Enclosures for LC master keyboard/mouse/etc &

[Guest caseybasichis]

Hi,

I just purchased a Mackie Control Firmware 2.0 for use with cubase sx 2 ($420 on ebay) and just happend to stumble onto this site in my research.  I was interested in the possibility of diying the extenders maybe 3 of them, does anyone know an approximate cost per extender assuming that it would carry all the main features of the original?  Would they work with my store bought Mackie Control in Cubase?

I was also curious how much it might cost to have a custom enclosure designed in the style of the Mackie Control to house a keyboard trackball mouse and some extra midi buttons and possibly encoders (generic control) similar to the one for the ProControl, Icon or MC.  Anyone know of a place that specializes in small volume enclosures?  We have a metal shop at school (California Institute of the Arts) do you suppose it would be feasable to create an enclosure that matched the Mackie Controls appearance on my own, or would this require serious gear/expertise?

Finally, is there any way to use the LCD meter function on an DIY meter strip and have it constantly on and not mirrored on the LCD?

Thanks for the help.  I looked through the forum posts for this year and have gotten a lot of use full info but i could find answers to these.

Casey

[illogik]

hi,

We have a metal shop at school (California Institute of the Arts) do you suppose it would be feasable to create an enclosure that matched the Mackie Controls appearance on my own, or would this require serious gear/expertise?

If you have good tools you can make casings yourself, just concider that;

It will take A LOT OF time/patience to make it your own, especially holes that aren't round are a pain (but it is very possible to get good results look for techniques described in the forum.)

It will never (say never ;D) look as good as when you would have it made (unless you have a nice CNC-machine in your metal-shop)

Front panels made by scheaffer (http://www.schaeffer-apparatebau.de/English/index.htm) can cost a lot (example; the frontpanel of TK's MidiboxSID costs about 130,- euros) but it will be exactly what you designed> if you got a good design everything will fit for sure.

cheers,

marcel

[Guest caseybasichis]

So the two questions are, how would i go about getting the same surface texture/color, is that in the paint.  It seems the case is just a sheet of steel bent at the left and right with a plastic armrest and a plastic display area, so what kind of tool would you use to get the curved bends to create the sides?

Thanks,

Casey

[Screaming_Rabbit]

so what kind of tool would you use to get the curved bends to create the sides?

... molding. - Take the original wrist rest as the "master"

Greets, Roger

[Guest caseybasichis]

Thats was my plan for the front armest area, or possibly call mackie and say mine broke and order another.  but what I meant was the left and right sides which are just the main piece of sheet metal bent.  How can you put a bend to make the sides and still keep the top flat?

[smashtv]

How can you put a bend to make the sides and still keep the top flat?

The only clean/easy way is with a press brake or metal bending brake.  Tons of info on the net about this, seems the net-saavy metalworkers are a friendly bunch......  :)

Best!

SmashTV

[Guest caseybasichis]

And as far as a rough price of building an extender and the possibility of a and external meter bridge thats is always on... any ideas?

Thanks,

Casey