rotary knobs vs. faders

[derjay]

Dear Community,

can anyone explain, how a rotary knob works as opposed to a pot? The point is that I´m meditating about ways to transform a Total Control into a poor man`s mixer (oh cheeeaaap me likee aaaall night loooooong!) capable of controlling three or four decks. Do you know if you could replace an endless rotary with a pot and vice versa without running into major problems.
If yes the unit itself does have quite a lot of capabilities for mapping out tracktor and leave some rotary knobs for a dedicated fx box. As I have a Nano Kontrol too I`de even think about giving it a shot and map out BentoSans Smart Mixer, would be awesome wouldn't it?????

Any input would be very wellcome

[charo]

i'm not sure how you'd replaced an endless rotary with a pot and visa versa, i think you could replace an absolute rotary with a pot and visa versa.

good luck

[Str8upDrew]

Most rotary controllers for midi use a incremental 2-bit quadrature signal, and pots are pretty much just variable resistors. Pots use a simple analog signal, and the encoders use a digital/analog combination.
Now there might be a way to swap them out, depending on the brains of the controller, but it will definitely be a hassle.

[derjay]

Thanks for the info,
well, since the idea of experimenting with an OEM pcb of unknown capabilities is weel beyond my skills
I guess then the easier approach to achieving a cheapish four deck controll would be to leave the rotaries where they are and add an extra set of fader and pots on a joystickpcb or something like that.

[Str8upDrew]

If you want to add some more features, i would recommend the Hale UMC-32. It's really easy to set up, and they have a great support form. But, explore your options, it's all about what you want the controller to do for you.

[derjay]

thanks for the input.
well, the Hale Micro surely seems to be an attractive option, especially for the plug and ply kind of functionality that a lazy bastard like me needs if there is nothing like spare time in reality. I read your threads too and you mentioned it a couple of times..

But as I understood it does "only" have 16 faders or buttons. Or was that both?
So making a four deck array of pots for low, mid, high, filter/key rotary including cue and kill switches will not be possible with it. Is that right or am I getting something wrong?

[Str8upDrew]

It has 32 inputs which can be set to either analog(pots/faders) or digital(buttons), in any combination. If you need more than that, i'll be glad to help you come up with a solution.

[derjay]

awesome, thanks a lot!
in that case, that would leave enough for making a small four deck mixing unit and then use the Total control as a pure transport and effect unit. Kind of like a poor man`s xone or something....

[boileroo]

you can even use up to 8 umc's' together for loads of controlls (236 to be precise!). all you would need is a usb to link them all, think of it as x number of seperate controllers all mounted in 1 box? obviously 256 is uneccesary but 64 should be ample

[derjay]

that`s true but as I take it each UMC is around 70 Dollars plus another 20 for shipping to Europe, I have to watch for the budget.
Another point is that the faders of the TC are starting to give up already, so I`de have to take it apart and replace them to sell it and usually if I take anything apart be it the stereo, motorcycle or whatever the inner Mc Giver takes over, and there`s no way to stop it really.