Chateau MIDI (-box64E)

[Sinnsyk]

Hello

This is going to be my blog on creating my MIDI-controller. Since I've met Ableton Live, and became aware of midi-controllers, I've been looking for a good one for ages. But, too expensive, not completely well-designed, etc etc.

I came up with uCaps a few times, but didn't really realize what it was. But then, there was light.

And now I'm planning to make one myself  ;D

Oke, first, I've been thinking about a panel and the number of buttons/encoders/faders etc I will eventually need. I thought it would be a good idea to keep the number of parameters to control as flexible as possible, so that if you change music style, you don't need to rebuild your MIDIbox.

I was reading the MIDI64E pages, and a kind off cool thing flashed into my eyes -> encoder-groups & virtual encoders.

So, even now I have a basic design of the fader-section of my mixing-DJing-instrument, I am wondering:

Can I group buttons, together with some encoders (with knob build in), to control like 4 groups of controls?

I have a 6 channel mixer (with 6 faders), and I want 3 encoders / channel. The encoders will be from SmashTV, with a button build in.

The encoders will have LED-rings (yes, a lot of LED's -> 6 * 3 * 12 = 388 LED's), and a button with a indication LED (toggled or not/pressed or not/etc).

Every channel will have a mute and a cue button, but they are out of the question.

At the left side of the panel, I want to have 4 or 5 buttons, to switch 'encoder-groups'. In that way, pressing button 1 at the left, and turning encoder 1 and 2 on channel 2, change 2 settings on channel 2. But, if I then press button 3 at the left, encoder 1 and 2 on channel 2 control 2 other parameters on channel 2. Etc etc etc. Note that, the buttons that are build in to the encoder (if u push the encoder down, a button will do his job), have to be grouped as well.... and that's my unknowing factor here.

I sure hope that my tiny little plan is possible, or I will have to come up with something else...

PS: Today 3 Aluminium travelcases arrived, for better mobility I'm going to implant my midibox in there.

midibox.JPG