Arm, Solo, Mute and Transport box, simple?

[fucanay]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here. I've never made a midi controller before, but I know what I want to build.

I want a simple mid controller box that has 16-24 channels of solo, mute and arm track buttons. I would also like to have transport controls. I plan to use this with logic, but may also make one for a friend who uses ProTools. The idea is that I could use this as a kind of tape machine remote, but for DAW recording. I would like to use led lit button to show what was engaged and what is not.

Is this kind of project doable on the cheap and easy? Where would be the best place for me to start researching this?

Thanks a lot for the awesome forum.

Matt

[goyousalukis]

Hey Matt.

What you want is pretty easy to realize. You would just need a Core module and a DIN module. You could then add a DOUT module if you want LED's. As far as cheap goes if you are in the states and you buy the core and din from SmashTV: http://www.avishowtech.com/mbhp/buy.html

It comes out to about 40 bucks. Then you just need the buttons and a wall wart power supply. The buttons can be cheap or expensive - it just depends on what you want and how long you want to search ebay.

As far as easy goes - it is pretty easy, but it depends on the soldering and trouble shooting skills you have. The great thing is that there is this forum full of people willing to help if you get stuck.

The best place to start reading is the www.ucapps.de site. Check out the core and din module pages.

If you buy a pic from SmashTV, it can be pre-loaded with the bootloader so you don't have to make a PIC programmer.

Hope this helps a little....

Justin

[fucanay]

Thanks Justin,

Yes I am in the US. California to be specific. I will follow up on the links you gave. This is absolutely helpful and appreciated.

Thanks

Matt

[Jidis]

I'm into that remote transport idea too. I've been slowly working on a box for my own tracking room, which will be used for that, but is a combo cue mixer for phone sends.

I also played with some cool looking pictures of stripped down rec/solo/mute box ideas, using button/light graphic items from the box I'm doing, back when someone here was inquiring about single knob controllers or something. I'll try to dig them up and figure out how to export them from my weirdo CAD app.

-George

PS- A particular handicap for a "potless" multi-channel transport box is the shift or button reassign switch. You're looking at a large number of D.In chips and buttons for access to two or three items per channel. Those sort of functions don't really need to be accessed simultaneously like the levels,etc., and would make more sense with a single button per channel, and visual indication of which mode you were in. The constant "per-channel" indicator LED's are more of a necessity, so you could always see what channels were muted, rec enabled,etc., while you were doing overdubs or mixing. The DAW app will likely be spitting them out to the MB if you're changing things from the control room too, to keep people informed.  ------> The shift/switch code is on us. Don't misinterpret this as another plea for someone to spend their own time adding it for us.

                                                     ;)

[Jidis]

Found them and exported them. Hope they translated clear enough. Maybe someone could get some ideas from them.

Take Care,

George

A 12-track select/solo/mute/volume box with encoder and LCD (guess I left record out on these small ones ;)): 

A similar 8-track version with display replaced by an LED ring:

Another 12 with no transport buttons:

A 16-track rack version with LCD, encoder, transport, and solo/mute/record:

Same deal, no screen, with ring (I guess the button lights are rec enables):

I think most of the "screen-less" multi channel ones would probably benefit from at least a 2x16 or something. That way you could later map them to a few other items for flexibility. 

And just for the heck of it, here's what I guess was half of a rack EQ (must have gotten bored):

The individual select buttons for each band would bounce you between freq/gain/width, light the corresponding "current" indicator, and throw the current pot value on the main encoder ring. That would probably need a bunch of panel/label additions to be acceptably easy to navigate. I still love the idea of parameter values on 7-segment displays. Something like an EQ with four or five digits in the middle, labeled for freq,etc. would be the s***. I also like the idea of specific LCD parameter labels within more of the display modes, along with a patch-assignable "file extension" type tail to specify the unit type (dB,Hz,etc.).

                      ...Man I wish I had better assembler skills. :-\

[fucanay]

Ok, I think it just got simpler. I am picking up a 32 channel Soundtracs console on Thursday and it has Mutes and Solos on it.

I'd still like to look into a remote arming box, but I guess it would be kind of overkill to go through the trouble of building one now. I can probably find some box that already has 16 buttons to program to arm tracks.

I don't know, it would still be fun to build one.

Not sure.

Matt

[Jidis]

Matt,

If you want to go real simple, you can run a small drum machine, etc. and map the notes to your mute items. I've used an SR-16 for that and basic transport control over Nuendo's generic remote.

Take Care,

George

[machinate]

I can probably find some box that already has 16 buttons to program to arm tracks.

Matt

M-audio Trigger Finger... That thing is a beauty. Have one preset for arm buttons, and then others for jamming about with drum sounds.

[fucanay]

That's funny. I have both an SR-16 and a Trigger Finger, though the Trigger Finger is currently for sale because I need to pay for wiring up the new console by selling some other gear.

With the SR-16, I can set each of the buttons to arm a specific track in Logic? That sounds like the easiest way to go at this point as long as I can use the same button to arm and disarm tracks. I'll hook it up in a few days and try it out.

Thanks for the tips guys.

Matt

[Jidis]

Matt,

Hey again. Yes, I would guess all the current "kingpin" DAW apps do most of the same stuff. In the generic setup panel with Nuendo, there are items for on,off,toggle, etc., so you need to make sure they're set correctly to turn the rec's on 'and' off. There was also some parameter for each item which enabled the send and receive signals for generics. That's what allows a MIDIBox,etc. to know when controls get changed from the DAW, and the lights or whatever can be updated. The SR-16 or similar can be sort of nasty when you can't see whether or not you've enabled something (especially with those cheap-a$$ buttons). A two way setup makes more sense unless you can see the screen from where you are.

BTW- There are some small MIDI to 5vTTL apps out there for smaller PICs (maybe the 18pin 16f84), which will send notes directly to the PIC's output pins, which could do LED's. If you set the rec. enables in your program for regular note messages, you could hang that off the computer's MIDI output and tell what the status was. The circuitry wasn't much more than the PIC, a crystal, maybe an optocoupler, and a couple of the usual suspects.

-George