DJ Tech Tools Community Project: We're going to build a Controller together!!!

[gurpaal]

Everyone, thanks so much for your quality feedback, appreciate it loads!
Please if others see this thread, please still fill out, more opinios on the matter are only more insightful, the more the merrier.


Now to get on with discussing your ideas.

"Get something with high-quality buttons, faders, (push-sensitive) endless-rotaries with LEDs, at least 1 xy-pad.
Make it in form-factor that fits DJMs or a XONE ergonomically (XONE1D).
Use quality-materials, no plastics for faceplate etc.
Make it use OSC, so that it has improved performance over MIDI (more signals simultaneously.
Give it the possibility to cascade without occupation of 1 USB-Port per unit."

High quality buttons i will definately try to implement. I see that high quality arcade buttons (sanwa, same as on the vci-100 arcade edition) for sections such as the hotcues would be useful for beatjuggling etc. Are you guys ok with this?
Endless encoders could be a problem although i would love them too. I am going to be using the 2*UMC32 chips as the interface, now this may pose some limitations, but as you can probably understand, as a grade 12 student there are some cost limitations. If anyone has a workaround that would work for the umc32 chip i would gladly consider it.
X/Y axis is definately a possibility and i could probably include one. (it could maybe double up as a mousepad?)
When you say a form factor to fit, does that mean so that the tops are level with each other?
I will try to build the unit to as high a quality as i can. In terms of materials, i was thinkin about using two 3mm acrylic sheets, but i'm sure i could get the faceplate milled out of metal.
I'm really sorry about the OSC, i'm afraid its going to have to be USB as this is the interface the UMC32 chip uses.

"I want something compact and tactile but that can still control a lot. As such I am quite a fan of touch strips and xy pads as well as endless knobs with value indicators. In this vain I see faders on the way out, since motorized faders are simply overboard. I also want big buttons. Ideally a controller should be expandable, which I guess right now means it should have a multi TT USB hub integrated (or go ethernet) and an intelligent solution for hiding the cables."

Unfortunately touchstrips and endless knobs may not be possible as far as i know, but if someone knows of a way to get them to work with the UMC32 chip i would be more than happy to work on including them.Here is a link to the UMC32 website
http://www.halemicro.com/Products/Products.html
Big buttons will be accounted for with the same buttons as on the vci-100 arcade edition! Expandability is a must and will allow the user to add up to 3 additional units to the controller and the controller only has one USB cable going to the laptop. Other units could be things such as the midifighter etc.


"I think someone should come up with a way of moving features around within the controller or replace them all together for what you want. Basically like lego bricks (or stickle bricks, for those of you who know what they are), you have one main board and you can buy the parts you want and simply connect them by pushing them onto the main board like lego bricks anywhere you want. So in essence, a fully customisable midi controller without the need for soldering or building anything."

I think this is a great idea, and with some thinking and tinkering i think it can just about work. I will discuss this in more detail later on.

"If my answer to number 3 was ever created then pretty much every situation would be covered. But otherwise I would like something light and compact but with a robust build quality and has the ability to control 4 decks without the use of a shift button. Looks have never bothered me, its all about functionality. Oh, and feature wise its all about things that enable you to look at the screen less, so LED's that tell you when loop is activated and on what cue you're on etc. Something else that would be a god send would be USB ports so you don't have to use up all your computer's, kinda like the apple keyboards that have 2 USB ports for you to plug things in. And maybe a screen that displays your track info and scroller info so you dont have to look at your screen. And something that is important to me, maybe not everyone else, would be the ability to properly scratch."

Light compact with robust build quality, definately important!
4 deck control without a shift button could be a problem due to the amount of controls, but yet again, if a user wants to take out some of the features and replace them they could potentially do that.
USB ports, defiante must have. say if there were 3 spare ports would that be adequate?
Screen, is a possibilty, don't know how i would do that but hey, we can try and come up with something.

"Most mid range controllers have jog wheels, which are lame. I'd rather not have any jog wheels and more buttons so I can set my cues ahead of time and just use the mouse instead of the jog wheels."

Yeah i have noticed this same issue, due to costs I would not be able to put in amazing jog wheels. What about if there were two smaller jogwheels that were solely for searching through a track or pitch bending? I for one just like the feel of spinning something haha, even if i'm not scratching. What do you think?

"A controller that could literally run traktor, with a screen and everything, no laptop needed, just attach hard drive."

Nice idea, and actually though about this before, it wouldnt be too hard, just build a small compact type pc into a suitably sized flight case. However, for this project i dont have money for parts for a computer and this would make the controller pretty bulky.

"it might be appropriate for you to define the limits on what you can do. Things like encoders, faders and touchpads may be quite easy, Touch-click endless encoders with led rings a lot harder, and jog wheels extremely difficult"

That's a good point, i should have probably done this in my first post.
Costs will be the main limiting factor.
I will be using two UMC32 chips which connect via USB.
These do pose some limitations such as no rotary encoder for now. You can see some of the forum posts on their website if you are interested.
Other than that the main issue as i said is costs, things like endless knobs with led feedback mayy be out of the question. But high quality parts will be used.
Any more ideas would be greatly apppreciated and I thank you all for your efforts so far. Let's try and keep this alive.

Gurpaal

[Tigris]

Just a quick question; I'm not that knowledgeable about what you can hook up to this chip, but would it be possible to attach a simple flick-switch to it? Like the ones on a XONE. That way, you could control modifiers and have a visual/touch feedback what state the modifier is in. I hate it not to know if my modifier is on or off right now, so much that I try to avoid them if possible- too much fear of having a modifier still on while triggering an effect and suddenly cutting out the track :/

[xbelt]

Why don't you use a Midibox?
I think it supports endless encoders and it's quiet cheap and can use tons of buttons and led's

[gurpaal]

Just a quick question; I'm not that knowledgeable about what you can hook up to this chip, but would it be possible to attach a simple flick-switch to it? Like the ones on a XONE. That way, you could control modifiers and have a visual/touch feedback what state the modifier is in. I hate it not to know if my modifier is on or off right now, so much that I try to avoid them if possible- too much fear of having a modifier still on while triggering an effect and suddenly cutting out the track :/

A flick switch would be possible for the modifier. I was originally going to go with a button with an LED underneath to let the user know whether the modifier is active or not.

"Why don't you use a Midibox?
I think it supports endless encoders and it's quiet cheap and can use tons of buttons and led's"
I will have a look into it but it requires alot of programming and script to be written

[Kurbitur]

1) Which of the following best describes you?
• Bedroom DJ/controllerist/beginner

2) Are you satisfied with non-modified midi controllers currently available on the market for use with Traktor Pro?
• Mostly satisfied


3) If you are not fully satisfied with non modified controller offerings currently available, what is it about these controllers you would like to improve?
I currently have a numark omni and i got stuff there so i can make a mix but i would like more buttons for hot cueing/controllerism

4) Are there any other features that you would like to see in future controllers that come to the market? This could be anything such as functionality, build quality, portability, features and even the way they look?

5) What are the most important things you look for when buying a controller?
All the basics controll + knobs/faders/buttons that you can map to things that you want and good build quality
That it satisfy my needs and i haven't found a controller that got all my needs so maby i just build/mod one myself

[gurpaal]

1)

I currently have a numark omni and i got stuff there so i can make a mix but i would like more buttons for hot cueing/controllerism

All the basics controll + knobs/faders/buttons that you can map to things that you want and good build quality
That it satisfy my needs and i haven't found a controller that got all my needs so maby i just build/mod one myself

I will definately have alot of buttons for hot cues etc.

Maybe my controller will be ideal for you haha

Stay involved to see how the project goes on and thanks for your time

[Kurbitur]

I will definately have alot of buttons for hot cues etc.

Maybe my controller will be ideal for you haha

Stay involved to see how the project goes on and thanks for your time

Yeah i'm excited to see how it turns out.

[tads]

"A controller that could literally run traktor, with a screen and everything, no laptop needed, just attach hard drive."

Nice idea, and actually though about this before, it wouldnt be too hard, just build a small compact type pc into a suitably sized flight case. However, for this project i dont have money for parts for a computer and this would make the controller pretty bulky.

Well, is there anyway that as much information from traktor as possible can be displayed on the device. This might involve some crazy amount of LED's and different kinds such as

-The Wave form, find some way to give me an idea of where the song is, how long until its done, and when any build ups and break downs are. (maybe just a minute ahead and a minute behind)
-On the wave form thing show locations of cue points and loops with the ability to real quickly see which arcade button they are mapped too.
-Track names of what is on the deck
-Maybe a small screen or something that has the title of the tracks in the playlist?
-If you could make some kind of phase meter that let's you know if your two songs are out of sync and how far out of sync it is.
-(On the phase meter, it would be cool if there was an option to keep track of where the phrase is. I was thinking this through on the train: basically, the led's would start blinking when you start the track and would change color every 4 beats and could then cycle through 4 colors (or 8).)

I guess ideally, if you could go a good 10 or 20 minutes of hard mixing without once glancing at the computer screen, I think that would be cool.

[Fatlimey]

Why don't you use a Midibox?
I think it supports endless encoders and it's quite cheap and can use tons of buttons and led's

Quite cheap? You realise that the CPUs they user are 1999 technology and cost $6 each, yet they sell them at a massive markup for the brains. When you look at their prices and cost up a self build using an Arduino clone, they're really poor value for money.

Compare the component count on this (plus a DINX2 plus an AIN board):



compared to the Midifighter. That what 10 years of chip development can do for you. In my opinion these are clunky, overpriced devices. We can do better...

[xerxes333]

As always, I'll say that accelerometers really open up expressive capabilities.
(they aren't terribly pricey either.)