How about this?
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: How about this?

  1. #1
    Tech Mentor
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Posts
    175

    Default How about this?

    Oke, im walking around with this udea for a while:
    You take an old keyboard (the one with the letters on it), you make a nice case with new buttons for the keyboard, you take an harddisk, an SATA->USB plug, USBHub, stick everything together and map it to anykind of DJ Software. Why shouldnt i? I mean, a pc keyboard costs less than nothing! An MIDI-HUD Chip aint that cheap... So, it would be an nice experiment wouldnt it?
    Last edited by Risc12; 10-11-2010 at 09:52 AM. Reason: pc -> pc keyboard lol

  2. #2
    Tech Mentor
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Athens/Greece
    Posts
    133

    Default

    1st question:
    Why do you need a hdd for tis configuration?
    2nd question:
    I can assume that a keyboard cant handle the information as quick as we need to, as a matter of ms of latency, but I'm not sure about that.
    Moreover:
    A good question is why cant we take an old keyboard and solder arcade buttons on it an put them all in a custom case, but it will lack of led feedback.
    In my opinion a colored-key keyboard is good and cheap for rookies but u could ever get it in a club. I'm pretty sure that someone in the forum has posted photos of a project like that with great results but only for non-proffessional use.

  3. #3
    Tech Guru Nicky H's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Leeds UK
    Posts
    2,485

    Default

    I get the keyboard bit - its been done a few times - but what do you need the hard drive for?
    SC | MC

  4. #4
    Tech Mentor
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Posts
    175

    Default

    Wel, ofcourse you don't NEED the harddisk, but then you always have your music if you have that 'controller' with you! And you could solder arcade buttons the chip of the keyboard i think... The only downside would be that there isnt support for rotarary's, faders and LED's. So it would be perfect as a secondary controller, for stuff you dont have enough room for in your primary controller!

  5. #5
    Tech Guru josh@firestorm's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    1,652

    Default

    also standard computer keyboard encoders have a limit on how many messages (button presses) can be sent at one time.. cant remember exactly how many, but its not a lot. so depending on the mapping you come up with you're gonna be limited if you have to press more than a few keys at once. i.e if you are nudging a track while pressing a couple of buttons for automated fx and pressing another for an eq kill or something along those lines.

    if you were to go this route, i'd recommend buying an arcade keyboard encoder which people use for building MAME cabinets as they have custom encoders with more memory to allow sending a lot more messages at once.

    EDIT: i would think that the arcade keyboard encoders would have a lower latency also.

  6. #6

  7. #7
    Tech Mentor
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Posts
    175

    Default

    Well, I think i will give it a shot, just for beatjuggling, loopcontrol, fx presets, maybe transport functions of deck C and D. Ill make a bew thread when i finished this project!!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •