Dj Hoya Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 hi i am fairly new to the whole custom midibox contruction thing but a definately in need of a very custom controller and am fairly competant around electronics. my idea for a tractor controller is to use a standard 3 channel dj mixer for the mixing and use 2 turntables and 2 midi controllers for the transport/effect controls of tractor. This entails setting tractor to the external mixer setup, and using a 4 channel sound card to route the tractor deck to my mixer.here is my proposal:i have a few questions... 1) since their are two seperate control units, should i use 2 cores, or 1?2) just want to confirm... it will be using about 50 buttons, 10 rotary encoders, and 10 pots *PER UNIT*... DIN for buttons and rotary encoders, AIN for the pots... is this correct?3) anyone have any suggestions/edits for the layout of the controllers? THANKS so much for any and all suggestions-DJ Hoya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 hi i am fairly new to the whole custom midibox contruction thingWelcome aboard dude. Fear not being a newbie around here, we're all friendly. Sometimes ;Dvery customI like your style hahahIt's an interesting setup for sure. My first thought was 'why not make a mixer controller as well, mix in the box, and sell the stanton?' followed by 'where are the LCD's?' but that's just me :) Anyway to your questions:1) since their are two seperate control units, should i use 2 cores, or 1?Theoretically there could be problems running the wires from one side to the other (Core in left, AIN4x & DINx4 on right for eg), but maybe not. It's EMI I'm worried about, so some kickass shielding could sort it out... But it's neighbours will be audio cables and juice for the stanton, so personally I'd be doing two cores.2) just want to confirm... it will be using about 50 buttons, 10 rotary encoders, and 10 pots *PER UNIT*... DIN for buttons and rotary encoders, AIN for the pots... is this correct?Yep!3) anyone have any suggestions/edits for the layout of the controllers? See traktorizer for more inspiration ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasha Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 Hoya welcome to the forum. I like your design. Pretty clean. I see you get inspired by Allan & Heath Xone3D, right? I never saw so much jogs on one unit. How do you switch Deck A+C search from A to C?I would also go with separate cores. So many wires would be very unpractical to run at the back, especially if you want your "decks" separate from the mixer, or you maybe could run wires trough the mixer, so it will just look separated and it would be actually screwed to the mixer.As stryd already said, check the Robert`s Traktorizer for some inspiration. I`m sure he will be very soon around with his new version, and some really cool improvements. ;) Stay tuned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
th0mas Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 If you limited yourself to 8 pots per core you could wire it up without the need for any AIN modules since J5 can be directly connected to 8 pots.I couldn't find the link to details on ucapps so someone will have to verify this for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasha Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 I am verifying it. But, you must change the main.asm for unmuxed analog inputs and recompile the code, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Hoya Posted July 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 It's an interesting setup for sure. My first thought was 'why not make a mixer controller as well, mix in the box, and sell the stanton?' followed by 'where are the LCD's?' but that's just me i want to mix with a mixer mainly because i am heavily into scratching... want to use an actual audio crossfaderso it feels exactly the same etc. It also simplifies the midibox not having so many componants in it.As for the LCDs i really feel that i don't need them, as tractor doesn't send such info out.... is there any other benifits to having LCDs that i am not aware of?Theoretically there could be problems running the wires from one side to the other (Core in left, AIN4x & DINx4 on right for eg), but maybe not. It's EMI I'm worried about, so some kickass shielding could sort it out... But it's neighbours will be audio cables and juice for the stanton, so personally I'd be doing two cores.ok that makes sense, i will definately plan for 2 coresI see you get inspired by Allan & Heath Xone3D, right? I never saw so much jogs on one unit. How do you switch Deck A+C search from A to C?yep...definately inspired by the Xone3D (first time i saw it i just about creamed myself). Anyways, yea a lot of jog wheels but i think it is the easiest way to do it...for me i need dedicated cue controls and i am always using my 3rd and 4th deck. About the combined deck browsing: you would simply browse tracks with the jog wheel and then use the dedicated load buttons (directly above and below the wheel) to load the track into whichever deck you wanted. I could of used only one browse wheel for all the decks but there is no central location to put it and i felt it would be akward on one side.If you limited yourself to 8 pots per core you could wire it up without the need for any AIN modules since J5 can be directly connected to 8 pots.I couldn't find the link to details on ucapps so someone will have to verify this for me.I am verifying it. But, you must change the main.asm for unmuxed analog inputs and recompile the code, of course.yea there would be 7 pots on the left 'deck' and 8 on the right, so i could do that... can anyone tell me more about "changing the main.asm for unmuxed analog inputs and recompiling the code".???!!!! sounds complicated!anyways sorry for the long post i hope that answers/explains things and also thanks for the info, Again any suggestions/edits as to the layout are appreciated-Dj Hoya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimo Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 an anyone tell me more about "changing the main.asm for unmuxed analog inputs and recompiling the code".Huh!!!! sounds complicated!open main.asm you will easily find what you are looking for, there is plenty of explanation.. look for the words MUXED and NUMBER OF CONNECTED POTS, save the file follow the instructions here:http://www.ucapps.de/howto_tools_mplab.htmlupload with MIOS Studio, there you go: important as usual, all the unused AINs, in this case the J5 pins to ground, please..simone... and you can modify main.asm with any text editor (such as text edit in OSX) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyuresz Posted October 31, 2008 Report Share Posted October 31, 2008 Hi GuysI have a question...The Traktorizer can used with the virtual dj..?Because i am using Vdj and i need a controller for him.I need two separate modules with 32 buttons, 4 encoders, and 1 pots per module. (I'm using external mixer)I'm an amateur ... I can build everything after the circuit diagram, but i can't write a program... :( In Vdj i have the chance to general midi setup... for there I can teach the program...Please help mi with this ... Dj Gyury Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted November 1, 2008 Report Share Posted November 1, 2008 Well, traktorizer is coded to use traktor's controls... If VDJ is able to use the same controls, then yes, it will work ;)Provided that VDJ has a solid midi implementation, it should be possible even with a few small mods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leaphion Posted November 9, 2008 Report Share Posted November 9, 2008 Hey, sorry for (possible) thread hijacking, but I thought that there's enough threads concerning DJ-controllers.One thing that has puzzled my mind is that the resolution of MIDI is not big enough for pitch controlling. As Traktor is capable of controlling pitch +/-0.01% the resolution of MIDI is just not enough for precise pitch controlling (at least not for me). I'd love to be able to control the pitch at least 0.05% for +/-8%, which would lead to the need of 320 bits and MIDI has only 128 bits.I've understood that the OSC is not an option (at least yet) so I just wanted to ask people who know things better than me, is there other possibilities?ps. Sorry if I'm confusing some terms here, but I hope you get the big picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebula Posted November 10, 2008 Report Share Posted November 10, 2008 I don't know what MIDI messages traktor uses, but MIDI offers 14 bits of resolution for the pitch bend wheel.2^14 = 16384 discrete steps.That means you can go + or - 8192 steps.If your pitch control range is 15% each way, 15/8192=0.0018310546875 (let's say 0.002 %) for each individual increment.So if Traktor can be configured to use pitch bend, that's what you should use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted November 10, 2008 Report Share Posted November 10, 2008 which would lead to the need of 320 bits and MIDI has only 128 bits.You mean steps. Not bits. +1 What nebula said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leaphion Posted November 13, 2008 Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 You mean steps. Not bits. +1 What nebula said.Thanks for the correction nILS, and thanks for nebula for the information. Can I assign a normal fader to work as a pitch bend, or does it need some specific hardware for such? And what would be the resolution of a normal fader, or is it something that can be configurable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted November 13, 2008 Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 PIC18F ADC is 10bit, but otherwise any normal AIN+pot setup will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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