pappajackson

Another Max user, good choice son! Using Max and Midibox couldn't be simpler. You'll probably want to use the USB interface because Max automatically reads every single input device that's connected via USB. I'm not on a machine with Max at the moment so I'm not exactly sure of the process you'd go through (I'm still a learning Max at the moment), but I intend to use my Midibox with Max so drop us an email if you like and we can share some knowledge. ;) Pz. Jackson

Cool, so you can have your actuall interface a good distance away from the guts? I thought about building a couple of thin little button arrays I could mount in the empty space of my mixers faceplate, maybe it would be possibe after all. You could have great fun by placing buttons in unusuall places that triggered things in different rooms. Bound to spin a few people out..;)

Ah Ms. Pinky eh! I'd love to have a play on that. I used an old copy of Final Scratch when I was DJing in Poland - it seemed quite responsive and stable, but there was definately a delay because the timing even on simple transform scratches sounded slightly out. I'm looking at Serato at the moment, I'm a big fan of rane and I've heard good things about it. Ms. Pinky does seem the cooler of the three, and I'm learning Max/MSP/Jitter for my digital arts degree so it sort of makes sense. I tend to use the EQ a fair amount in my sets, my mixer has three-band upfader eqs on each channel and a really nice VCF filter built in so you can get some really smooth mixes, especially with stuff like Breaks or DnB. For scratching I don't tend to use it that much, I'm less of a battle DJ more of a kind of live mixtape guy (Lots of quick mixes, accapellas, instrumentals etc) so I use it to get things to sit nicely together. Is the SK5 the stanton mixer? I've wondered about adapting audio mixers to act as a midi controller because I've got an old Gemini UMX5 scratch mixer lying around. It's a nice little thing, pretty sturdy but pretty basic too so there's probably a lot of space inside the box. Do you have any tips or any resources that I could look into on the subject? This Hotcakes thing sounds good. I'm very interested in the whole digital music phenomenon, and have been hashing out ideas for underground distribution networks for months! I'd love to hear more about what you guys are doing. I go to quite a wacked-out art's college that's full of incredible musicians who don't seem to have either the commercial viability to attract attention from labels or an independent platform to get their music heard. Myspace has done a lot of unsigned musicians, but the site is bloated and spreads it' net too far resulting in less features for dedicated musicians, especially DJs. The infiniums look great, I'm not sure how keen they'd be to sell me only 7 65mm faders tho, maybe I could blag them as samples or something...

hah! that's a great story, $10 turntables - now that I would like to see. As for the faders, surely the non-contact magnetic rane faders would last longer than optical faders? There's probably not much discernable difference really (9,999,999 cyclics instead of 10,000,000 or somehing :)) NAS: Don't worry man, I think these guys just read into your post wrong - don't let it put you off, after all, drin and stryd aint the only users here! Talk to me about how you're gonna use Midibox with you're scratching! Probably because all ableton users are bad-ass mu'fu'n DJ's yo. :)

Now now, don't turn my topic into a forum politics debate. :) I will chip in my 2c tho - I'm new to this forum but I've been active on other web communities and (for lack off a better term) 'held positions of expertise' on similar tech based forums. I always tried to maintain a balance between helping out noobs and letting them find their own way - from what I gather from this community is that you guys have got that balance just right. I thought I might have thrown myself in at the deep end when I first signed up to the forums (it felt kind of like an official commitment to make a midibox), but from searching back through the forums and the rest of the resources I can feel my knowledge base growing exponentially every time I login. :) NAS: Cheers for the skinny on the faders tho, I've heard of the Infinium faders but never got my greasy paws on one yet. I've got an almost redundant Edirol UR80 integrated control surface that is a bugger to use and ugly as hell - I'm probably gonna pinch the upfaders from that. 20 years scratching, that's along time indoors! You must be pretty good. How have you integrated Midibox into your sets? I'd be interested to hear how any other turntablists have as well actually...

Yeah! Booty bass! bring it on. :) Someone else posted a link to it on a different forum, but check out the openlabs mika for an integrated computer/audio-midi interface. It looks pretty cool, built in keyboard, Presonus Firepods and a touchscreen. :) I've just been looking at the ELO touchsceens, they're mac compatible ad some of them are very compact. I'm weighing up the options of hooking one of them up with a mac mini and mounting them in a flight case. Expensive, but very cool.

:Slaps forehead Oh yeah....

Yeha, I thought the anti vandal one might be good for a power switch. I'll probably just use a basic rocker.

So that's why fader's crackle...:) I'm pretty fast at scratching, I can put a chop on the 16th's on pretty much anything up to 120BPM and as a byproduct of having quite a heavy crossfader I learnt to emulate the crab sound without actually crabbing - a triple click flare with a bit of a wobble on it is the only way to describe it really. The main factor for wanting a scratch fader was for durability really. I'll probably skip on the Eclectic Breaks fader (especially at the £90 it goes for) and go for a P+G one. I'd really like to put one of the non-contact magnetic Rane faders in, but it would probably be too hard to implement especially at my current skill level and cost a packet. I'll try and post some designs for the unit soon, I was thinking about creating a blog to document the process . Unfortunatly I'm off to Poland for a couple of months so I won't be able to start the MidiBox until I get back, but the two months will give me some time to build a good knowledge base regarding electronics.

Thanks guys, you've all been a big help. I hope one day I can be the guy answering the questions. :P

I've been doing lots of googling in search of the perfect illuminated button and rotary knob. I've found a few sites so I thought I share them. I'm new to midibox and it took me a while before I actually knew the right type of button or rotary to look for. For the fellow noobs, you need to 'push-to-make' buttons. http://www.rjselectronics.com/ - a huge collection of buttons and switches, plus a nice 20x2 LCD http://www.itwasia.com.tw/e-switch.htm#3 - more cool buttons, check out the big silver anti-vandal button! http://www.aliceshop.com/acatalog/AliceShop_Series_A_Spares_43.html - a few fader and rotary knobs in lots of different colours. http://www.apem.com/hardware.html - loads of buttons/switches and a few cool retro knobs http://www.okw.co.uk/products/okw/tuning-knobs.htm - loads of knobs http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=knob&doy=1m4&source=15 - an obvious one here, but still thought it might be usefull. The calibrated and pointer pair's (about two thirds down the page)are nice. That's all for now, hope this is handy to someone. I'll post more if I find them.

That's great, clears a lot of stuff in my head. Looks like I'll need 3 DINX4's instead and only one AIN modue (that is if a single AIN module can take both faders and pots?) Check it out the crossfader here. http://www.eclecticbreaks.com/proxfade/index.html It looks like a bit of a baddie, not sure if it's worth putting a scratch crossfader in though as I won't really be doing any scratching in Ableton. Thanks again for you're help, someone give this man some good karma!

Hello all, I'm new to the forum and to the world of electronics, but I'm learning fast (I have books!;D) and I'm intent on jumping aboard the bandwagon and building my own ableton controller. I've been DJing for a long time now and I want to integrate my vinyl skills with ableton - I've decided to build a slim little Midibox that can fit between my mixer and one of my technics. My mixer is a vestax PMC37 Pro, it's a great mixer with really flexible routing options and I've got it set out (on paper anyway)so that each deck is sent seperatly out of the mixer via the FX loops into ableton, while the master output from ableton is coming back into the third channel of my Vestax. At the same time the cuemix from Ableton is coming in on the return of the FX loop. It seems like the best way to route it, I can easily monitor the cue and master from ableton, as well as use VST effects on my vinyl (not too sure what the latency problems would be like for this tho but scratching through a beat repeat would sound sick :D). Anyway, the audio stuff is all taken care of, the tricky bit's the Midibox64e. I want to have: 24 Illuminated Buttons split over a 6 x 4 grid to trigger clips over six channels 24 Buttons (4 per channel) for cue, mute, record cue and crossfader assign, 4 Buttons for transport (play, stop, record, loop) 4 Buttons for Scene triggering 1 Illuminated Button for Tap Tempo 6 Faders (not motorized) to control the channel level, 6 Rotaries for channel pan, 3 Rotaries for master volume, cue volume and groove 1 Pot for BPM 1 Crossfader 1 LCD 2 LEDs mounted near the crossfader so pretty blue light shines out. So in total that’s 57 buttons 27 LEDS, 9 rotaries, 7 faders, 1 pot and 1 LCD. I think I’ve figured out what modules I need, could someone tell me if this is right or not? 1 X CORE 2 x DINX4 (for the buttons?) 2 X AIN (one for the rotaries and one for the faders?) 1 X DOUT (for the LEDs of the illuminated buttons?) 1 x LCD 1 x LTC (for communication to my computer) Right, here are the questions 1) Is that all the modules I need? 2) Do I need both the AIN and the DOUT modules? 2) If I bought the Midibox64e set and the extra AIN and LTC modules from Mikes would they be pre-assembled or would I get a bag of components? 3) Does buying PCB kits mean I don’t have to burn my own PCBs? (I’m a busy man!) 4) Is it simply a case (in theory) of connecting the preassembled modules together and to the input switches/faders/rotaries etc, installing the Midibox operating system and pressing go? I know this is a very broad approach but I like to get things straight in my head that way. 5) If I use an LTC module, how easy is it to replace (or accompany) with the USB module at a later date? 6) Can I install the Midibox software using MacOS X or can it only be from a Windows box? 7) Check out this new crossfader - looks pretty swish. Reckon MidiBox could integrate it? I’m sorry my questions are so lame and n00bish, I’ve been doing my research throughout the Midibox community but all this info can only run round my head a certain number of times before I go crazy, I just need a little reassurance I’m on the right track! Thanks!