making of "the massive v2" (aka "the monodick")

[matrigs]

- massive v.1 has been redesigned:

needed:

- more channels

- less control on the channel

- crossfader

- in the massive v1 i f**ked up with the holes of the illuminated buttons - they are mounted on pcb's which have holes in mills but i have measured the space between the holes in mm. so the buttons tended to jam in the holes.

- when i was designing v1 i accidently made 9 rows of knobs which, as you can count, is impossible to fill with only one core

- lcd is not needed

- no encoders

so, after a few design changes - finally the frontplate of v2 arrived:

bigger:

also this small piece of plastic arrived - what's that for i will describe later on

the won't be blue - that's protective foil - the plates are qhite like in the v1.

tomorrow i should get finally my high quality faders (nor alps nor philips - but i have beta tested them with great results:

the fadercap is a simple reloop mikser fadercap which you can get for about a buck a piece.

as i was getting a bit tired of pcb mounting those illuminated buttons (besides - the feeling of them isn't really good. the tend to jam and the click they make when pressed is wearing off) i found another model, frontplate mounted, with led and cubic! and they feel so accurate and durable - i'm sure they can hold off some extensive hitting!

the internals of the box actually remain the same, as will do most of the knobs. i only had to make 2 more ains and 2 more dins:

the crossfader will be a standard reloop mixer crossfader. it in fact has 100 kohm but with some resistor-hacking it works flawlessly.

the casing will be wooden, i just have to find a manufacturer for it.

besides, as the plexi is slightly transparent i came to the idea that i'll mount a few under the plate to have the whole hting illuminated.

tomorrow i'll get going with the faders - there's a though month coming :>

[ultra]

hi.  nice piece.  what's the part # of those switches?

[matrigs]

WELLBUYING TC002-N11ASGGRGXX

http://www.trim-pot.com.pl/pliki/99e0_tc002.pdf

[Twin-X]

"monodick" = that a spelling error or is that serious?

Nice box btw!!!

[matrigs]

semi serious :> my friend invented the name as a joke about robert henke's midi controler which is call "monodeck"

[matrigs]

a small step for me but a big step in making this project - today i put the first pcb with those mounted buttons and it fits !! YEAH

[matrigs]

alright - maaaassiiivve update - i stopped working on this project a while ago because i wanted to make a sid for my friend but as you can see in a bunch of other topics by myself on the forum from last week the sid project died and i'm leaving it for a few days so i can finish this box here and not be frustrated about the sid not working...

so as you can see- buttons are mounted, knobs are mounted, fadercaps arrived today so i mounted the faders and the caps too.

okay i guess with a few small additions this box could look much better. without all those screws for example. but i have to admit that i'm not really a friend of the "super clean" finishing of the midi boxes and for me stiffness and druabilty are much more important.

also the pots could be actually pcb mounted or at least hidden but again - when they are mounted like this it's much easier to change a pot in case of failure even before a gig.

i'm thinking that - when it is diy - it will always look like diy.

[stryd_one]

Man you sure know how to roll with the punches :)

I don't think you should talk it down so much... DIY or not, that's a tidy looking box you made! Don't sweat panel mount pots either, I actually prefer them in use, but of course they're harder to wire...

That looks nice. I was about to suggest black mounting hardware, if you don't like the nuts being exposed under the skirt of the knob (omg, there's a few double-meanings there!), but it seems like you've kinda already got that covered (more pun)...How come some of the pots have that hexagonal black cover over the nut, but some don't?

[Sasha]

It is good you continue working on this controller. I like the wooden sides. Looks it is plywood, but still good.

I think having all knobs silver would make this box much, much better and neater.

Where did you get those fader hex screws from?

i'm thinking that - when it is diy - it will always look like diy.

I don`t agree with that. There is alot of DIY projects to prove selfmade gear can look same and even better as factory made. There is nothing that can`t be DIY these days.

[matrigs]

there are differently shaped and coloured screws on the pots because there are actually three different pots in this whole setup !

the lower two rows are pots that are with me together since my very first mbox. i love them because due to massive use and a few sprays of kontakt pot-spray they are totally loose and put nearly no physical resistance to your fingers - i use these two rows for sends to effects as due to those loose pots i can turn them very quickly and just "stab" a signle sound to a reverb for example.

the row with the silver caps are detented pots that i use for gain - i had to higlight them with a colour so i don't get confused.

the upper rows are french radiohm pots - they have a thicker shaft so i have to use different screws. they are full plastic and have a really nice feeling - i use them for eq'ing. i didn't want to use a next batch of the ultra loose knobs i used below because for eq i rather want a pot that's a little stiff so it's more accurate.

i in fact would rather use silver knobs for all my controls - the only problem is that here in poland it's difficult to get those. these ten i have are actually from an old reloop mixer... those plack pot caps have the best feeling of any cap i can get around here so i had to compromise the colour...

oh and those screws by the faders - they aren't hex. those are simple cross screws.

and to the plywood - you know i was kind of a bit of a bitch here. because when i started to think about the casing i first searched for a company that might make me something like that in walnut with a cnc cutter or so. after a few weeks of searching i couldn't even find a company which would make me any case like this AT ALL so again i had to do it diy. so i went to a simple castorama shop (something like OBI) and searched for materials. again i couldn't really find anything. i even thought about nice floor panels but i would have to buy above one cubic meter and this would cost a lot. so i just thought - hey i just make a temporary box out of plywood for a beta and later i'll search for something neater. so i went to this dude with this huge saw in this castorama and told him those measurements of my parts and he started to cut them. when i came back and wanted to pay him i asked for the price. he told me it's 4 zloty. (one dollar). so i asked - okay that's for the cutting but how much for the material. he again said 4 zloty... so at that moment there was nothing more to think about. okay it's plywood. but for that price ? bargain. i'll use that money up for better parts.

oh and before someone asks - those fader-caps are actually original reloop fader caps. probably one of the most expensive parts of this box because they sell those at a horribly high price and i couldn't find anything more fitting.