. You never know what you will do with the machine in the feature, and rackmounts are always handy! Well in the first stages of design, it actually was that way. Why I turned it around? I don't know  ;D Probably because when the display is central you will always have a top-down view. Also the central position looked cool. I will experiment with the placement before sawing a big square in my aluminium frontplate! Uhm, I thought I read the docs in the right way but this is still a tricky part. Could you please summon for me all buttons needed for menu and bankstick operation/navigation? Thanks! I absolutely agree with you! But.. space is an issue here. I wanted to fit the thing in a rack if needed and I also wanted enough space between the knobs for easy turning. Right now, I'm already bigger than 6u in height, so the faders simply weren't an option  :( Maybe an idea for another midibox project? A faderbox! As for the buttons: I saw Thorsten's picture of his orange Reichelt buttons and must say it looked very user friendly. The buggers are quite expensive but you only get one change for a first MIDIbox, right?  ;D Cheers for all your feedback, and more suggestions are always welcome!! Robin

Oh, for all you interested, the current parts price is just over 350 euros for the PCB's, electronic parts, adapter, LCD, knobs, pots and buttons. So I just need a frontpanel plate of aluminium and I will build a wooden case myself. Final price will be around the same as a Doepfer Drehbank (400 euros), which I was originally interested in to buy... ;D Now let's hope I can get this machine to work!

Hi there, everybody. Has it only been one week since I found this website? Well, enthousiast as I am, the last days have seen a lot of hours of designing and thinking for my MIDIbox 64 !! :P My goal: Controlling Reason, Rebirth and future software synths. I wanted a generic design because I will use multiple applications. As you can see, the panel design was heavily influenced by Steve Thomas' 3030 box which I really like a lot. I also used the 909 font and, by his advise, the Frontpanel Designer program! Thanks Steve! The panel measures 48 by 28 cm. The "Control Sections" all have 16 mm potmeter knobs, the "4x4 freakout" (no proper name yet) features 13,5 mm knobs. The buttons are all the Digitaster type (see http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=parts_q;action=display;num=1051988582 for more info) and most of them have a build-in LED. The idea I have is quite simple. Like I said, the box must be generic in function. But I didn't want a box with only 4 rows of 16 faders as I feel I will soon get lost in it. So I divided the 64 pots in 4 "Control Sections", a "Free" 4x4 grid and 16 volume channels with 16 muting buttons. The LCD is a 4x16 one. I have 6 buttons for the menus and another 4 extra, just in case, for bank selecting and all. The row with the red and green button are for transport purposes (pauze, play, rewind, forward, record). I wanted to be able to select patterns (in the Matrix and ReDrum modules) and so you can find 4 rows of 8 buttons in each "Control Section"! I am very interested in your opinions.. What do you think of this design? Anything I totally forgot? Or did I maybe do things that simply can't be done? Cheers, Robin

Thanks for re-posting! Ordering samples is not an option, as I'm not German but Dutch. International orders have a minimum of 50 euros unfortunately..

Good advise, and utilising it in my design! I'm almost done now, but.. does anyone have the specs (size in mm) for the Reichelt DIT / DTL Buttons? And.. maybe more photos (Thorsten?) of the various Digitaster buttons to show of the colors? I'm still dubbing about which colours to order :)

I thought Snapshot was the same as Store? Hmm.. ???

But, now that the PIC18F452 is there, is this really a big problem then ?

Good idea.. I have a mixing console here that has that problem.. A spacious design is much better to prevent accidental turning of knobs. What do you mean with d-shaped or spindle style knobs?

Really? I thought the 6mm would be better as they seem stronger? Never thought of "turning-lightness".. So the 4mm are lighter to turn than the 6mm ones uh? I was looking at the KNOPF 14-6: 14 mm diameter is nice and compact, as I'm trying to fit the whole MIDIbox in a A4 panel 297x210 mm.

Ok, so the transport buttons do work with your midibox hardware..? Then I know I can put stop, play, rewind, forward, record buttons in my midibox design. Weird that it doesn't work in vMIDIbox though.. I just got Redrum / Matrix pattern selection to work as well.. Â 8) Say, how many buttons are typically used for controlling the LCD, bankstick kinda stuff? Right now, I've got 2 buttons for bankstick bank select up/down 2 buttons for store/restore bank 3 buttons for LCD left, right and execute Anything I forgot?

And sure looking great! :-* While we're on the knobs subject: Any tips for the pots?

Somehow it doesn't work here. I'll try it with my midi keyboard tomorrow, maybe that'l do better... What I don't understand, is the fact that the "Learn" function in Reason does recognize the vMIDIbox button I am clicking. It gives the channel and note info correctly. But after programming, when I turn the "edit midi remote" function off, nothing happens when I click the button in vMIDIbox... ???