Ableton Mixer - Possible Build, Need input!

Printable View

04-15-2011, 06:00 PM
Mike MPD

Ableton Mixer - Possible Build, Need input!

Currently my set-up consists of a launchpad and an MPD 26. After using my friends APC40 I began to crave the extra control it offered. I started wishing akai sold just the knobs and cross fader section of the APC40(pretty much just what you dont get if you get the APC20). Seeing as they dont make this I began to ponder how I could make this myself. I have always loved diy, tinkering, modding etc. so it seemed like it could be a fun project.

There is a chance this build is too far above my ability but I would at least like to get some input on my design and how to go about building it.

This is what I drew up today

[ame]http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/airsoft0866/diycontroller.png[/ame]

I dont know why the link is showing up like this, its not a video but if you click the blue link it opens the image in a new window.

Track Control

- Everything that is labeled is pretty self explanatory

- The green arrows and large gray nob are for scrolling through and select tracks, I thought it might be nice to be able to scroll through with a knob or buttons depending on how many tracks you have(knob being faster than a fader if you have a lot of them)

Device Control

-Knobs 1-8 would control the parameters of the selected device like you can on the APC40

-On/Off button turns the selected device on or off

-Two black arrow button would shift what the knobs are controller over a spot. For example say the device has 10 parameters, pressing the right arrow would allow knob 4 and 8 to be controlling the extra 2 parameters.(Im not sure if this even possible....and I hope that explanation made sense)

-Button 1 and 2 would just be free to assign to any parameter(I had the beat repeat on/off button in mind when adding these, or turning filters on/off. Something along those lines)

-The green arrow buttons and the large grey knob would act the same way as they would in track control. It would just allow you to scroll through and select different devices.

Other

-Grey Square would be an X/Y touch pad for controlling effects

-Cross fader to control the cross fader in ableton

Im not worried about the build itself as much as I am worried about getting it to work properly. There are some functions that I would like to have that are not midi assignable and specific to the APC40. The ability to scroll between tracks/devices for example. That is not something that can just be assigned via midi. Im hoping I can use the remote script from the APC40 to help me with things like that but I have very limited programming experience.

Anyways let me know what you think....
04-15-2011, 07:03 PM
ajrindy

I dont have any input about how feasible this is, so this isn't a useful post, but that's an AWESOME idea.
04-15-2011, 07:46 PM
Mike MPD

A little soon for an update haha but im thinking instead of the left and right arrow buttons in device control to scroll between the parameters, Bank buttons might be more feasible. Just have bank A and bank B instead of Left and Right so 8 knobs with 16 total controls.
04-15-2011, 07:48 PM
chrisw

... xone 1d
04-15-2011, 07:52 PM
Mike MPD

... not what Im looking for
04-16-2011, 12:49 PM
michaeldunne109

Your going to find it very hard to build and map an xy pad.
04-16-2011, 01:26 PM
Mike MPD

http://www.djtechtools.com/2008/02/0...ch-pad-for-25/
04-17-2011, 07:47 PM
djsakebomb

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike MPD

Track Control
- The green arrows and large gray nob are for scrolling through and select tracks, I thought it might be nice to be able to scroll through with a knob or buttons depending on how many tracks you have(knob being faster than a fader if you have a lot of them)

Not possible, unless you mean just to scroll through the scenes in your set. You can't scroll through the browser windows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike MPD

Device Control
-Two black arrow button would shift what the knobs are controller over a spot. For example say the device has 10 parameters, pressing the right arrow would allow knob 4 and 8 to be controlling the extra 2 parameters.(Im not sure if this even possible....and I hope that explanation made sense)

-The green arrow buttons and the large grey knob would act the same way as they would in track control. It would just allow you to scroll through and select different devices.

Effects racks only have 8 macro knobs, so you can't control 10 parameters without doubling up some on a knob, which then makes the arrow buttons pointless. On the APC40, the left and right buttons switch between devices, rather than opening up additional macro knobs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike MPD

Im not worried about the build itself as much as I am worried about getting it to work properly. There are some functions that I would like to have that are not midi assignable and specific to the APC40. The ability to scroll between tracks/devices for example. That is not something that can just be assigned via midi. Im hoping I can use the remote script from the APC40 to help me with things like that but I have very limited programming experience.

If you don't have very much programming knowledge, it will be very difficult to accomplish the non-MIDI-assignable portions of the project.
04-26-2011, 09:02 PM
Mike MPD

Quote:

Originally Posted by djsakebomb

Not possible, unless you mean just to scroll through the scenes in your set. You can't scroll through the browser windows.

I mean when you have a project open, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll between which track is selected. I was hoping I could come up with a way to do that without having to use the computer keyboard. It would be nice to be able to do it right on the controller

Quote:

Originally Posted by djsakebomb

Effects racks only have 8 macro knobs, so you can't control 10 parameters without doubling up some on a knob, which then makes the arrow buttons pointless. On the APC40, the left and right buttons switch between devices, rather than opening up additional macro knobs.

Yeah I had a feeling I would be able to do that...

Quote:

Originally Posted by djsakebomb

If you don't have very much programming knowledge, it will be very difficult to accomplish the non-MIDI-assignable portions of the project.

[/quote]

Seeing as the main non-midi assignable things I want to have are available on the APC 40 I was hoping I could just modify the default remote script or whatever to make those function work with a diy controller. I understand the basics and concepts of programming(java and c++ at least) im just not very good at writing things from scratch. And my father is a software engineer so I might be able to convince him to gimme some help :)