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not another live panel concept..........


Rowan
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Those are the puppies. The ones I got are made by ITT cannon. The good thing with these buttons is that they are pretty easy to get, not only one company make them and don't cost the earth. I got mine on ebay for £0.99 for 31 (Bummer it wasn't 32).

Here is the faders I got......mm

http://www.pennyandgiles.com/docGallery/76.PDF

Rowan

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Right, here is a small design update. I've changer the panel to reflect the buttons that Smash so kindly offerd me. I have also got the fader slot and mounting holes size right. I also did so more tests in live to find out what CC values were need of the faders in Live to hit target values such as 0dB...

Gain (dB)  CC Value

+6            127

0.02          108

-3.13        98

-5.97        89

-10.1        76

-19.9        46

-30            30

-39.9        20

-49.5        12

-60.6        4

- Inf          0

As you can see, all but one dB figure isn't right on the money but it close enough. Based on these numbers I could work out where to put the markings on the panel for values that should match you with live.

676761458_l.jpg

Rowan

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Here is the first draft Shaffer panel:

679305624_l.jpg

about 65 euro's.......seems reasonable.

With engraving the price shoots you to about 150 euro's

It's layed out on a 2.54mm grid so that standard strip board can be used for mounting the buttons, LED's and

encoders.

Rowan

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I've just realized that the faders I got have a built in switching track. When the fader is at - inf the track switch is open, as soon as you raise the fader it closes the track switch..........very cool.

I trying to come up with something to use this for....faders start, like some CDJ's have. Any other ideas what I could use it for?

Rowan

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You could map it to more than one event if you used Bome's midi translator (or something else that could make the one switch send multiple commmands in sequence).

For my contribution here, you could send a command to switch the focus to a particular channel (a column in track view), so you could see the waveform details.

You could also have it light an LED that tells you that a channel is playing something - and have another event linked to the "stop" button to let you know that it is no longer playing (particularly, if you have backlit buttons you could change the play button from amber to green, back to amber on stop events). This is something I am considering on my controller.

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Good ideas, I'm on a mac though so I can't use bohm's midi translator. I'm sure there will be a mac equivalent.

The Clip launch and stop buttons I'm using have a built in filament lamp. The play one is green and I'm going to order some red caps for the stop button from here:

http://www.canford.co.uk/commerce/category_2000281_2000020.aspx

Using the MIDINoteFeedback hack what I'm thinking of doing is have the Launch button flash after is is pressed but before the clip is launched, While the clip is playing the lamp stays on, when the stop button is presses the Launch button will flash until the clip stops, when the clip stops the Launch button goes out and the stop button lamp goes on.

Rowan

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Now my head is buzzing about putting a mini-itx or nano-itx motherboard in this this. Some if these motherboard are avalibe with jumpers for all the I/O and some even have LVDS connectors which will connect directly to certain LCD panels without the need for VGA or DVI.

These mother boards are only 12cm x 12cm, I could fit on of these in to my case for this comtrollers. I love the idea of a truly all in one solution ;D

Anyone much about these matters? I wounder if I could get away with this, It won't really cost that much.

Rowan

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It's a tiny computer motherboard, some have embeded CPU's, others can take Pentium M CPU's. I only came across them today. Most of them are 17cm x 17cm with a full selection of I/O and can take PCI cards, HHD, Optical drives.

Basicly a standard computer on a little board. Most of them are designed for embeded application, such as media centers and other interesting things. With some of them you can boot off compact flash cards so you don't need a HHD.

It seems like a really do-able thing to make a compleat Ableton Live solution in a box, including the computer, control surface, audio interfacing and storage (Maybe even a LCD monitor in the case lid) . I'de love to post on the forum with a Midibox ;)

Rowan

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I was wondering if that was was what you were thinking of doing. My solution is to put a mount for my laptop directly in the unit itself, so that the laptop's display sticks out of the box. This keeps a panel right in front of me, like a consumer DAW with a REALLY good LCD.

I have a queation for everyone, sort of unrelated - if you have a monitor, is there anything that you can do with the LCD display that you cannot do from the computer? I am not going to be shifting any controls on the fly, or anything. But will an LCD make initial setup a lot easier, or can I monitor a lot through software like midiOX?

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I had the same idea for mounting the laptop - makes perfect sense....

from what I understand the LCD display makes debugging and setting up the unit much easier - I'm waiting on parts from Smash now, I've also got an LCD coming because I want all the help I can get setting my box up

and for the tiny amount of cash you can pick one up on ebay for, I think it's probably worth the effort just on the coolness factor right?

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Yeah, I am just concerned about adding complexity where it isn't needed, and saving money where I can. Since I am having my panel CNC cut, I don't want to include a cutout for it is I will only use it during the initial configuration. Perhaps I will mount it in a project box, and just plug it in when necessary?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Smash ;D ;D ;D

The buttons, caps and encoders arrived this morning as I was walking out the door to work. I rushed back inside to open the package and in my excitement I left my house keys at home when I left, DOOH :P

Now it is time for another review of the PCB layout and Panel to ensure everything will fit, which it won't. Measure twice, cut once my father once told me.

After some experimentation with custom Key commands that OSX allows I have decided to drop one of the channels of my controller. This will give me the space to add a "Master" section. I am planning on adding a few buttons that will let me control some paraments that LIVE doesn't allow the assignment of MIDI data such as moving to full screen mode, search in brower (I creamed my pants when I worked out I could do this), changing between Clip and Track view.

I am yet to decide what to do with the rest of the buttons and encoders and buttons in the master section.

I have removed the cross fader assignment switchs as I won't use them and added a track select button.

I have also removed the hole for the LED's that were beside the EQ gain controls, thanks to the knobs I have chosen I will put an LED under the knob to indicate the status.

I think that I my add a LCD for future development. What I really want my MB to do is not possible with any current MIOS apps, so i'd like to future proof it for when I dust off C skills and write a new MIOS app.

Here is the next concept;  (don't worry Smash, i'll be using those Cap you sent)

10 point for the first person who spots the "cameo"

722905303_l.jpg

Rowan

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dengel, you're right about getting a glimpse in to peoples way of working (mixing).

It's a box designed for my needs when using LIVE for mixing. I've made a few MB's so far, an MB64, MBSID, MBLC and a little handheld MB for use in a studio but this is the first MB I've worked on where there is no commercial alternative available. This has made the design process then most challanging project I have approched so far......i.e. there is no product to rip-off.

I guess I should let you in on my plan, I want to add a firewire audio interface into the MB.......hence MIDIfire. I have a presonus firebox which I'm not using. Because of my plan to add this in to the box I had no choice to ditch one channel just to fit the extra controls in (these controls aren't in the panel desing yet).

Rowan

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Looks like a cool box, and a very clean layout - especially now using the illuminated knobs, and without the crossfader assign buttons. To be honest, I've not seen many things you can do with a crossfader that you can't just using the track faders - turntablism aside of course.

As for the cameo, TK? I like the little in-joke  ;D

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I hardly touch the Xfader either, but It comes in handy on bouncy stuff and for effects - I like to do a send to a delay on the effects channel - assign the original song to Xfader A, and the effect channel to Xfader B (like you might do it on the DJM 600). Get a delay signal going,, cut to the Effect only which creates a drop effect, and bring the original track back in on a big ol' bass beat.

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And 10 points goes to..............Therezin ;)

Congratulations, you have won absolutely nothing aside for being first ;)

All I have to do now is redo the fix up a few details like mounting screw holes, order some boards from Smash, and the panel............and wait till pay day.

I have two options for the panel graphic, a) Lazertran, b) Silkscreening

a) will cost less but I am unsure of the durability

b) will cost more but will last better

Here is a mock up of the color scheme

730489706_l.jpg

Rowan

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I've posted a wish on the Schaeffer forum (in french section). Nadine Péronnin, in charge of the french request, answered "in a few months...". So I don't know more except she said that experimentation in lab started in january.

That sounds good. If it can be release with a Mac OS X editor...

ludo

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  • 10 months later...

After about 9 months of ignoring my MB project I thought it was about time to start working on it again.

Here are some picture of its current state.

All the DINs are up and running, all the buttons and encoders are working. I've got to spend some time wiring up the LED's now and have the panel made.

203212847RL691320316.jpg

203212914RL904326117.jpg

203212818RL118150817.jpg

203212959RL216578653.jpg

203212961RL491248907.jpg

203213024RL069195444.jpg

203213031RL242747336.jpg

203213036RL738120256.jpg

Off to go buy a new soldering iron now :)

Rowan

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