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Motorized Analog Faders before Summing Box


JB872
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This is my first post and for starters I gotta say I can't believe a forum like this exists.  For weeks I've been searching for some info on diy midi controllers and it looks like I found the right place.

First off, I have to admit that I've only quickly read over the ucapps.de site and will have to go over everything there a couple more times before I even begin to comprehend how these MIDI boxes work.  I was hoping that by stating my goals, the experts at this site could steer me in the right direction as to what MB Hardware Platform's I should concern myself with inorder to make my idea work.

Current Setup  Output Signal Chain when mixing 

Sonar 5 > motu 24io >outboard gear > 2 Folcrom summing boxes

Sonar is basically being used as a recording medium and the make up gains on my compressors are being used for volume control before the folcroms.

Ideal Setup

Sonar 5 > motu 24io > outboard gear > 24 motorized faders > 2 Folcrom summing boxes

It would be nice to have analog faders to control the levels before the summing box rather than setting the levels in Sonar before compression and effects.  I plan on setting up dummy tracks in Sonar for fader automation and recall purposes.

Any help would be appreciated especailly from those who have tackled similar projects.  I apologize for the long first post.

Jason

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Heya Jason, welcome aboard.

Sounds like a nice setup you got there, especially that motu :) The instant question that jumps into my head is how are you getting audio into sonar? or is it all softsynths?

Anyway on the topic of the midibox, it sounds like what you are after is midi controlled audio faders. The existing midibox projects are midi controllers which would provide a tactile control surface to sonar, so not quite the same thing - they don't control audio levels themselves, but control the device which does (your PC)...

A Midibox could easily accept a midi signal transmitted from sonar and use it to control other circuitry, which modulates analog audio amplitude. That could be a VCR, VCA, DCR, DCA, or either CV or digitally controlled full-blown preamp. Each of these solutions will differ in it's implementation, so it's best to specify the analog circuitry first, and then decide how to best control it with a midibox. You might find some talk of similar projects recently about the THAT 2180 IC which might be of interest, and the MBFX concept could be promising too.

Hope that helps :)

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Heya Jason, welcome aboard.

Sounds like a nice setup you got there, especially that motu :) The instant question that jumps into my head is how are you getting audio into sonar? or is it all softsynths?

thx for the warm welcome and taking the time to help out. 

My input signal chain is something along these lines:  instrument/mic > TG-2/True System P8 > compressor > motu 24io AD

Anyway on the topic of the midibox, it sounds like what you are after is midi controlled audio faders. The existing midibox projects are midi controllers which would provide a tactile control surface to sonar, so not quite the same thing - they don't control audio levels themselves, but control the device which does (your PC)...

Yes, I'm looking for midi controlled audio faders to control audio levels themselves.  I would also like to record the automation movements of these faders on dummy tracks in Sonar for easy recall.

A Midibox could easily accept a midi signal transmitted from sonar and use it to control other circuitry, which modulates analog audio amplitude. That could be a VCR, VCA, DCR, DCA, or either CV or digitally controlled full-blown preamp. Each of these solutions will differ in it's implementation, so it's best to specify the analog circuitry first, and then decide how to best control it with a midibox. You might find some talk of similar projects recently about the THAT 2180 IC which might be of interest, and the MBFX concept could be promising too.

This kinda leads me back to the first idea I had which doesn't pass any audio across a fader.  I've attached a diagram to help explain what I'm trying to do. 

%7Boption%7D

I'll probably end up buying a Mackie Control to save myself some time and focus on building a midibox that will work will the controller to attenuate the physical audio levels post DAW and compression

Hope that helps :)

Very much.  thx again.  I'm gonna look into the MBFX and THAT 2180IC to see if that will work for my setup.

Jason

MidiBox_thumb.JPG

MidiBox.JPG

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I did some more searching on the site and found a similar project to what I'm trying to accomplish.

Here's the link

http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=6061.0

The difference between this idea and my own is that I will need 24 inputs and outputs rather than just 8 inputs. And there's no need for me to sum up the tracks into a stereo L and R output because I'll have a Folcrom following the Midibox.

My main goal is to preserve the quality of the audio while being able to control the volume from Sonar via Midi through a simple midibox design. 

What IC's would be best suited for this application?

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  • 4 years later...

I did some more searching on the site and found a similar project to what I'm trying to accomplish.

Here's the link

http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=6061.0

The difference between this idea and my own is that I will need 24 inputs and outputs rather than just 8 inputs. And there's no need for me to sum up the tracks into a stereo L and R output because I'll have a Folcrom following the Midibox.

My main goal is to preserve the quality of the audio while being able to control the volume from Sonar via Midi through a simple midibox design. 

What IC's would be best suited for this application?

hi JB872, did you manage to sort out your module? I know this was a few years ago,but I just found this amazing site via google.

i am about to build a flying fader set up myself. i just purchased a single motorized fader to see how it works. and plan to controll via an arduino microcontroller. or maybe one of these midi boxes?

so i wonder how you got on.

peace : )

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