Building your own MIDI Controller Help

DJ Gear & Hardware Hardware: Controllers, Mods and Gear
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Building your own MIDI Controller Help

Hey DJTT! Vanska here.

Lately, my mixer has been shitting the bed, and I have been toying with the idea of building my own midi controller that I can simply remap to be my mixer. I am currently using a Behringer MM-1, and its really starting to impact my performance at shows.

SO, my question:

Does anyone have any experience with this? SO far I have looked into the Arduino and Brain V2 from Livid Instruments as my boards. I plan on having 16 arcade buttons, 19+ rotary pots, 16 silicone buttons with LED"s from Livid Instruments website, a bunch of LED’s and 5 long faders, just as a base schematic.

On top of this I plan on building the housing out of wood, and installing my current soundcard into it as well as a hub. As a final kicker, I also plan on building inserts on either side of the mixer portion of the controller to house two X1 Mark 1’s, which would be running to the hub.

I’m not sure if DJTT is the place to ask, but I am curious what people would suggest and what to get. I am thinking of grabbing the Brain V2 from Livid and a bunch of parts from their website to start this thing off. Looking for tips, tricks and ideas to help this monstrosity come to life. Sort of a Frankenstein All-In-One.

Thanks GUys!

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Djtechtools is the perfect place to ask this!

For the brain I would recommend the teensyduino, arduino is an option too but a little bit more complex for a beginner. Coding this is really really easy so don’t be afraid of that aspect, the hardest part is the enclosure (I personally love laser cut acrylic)

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What are the major benefits of the Teensy versus the Arduino and Brain V2? I would need different boards like the BYOB (?) I’ll to make custom boards for the different sizes since my components are going to be laid out relatively far apart

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The teensy has native USB MIDI capabilities and an very easy to work with usbmidi library. All you would need are a couple of multiplex IC’s to extend the amount of analog inputs. But you’ll need to solder, a lot. (this too is quite easy)

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Awesome! I’ll look into the board then