Can I use a MPK Mini to make a custom Midi Fighter?
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  1. #1
    Tech Mentor DStridium's Avatar
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    Default Can I use a MPK Mini to make a custom Midi Fighter?

    Could I use the internals from my MPK Mini by Akai put them in a different case (thinking about an old bookshelf speaker) with arcade buttons in place of each of the keys? In total there are 25 keys, 10 rubber buttons, 8 drum pads and 8 knobs. Could I use this to design a custom Fighter with 24 buttons (6 rows of 4 horizontally), 8 pads on top, 8 knobs on the bottom, 5 of the rubber buttons on each side and the remaining keys as an on/off switch? Any insight would be great, this will be my first DIY controller project if possible, I am adept at soldering. Thank you!

    P.S Would it be worth it to murder my MPK mini for this or just do one from scratch?
    DJ RERX (Dee-Jay-Ree-Wrecks)
    15" MacBook Pro/iPhone 4S/TouchOSC/Traktor Pro 2/Kontrol S4/Akai MPK Mini
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  2. #2
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    I can't see any reason not to, i might do something similar with mine.

    Obviously you lose the velocity of the keys, but should be able to stick a button on without much trouble, haven't seen inside the MPKs keys but they'll probably share a ground and have two pins for velocity/note on.

    It's a good idea - especially if you make use of the octave +- you could have 88 (i think off the top of my head) buttons mapped.

    Do the Pad mod to increase their sensitivity, add some better knobs (or even swap a couple out for slide pots) and you've got one sick controller there!

  3. #3
    Tech Guru Cybertrash's Avatar
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    You should bear in mind that the MIDI Fighter has got some pretty fancy firmware running on the inside, as far as I understand there's it can send several CCs with the press of one button among other things, so it might be difficult to replicate the exact functions of a MIDI Fighter when you map it to Traktor.
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  4. #4
    Tech Mentor DStridium's Avatar
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    Well I feel like the lack of the super combos is made up by having a drum pad, 24 buttons and 8 knobs. I think the controller will be pretty cool can I buy midi buttons straight from here or no?
    DJ RERX (Dee-Jay-Ree-Wrecks)
    15" MacBook Pro/iPhone 4S/TouchOSC/Traktor Pro 2/Kontrol S4/Akai MPK Mini
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by kevz718 View Post
    I think that your limited by two things:

    1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)

    2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant think of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
    You could replicate both of those pretty easily with a max/pd patch running in the background, and more.

  6. #6
    Tech Guru zestoi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kevz718 View Post
    I think that your limited by two things:

    1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)
    not needed afaik if u use the 1.03 (?) instant grat tsi - as it has the logic for the super combo's in the tsi and doesn't use the extra notes. this confused me for ages... my midimasher midi fighter 4banks emulation code doesn't create those super combo cc's but i do get the super combo effects when using the instant grat with it.

    2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant think of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
    if using a midimasher config to do the 4banks emulation anyway then u can add these extra cc's in very easily.

    e.g: this line would create a new "fader1a" ranging from 0 to 127 when the real fader is between 64 and 127

    Code:
    superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 64, 127, "fader1a", 0, 127)
    and this would create an event when the fader is just at it's min and max positions:

    Code:
    superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 0, 0, "fader1min", 127, 127)
    superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 127, 127, "fader1max", 127, 127)
    u can then use lua code to do anything with these new fake events just like any normal controller event. i should probably also write a superfader_send() function that just sends out the new events as midi directly too as opposed to "faking" controller input as it does atm.
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  7. #7
    Tech Mentor DStridium's Avatar
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    Thank you all for your advice! Does anyone out there have any more input on this topic, I thought it may have been a bit more popular.
    DJ RERX (Dee-Jay-Ree-Wrecks)
    15" MacBook Pro/iPhone 4S/TouchOSC/Traktor Pro 2/Kontrol S4/Akai MPK Mini
    Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/d-burns420
    Beatport DJ: http://dj.beatport.com/rerx

  8. #8
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    Perhaps you can use one of the knobs to achieve a super combo...at the end what happens is that the 5th note increases or decreases the level depending on the combo, a knob (or Super Knob) could do that function to.
    Macbook Pro 15' - Kontrol S4 - MF Pro Beatmasher - NI Maschine- Korg Nano Kontrol - Akai MPK Mini- Champagne Bottles

  9. #9

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    Interested in where this goes I have a mini on back order and this looks promising

  10. #10

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    Did anyone ever get the Mini to replicate the instant grad mapping? If so, any way I could steal your genius?

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