Anyone anywhere near Australia...?

[James Lillis]

I am trying to track down some custom made midi controller expert in Australia and have had absolutely no luck at all. Are any of you guys close to Brisbane?

I am trying to get something to control Ableton Live 5. It would need pots, dials, faders, joysticks, the works - and I am hopeless with electronics. I have looked around but nothing I have seen comes close to adequately controlling all the parameters available. So I need a custom made one.

If anyone knows (or is) someone close to Oz who could help me design some awesome beast to control Live, I would be eternally grateful...

Cheers

:)

[Steven_C]

Hi James, welcome to the midibox community!

  I live in Sydney, but this forum is the best place for any advice, and midibox.org and the ucapps.de site are also great. All the info is here, and you can do forum searches to find answers to most of the questions you will need to ask. (instead of waiting for replies). It may seem like a steep learning curve, (it is!) but you will end up with a unique midibox tailored to your needs that is unavailable anywhere else!

  Decide what features you want, and then it becomes clearer as to which midibox project to base your midibox on. Maybe you could do a forum search on ableton to find someone elses experiences in creating a controller for ableton? (I've never used that program)

  I dunno.... feel free to ask questions. Talk to midiboxers who use ableton... good luck!

  all the best from Steve

[James Lillis]

Cheers...

Yes the steep learning curve is indeed intimidating. I love the idea of having a custom designed midi controller - I hate the idea of making a million mistakes trying to personally create said controller.

I'll definitely take your advice and see if anyone else has come up with a Ableton specific controller. So you don't knwo of anyone close to Qld making these things (and selling them)?

If not I guess I just take the plunge and start making my own...

[Jimi]

G'day James, have you looked at the Behringer controllers? If hardware is a challenge for you then this may be an option.

As for the midibox project... it does look very good.

Nice to see some Oztralians!

Cheers!

[Steven_C]

It is unlikely that anyone on this forum will sell you a midibox. (It is not 'the done' thing) I can help with programming the bootstrap loader into the PIC chip if you like. (Though you can order the PIC chip with the bootstrap loader pre-programmed from Smash TV)

Get in contact with Ian Hurlock, via the forum's Personal Message functions, to ask about the best approach to build a controller for Ableton live.

...Steve

[adamjking]

Another Australian here.... from Melbourne town. I agree with Steve, it is a steep learning curve but a great chance to learn heaps of new things. Midibox is a great community that caters for both newbies and old hands, there are heaps of people here willing to share their knowledge with you. When I first took the plunge, I knew nothing about MIDI or electronics!

- Adam

[Jimi]

So have any of you Oz doods got working controllers up and running?

I'm seriously weighing it up. Sourcing motorised faders is a cost challenge.

The other option is to mod a BCF2000, it's a load of gear for a cheap price and not too hard to mod. Thoughts? The lack of touch sensitive though is a bummer.

In Oz you can get s/h Mackie CUs for about $1k. How do you reckon the midibox compares cost wise for any of you who may have built one?

Thanks for any input.

[DrBunsen]

Hi, I'm in Melbourne.  You might want to try getting in touch with Paul Perry.  I don't have a direct number for him, but if you call Music Swap Shop in Elgin Street Carlton, they should be able to tell you how to contact him.  He designs stuff like this, although I am not exactly sure that he does one-offs.

[James Lillis]

Hi guys

Thanks for all the replies! I'll have a crack at talking to this guy in Melbourne, he may be helpful.

I have looked at the Behringer controllers - they are good, and cheap. I like the look of the microKontrol as well.

I might even try creating some mega controller by using a triggerfinger, a microkontrol, a Behringer BCR2000 - while I work on building my own custom made one...

Has anyone out there found any of these controllers sufficient when operating Ableton Live (5)?

It's the fact that Live gives you those dot in the grid graphics that makes me lament the lack of joysticks on commercially available controllers. You really need a joystick for the delay, one for the chorus, one for the flanger, one for the phaser, one for the auto filter etc. etc.

For anyone interested there is short video at www.ableton.com with a crazy german and his custom made controller. It looks cool, though still lacking in joysticks...

Cheers!

[DrBunsen]

Oh yeah.  Paul Perry is Frostwave

[stryd_one]

You're pulling my chain! I bought a few synths from him recently and didn't know that was him! Heheh. He's a very nice bloke for what it's worth, and swoppy is a bitchin store. I had to stop visiting them because I spent too much money :D

I'm in Melburn and I'll be more than happy to help you figure this out. A LOT of people come by here with little or no electronics or musical knowledge, but they get by OK. It's an awesome community around here, everyone is really helpful. I'm sure you could pick it up and do it yourself. This is a DIY community after all ;)

Otherwise, you're in a tricky position. Without TK's approval, anything MIDIBox related cannot be legally used to make money...  This means that you're not going to be able to find anyone to make one for you, unless they're generous enough to supply their expertise and equipment and do a few month's work for free - and if that's the case, please tell me who this person is so that I can hire them ;)

If you're happy to make your own, but need design advice, then you've already found the best spot for that :) These forums are rockin friendly and chock full of guys who know mad amounts of stuff :)

Jimi you asked about the cost of this. Long story short, DIY does not necessarily imply low costs, and that is especially true if you are a newbie.. By the time you've got all the required tools, materials and other equipment, and gathered all the knowledge required to get started, expect to have spent a few months and a few thousand dollars at least. Some will argue (and fair enough) that you could case your gear in a tissue box and use a $5 soldering iron, but yeh.... You get what you pay for ;) Of course once this initial outlay is made, then each project you make breaks down that overhead, so some cost savings can come into play over time. I'd say that if you cut some corners on tools (but not on safety gear!!) and go for a cheaper control surface (IE don't get professionally made laser cut powder coated panels, make your own from plastic) you could probably break even on a S/H Mackie....  But IMO the point of DIY isn't to save money, it's more about what you get at the end - those things that money can't buy - a whole bunch of knowledge, a feeling of pride in your work, and a device entirely customised to your specific requirements.

[DrBunsen]

You're pulling my chain! I bought a few synths from him recently and didn't know that was him! Heheh. He's a very nice bloke for what it's worth, and swoppy is a bitchin store. I had to stop visiting them because I spent too much money :D

Hehe.  I've probably bumped into you there then.  But no, Paul's not the guy who runs Swap Shop, he used to have a lab upstairs in the same building and do some of his sales through them.  He's around the corner from there somewhere still.

But yeah, Brian behind the counter.  Lovely bloke.

By the time you've got all the required tools, materials and other equipment, and gathered all the knowledge required to get started, expect to have spent a few months and a few thousand dollars at least. Some will argue (and fair enough) that you could case your gear in a tissue box and use a $5 soldering iron, but yeh.... You get what you pay for ;)

There's a middle ground of course.  The $10 iron and the lunchbox!  No, seriously though, I don't think you need to spend several thousand to pull this off at all.  I'm planning to get myself a new temp controlled solder rework station ($100-200) and get my old oscilloscope fixed ($?).  I bought a PIC programmer kit ($30) and a few interesting odds and sods of parts (?$60-80).  I reckon about $100 worth of SmashTVs kits and maybe another $50-100 on sundry stuff.

If you read through the ucapps.org pages on the MIDIbox 64e thoroughly and do a search for "Ableton Live" in these forums - and cruise the "MIDIbox of the week" and "Design Concepts" forums - you should get a good idea of what's possible after a while.  Check out the wiki, find a guide to soldering, practise on some scrap bits and a couple of $10 Jaycar kits.  You probably won't need to write software, just assign controls and settings in the 64e application.

If you've got a PC, patience, attention to detail and a half decent iron ($30-70), a clean place to work that won't be knocked around for a few days (weeks?) and a clear plan, you should be right.

[midgetfidget]

I'm in Melbourne too, I live right near swop shop. It's awesome.

My controller is designed for ableton/reaktor I'm about 1/2 way through building it. It has 4 joysticks, 33 pots, 8 encoders and about 80 backlit buttons (64 of them in a monome type setup) It's cost me about $250 for all the parts, Only thing I have to buy now is knobs and a piece of aluminum plate for the face.

When it's finished I'll post some pics on here.