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USB MIDI-controller help


Hachiko
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Hey guys,

I am 17 years old and I live in Holland, and when we graduate high-school we're obliged to write something called a "Profielwerkstuk". It's a lot of work, and requires quite a bit of dedication. I chose my subject based on whether I'd enjoy putting effort in the result, and whether it'd be related to the Study I would like to do (Industrial Design). My choice of subject therefore was:

MIDI-controllers and ergonomy; how to adapt the current "box" design to make it more user-friendly.

What better place to ask for help than here?

I am a TOTAL beginner: I've never touched a chip, have never soldered anything (maybe some artsy stuff 5 years ago or so), and I've never really done anything with electronics.

Here's what I want to do:

a) Build the inside of a MIDI-controller: to be specific, I merely want 8 buttons that control 8 sounds on GarageBand (don't bash me for using GarageBand). Seriously, nothing more. Preferably with easy usb connection and having GarageBand recognize it as a MIDI-controller.

b)Design 3 cases that are different from the original box design, and develop one.

I basically need a lot of help.

Where do I start?

Where do I find information relevant to my idea (so no effects, no C64's, etc.)

If you have any advice at all, please tell me, I can use it.

Thanks in advance,

Hachiko

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Hello Hachiko and welcome

1st: When do you need the project to be finished? Calculate enough time to learn basic electronics (you can learn this while reading the forum contributions). It's not good if you need your box done like in two month or so.

Start:

  • Read as much as you can in www.ucapps.de
  • Surf the forum
  • Follow the links in the forum contributions to find special tipps, tools, distributors...

I would go for MIDIBox64E http://ucapps.de/midibox16e.html

For the integration into GarageBand, I have no clue. - I don't even know what it is exactly.

Greets, Roger

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Thanks for the quick reply Roger,

My project has to be done by the end of 2009, but I'd much rather understand the way I need to make the electronic part by the end of this week already. The thing with browsing the forum and ucapps is, that there is so much information that I tend to loose my way. Most of this information is irrelevant to me.

Though the MIDIbox64E has 8 buttons, it's a complicated thing with the rotary encoders and all. Perhaps I'm at the wrong place here, I just need to make some buttons that can be noticed by my computer.

Thanks!

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hello hachiko

     

      i agree there is a lot of information but the only way is to read it, read it again and then re-read it

as roger said midibox 64e or 64 is the way to go

    you obviously have experience with garage band so start thinking what you want to control (i dont even know if garage band is capable of midi control ) how many sliders ,pots and buttons etc

use this as a starting point

  then read,read ,read and read again its the only way

regards kris

 

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I fear that I might have come to the wrong place.

... depends on you and the way you want to go.

What you basically need:

1 GM5

1 Core

1 DIN

Buy it from Mike or Smash (with preburned PIC), solder it, hook it together like shown on Ucapps, connect the buttons and you're done.

Dump the software (with MIDIBoxE) onto it and configure the buttons. - Ready is the electronic part of your box.

... to do all this, it needs some reading (powersupply, connectors... ), nobody will explain to you step by step what's written on Ucapps.

Other way to go:

Connect the buttons to the LPT-port of your PC, write a simple app to convert it to MIDI and you're done. - Probably will need some reading too  ;)

Greets, Roger

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OK, I'll throw a bit more in, maybe it will help you a bit:

Making a "MIDI" device needs only a serial port, like most PIC chips have built-in.

Making a "USB" device requires a LOT of low-level programming, that you might not

want to get involved with.

So if you want simple, make a MIDI device. Then buy a USB-MIDI converter, or build

one from a kit like the GM5.

Hardware to build:

If you are allowed to build from kits, you need a core and a DIN for your project. Add

a GM5 for the USB to MIDI interface. The projects already mentioned have more stuff, like

encoders and sliders and stuff, but you can leave out any parts you don't want.

If you're not allowed to use kits, you can build it from scratch. See the schematic

drawings at ucapps.de for the PIC CORE and DIN modules. The parts you'll need are

a PIC chip, crystal, optocoupler, shift register, some caps and resistors, DIN connectors,

and a power supply with +5 volt regulator,

It will take some time, but there is a LOT of testing and troubleshooting info along the way.

*note: If you do not own a PIC programmer, you should buy your PIC chip with the

bootloader already installed. There are two shops that offer those at a good price.

Programming:

You mentioned that you don't do much soldering. How about programming?

At the easiest level you can modify the code for an existing project like the MB64E

to make the buttons send whatever MIDI messages you want.

If you want to be more involved, you COULD develop the entire application from the

start, and not even use MIOS. That would be a lot harder, but not impossible at all.

IF you try to do it all yourself, you'll also need a PIC programmer like the PicKit2, so you

can flash your code into the PIC chip. If you work with MIOS, there is a bootloader

already installed, and you can re-flash the chip by MIDI.

Whatever you do, leave yourself lots of time to get it done. It always takes longer

than you expected.

I hope this answered a few questions..

LyleHaze

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