4MidiLoop Arcade Button mod + 4 Jog Wheels !!!

DJ Gear & Hardware Hardware: Controllers, Mods and Gear
1

4MidiLoop Arcade Button mod + 4 Jog Wheels !!!

Hey just wanted to post pics of my new setup.

I recently bought a 4MidiLoop thinking that it would be a solution to the dreaded “Layer” theory that drives me insane while playing Live. Perhaps I stand alone on thinking that “layers” are a drag, but I do think “layers” interfere with the natrual work flow…especially while playing live.

Anyways I do love the 4MidiLoop, but its not the be all end all 4 Deck solution it boasts. First of all the Button are small and the Play & Cue Buttons are way to close to the Volume fader IMO. Also the Buttons are not the most responcive Buttons ive dealt with. If you dont strike them dead center they dont engage, and even if you do strike them dead center, but not hard enough, they dont engage or they will engage for a millisecond then stop. I can deal with this Button behaviar on most functions (Cue Points, Key Lock ect etc) but I CAN NOT deal with this problem on “Play” buttons. Addmittedly there is a learning curve with these Buttons, but still I dont think getting use to these Buttons will totally enliminate the possibility that they might not engage. Its not fun to DJ live while thinking that there is a possibility that the “Play” Button might not engage properly when stricking it.

Also The 4MidiLoop doesnt have a good Jog Wheel solution. It does have deticated Endless Encoders that try to act like a Jog Wheel, but it is an Epic Fail if you are used to using the standard Jog Wheels that most Midi Controllers have, mainly because you cant spin the encoders in a constant way, you always have to stop then turn again as your fingers cant continually turn the encoders. For this reason…the Encoder Jogs pretty much suck.

So after much thought and research I decided to tackle the Jog Wheel problem first. I wanted 4 Jog Wheels to acompany the 4 Deck situation that the 4MidiLoop offers. So I ended up buying 2 ICON IDJ midi controllers and stripping them of everything but the Jog Wheels. Then went to EVERYTHING PLASTIC and got 2 Plastic top plates custom made to cover all the holes from the Buttons, Dials and Faders that I stripped out. Once the face plates were on, all that remained was dual Jog Wheels on both controllers. The ICON IDJ Touch Sensitive Jog Wheels are THE strong point of the contoller. I would compare their usability to the VCI-100 Jogs. The dials faders and buttons on the ICON IDJ are total crap and its not possible to get LED feedback from the buttons (even while using the included software). However you can use the included software to change Midi Channels and velocity etc etc, so thats pretty useful. Also if you make changes to the controllers with the software, they are fed to the controller and the controller then stays in the state you program it in without having to run the software again. Also there are several Buttons that have an “always on” state (which I covered with the top plate), as well as the Jog Wheels which also have an “always on” State (Red & Blue) depending if the “touch senser” is engaged or not. When I custom made the top plates, I made sure to make seperate holes under the Jog Wheels where the “always on” LEDs where so the Jogs are always lit from underneath. This is great in low light siuations.

Next I tackled the Button problem (4MidiLoop Buttons dont always work) by adding Arcade buttons to the bottom of the 4MidiLoop. For the brain of the Arcade buttons, I used a MidiFighter board that easily fits inside the 4MidiLoop. BTW there is PLENTY of room inside the 4MidiLoop for modding. Of course I couldnt fit an “assembled” MidiFighter inside the 4MidiLoop, so I just used the brain portion of the board and soldered wire from the board to each Arcade button and made sure to insulate the board so it is seperated from the 4MidiLoop board.

To drill the holes in the 4midiloop I used a step drill for metal. The trick was to make the drill speed slow and to take my time. But all I used was an adverage drill, no machine shop of press of anything. And for the template, I used the top of the MidiFighter for a guide to mark the hole size and spacing.

The final width of this this entire setup (including the Jog Wheels) isnt even as wide as an NI S4…

Here is pics of the finished project !!!

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Why do you only use the jog’s

Ps those arcade buttons look sweet

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nice to hear from someone else on this forum who actually has an idj. i think the jogs are pretty responsive but have never tried a vci-100 etc so had nothing to compare them to. except my hercules mk2 who’s jogs are quite sluggish

the right hand pitch fader on mine doesnt even really work so i keep it taped down and out of the way. pots are ok but too close together. i’ve ordered some replacement taller/thinner/more-rubbery caps to try and help that tho. worth a shot for a few quid.

personally i quite like the buttons, tho they’re pretty small. and didnt realise there’d be no led feedback when i bought it. maybe they’d fix that with a firmware update? maybe not…

very cool mod and creative use of the idj’s to get 4 cheap touch sensitive jogs :smiley: cool photos

btw you mentioned some software that came with your idj’s. do you just mean the imap or something else too? still hoping somehow/sometime i can get midi led feedback on it

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I only use the IDJ Jogs because the 4MidiLoop has more than enough buttons and faders etc etc and it only lacks Jog Wheel department. Plus as I said the quality of everything BUT the Jog Wheels on the IDJ is total crap.

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Great stuff and good mod, thanks for showing us.
Your unit is nice.

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i think thats slightly harsh :stuck_out_tongue: pots are ok but very close together, faders are usable, buttons i think are ok personally.

7

I thought the idea behind the 4midiloop was to move away for jog wheels?

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And on that note, what are you using the jog wheels for even?

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Jeez…and your what, “The Jog Wheel Police” ???

Im useing the seperate Jogs cause…ummm, I like em? and cause the Jog / Endless Encoder functionallity on the 4MidiLoop completely SUCKS.

BTW if the 4MidiLoop was moving “away” from Jog wheels, I highly doubt they would include Endless Encoders labeled SCRATCH / SEEK

10

where did you buy the icon idj? i wanted to buy one but it seems to not exist at all D:

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I bought mine in England at a store called JUNO Records.

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/icon-idj-usb-dj-controller-black/410650-01/?currency=USD&utm_source=google_us&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Google%2BShopping

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pretty cool price. think i paid 100gbp for mine from ebay. seems to be quite hard to find most icon products and their names don’t make it any easier… “iPad”?? really???

they seem to have finally released their icreative, touch sensitive controller, too now.

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Here’s a little quote from an interview with the man who designed the 4midiloop

[quote]CDM: Let’s compare this to something like the Traktor Kontrol S4. Aside from the obvious lack of the jog wheels, where does the 4midiloop fit in – how does it differentiate itself?

Mathias: The difference to all available 4-deck-controllers is the fact that you have all possible controls for all 4 decks and 4 fx slots on the 4midiloop. So there are no limits and no necessary shift-switchings like on the other devices.

The S4 is a 4-deck-mix-controller with capability to control 2 fx slots and deck function of only 2 decks (simultaneously).
And of course these jogwheels — which I hate and which are unnecessary for techno and similar styles (my opinion).’

I simply use encoders for seek/scratch functions… it saves so much space…

[/quote]

Now granted by labeling those encoders seek/scratch he’s really not trying to scratch like a turntablist, in all actuality he should have labeled it seek/scrub. I’m sure they just wanted to keep it labeled as such as that is what the function is called in Traktor.

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Im not at all interested in “Scratching” with the added Jogs in this setup or with 4MidiLoops Endless Encoders.

The purpose I use Jogs for is mostly searching thru tracks (in my headphone) in an “on the fly” manner while setting various Cue Points so I can manipulate things that I feel works in that moment within the track im seeking thru while playing live, and for pitch bending. If your into premade “Cue Points” and spending time at home prepping for sets, then by all means I can see no need for Jogs. However im not really inspired at “home” to do much of anything except pet my dog and eat way too much.

While playing live I am VERY inspired to do all kinds of things that I normally wouldnt think of…so in this senario I prefer to have the ability to seek, bend, drop Cue Points and manipulate with the most ease (hence Jogs). I dont want to be constricted to pre-made Cue Points and a limited ability to set Cues “On The Fly”, Seek thru and Bend tracks. 4MidiLoop offers just that…limited seek, limited bend, limited Jog functionality all across the board…not to mention the “sometime I work & sometimes I DONT work” Play and Cue buttons.

Just my opinion…and unless a person owns a 4MidiLoop or happens to have tryed one, I dont really think they could speak with any authority on these matters.

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New Pics Case Mod 4MidiLoop w/Arcade Buttons + more

I built thIS setup shown in earlier pics of this thread into a DJ Case. the case demensions are 24 in (back to front) 22 inch (side to side) and 4 inch (high) with the lid off. Everything in the case (all included equiptnebt) weights about 34 pounds with the lid off. Everything is extremely tight while lid is on and off.

I hated setting this rig up at the venue prior to a gig when I was all in seperate peices, so my goal here was to build something where I could open the lid, plug in a few cables and be ready to go.

I added a 12 inch external monitor to the rig so I could save space and because its much less intensive on my MacBook Pro. You save a whole lotta resources on your MAC by doing this and it runs much cooler. Running an external from MacBook Pro is sometimes refered to as CLAMSHELL MODE.

I also added a Direct Line convertor Rolls MB 15b (hidden underneath) so that I could have a DB boost if I needed one while connecting RCA or XLR from my Sound Card. This helps if I want to run straight to the AMPS instead of having to rely on whatever mixer the club happenes to have there.

So heres whats in the setup / DJ Case (Some you can see and some you cant see if its hidden within the case):

4MidiLoop w/ 8 Arcade Buttons which I modded myself

Two ICON IDJ controllers which I stripped and modded to only contain 2 Jogs Wheels each (4 Jogs in all)

Mini Keyboard

Rolls Direct Line Box MB15b. Allows DB Boost to XLR BAlanced and can make an RCA output have a Balanced DB Output as well

Powered T7 USB Hub w/ 7 Powered USB Ports (Hidden underneath)

RME Babyface Soundcard (Best sounding sound card I ever heard) It makes NI Audio 2,4,6,8,10 sound like a transistor Radio

12 inch TFT LED External Monitor (which can handle 1024 - 768 Resolution

Two LED Lights (One For Keyboard & One for the 4MidiLoop)

A power strip providing power to all things in the setup as well as 4 open plugs for anything I might need to additionally plug in. Theres a 8 Foot cord attached to the power strip so I can plug it into any outlet and instantly everything is powered on.

Little Dot MK III Tube Headphone Amplifier (So the headphone monitor volume coming from my soundcard can be made much louder)

MacBook Pro

A MACBOOK stand. Allows me to run my MAC in Clamshell mode and keep it safe, space saving / compact and solid while it runs in “closed” mode

Honestly this setup is a dream come true.

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very impressive!

are there any heat issues running the MacBook pro in clamshell mode?

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No heat issues…Runs cooler actually because its way less intensive for the Mac to not have to run its own LCD. Plus its overall cooler because there is no LED lights running on the MAC.

Theres lots of info on this…Google MAC Clamshell mode…

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Hi, i thought about getting the idj as well because its so cheap and i need something to practice beatmatching (i just have 2 x1)
Do you think it would work fine for that? I would take out all the buttons and faders, cover it, solder 2 new pitchfaders into the idj and give it a new case.

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Modding the idj is no easy feat. Taking the buttons out is easy, but removing the pitch faders and rotarys are not so easy. I learned that if u remove the rotarys and faders completely, you break the electronic flow of the pcb board - meaning nothing works once the flow is interupted. I had to manually leave the faders and rotarys connected to the board and cut them at the base of the pcb board so they wouldnt poke through the faux top peice I custom made. Also there is no room inside the idj to add any additional harware, its really tight inside.

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i don’t see why the only people who are looking to buy the idj want to remove all but the jogs… i replaced all the knobs on mine today for some decent feeling ones that are a bit taller and i find it quite cool… if all someone really needs (like the OP) are some jogs then fair enough - but the pots arent too bad, or the buttons and u could just not use them if u didnt need them…