Custom Control Surface?

[soundman]

Hows everyone doing

I came to this forum because it looks like a very helpful community, and its full of information.

I have some questions to ask about the possibility of this idea I have.

Ok, i'm planning to build a custom control surface, 18+1 sliders or 24+1 sliders, dual colored LEDs for each slider (red signifying mute, and blue signifying on, with a mute button). Panning knobs for each slider (18+1 or 24+1). Also a small LCD just to show the value of the sliders (0-127) and the knobs (100% left - 0 - 100% right). I want to make this USB compatible since it would really be just for controlling virtual control surfaces and shit on the computer. I also want to have midi ports thought, and a power port for standalone use with midi (usb will, be powered by usb). and most likely a custom box for it (with the top cover on a slant for hand comfort, preferably a darker gray box or black).

so a few questions about this, would this be too hard to do? is there pre programmed ICs i can use so that i dont have to code anything? if i need to code for certain small parts of the project would it be difficult to learn a few things about the language used to program these kind of things? and finnally, does anyone know a very rough estimate of what this would cost?

i have good knowledge in soldering and reading schematics, althought i have picked up an iron in a few years. and i'm a great DIYer

really looking forward to the responses!!! and thanks in advance everybody, and sorry if i posted this in the wrong place

[SLP]

1. Welcome aboard, mate!  :D

2. The Answers to your questions have been asked many, many times. So we (well, me not) decided to write it all down. all you have to do is to read.

-> http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/

-> http://ucapps.de/

Now go on and Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read,

;D

regards,

matthias

[soundman]

1. thanks for the welcome

2. i will definately check this out, thanks a lot bro!!!