I had an idea just now

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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I had an idea just now

I just thought about this idea, its probably crazy but tell me what you think.

You know about modular synthesizers, where you take small modules that serve one purpose and put them into a rack wire them all up to make sounds..

What if you could do that as a midi controller?!?!?

You would have a small case that lies flat on a table and you could put midi modules in where ever you wanted too.

There would be fader modules, knob modules ect… and you put them where you want in the case. Each module would be connect to a main power hub and usb hub all in side the case, then you simply connect a power cable and usb chord to it!

Do you think this idea could would work in any way?

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Like this:

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Something like this?

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I was picturing almost exactly that! I guess its not much of a ‘new’ idea.

Thanks for posting those

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Or this…

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I sould’ve just googled it, haha. I’m really interested in the Livid one.

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Sad the Mawzer’s are out of production. Would’ve been cool to see what modules could’ve been developed for a controller of that size. Midi Fighter or drum pad controller modules, keys, jogs, etc. To boot they appeared to be freely swappable with TRS jacks to connect to the main board. And already pre-installed into a flight case! Ahead of it’s time…

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DIY Midicontroller Info:

http://www.halemicro.com/Products/Products.html

its already possible to build your custom midi-controllers on your own exactly like you want it.

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Very true & for the hacker minded that’s great. I’ve seen some awesome custom controllers & in the future might think about possibly trying to mod a midi fighter or something. But a commercially available suite of modules swappable on the fly with all the advanced configuration taken care of in advance would be awesome.

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For example, say tonight I want to DJ with my midi fighter module, 3 level faders, another flipped as a crossfader & a handful of knob modules & maybe a jogwheel. tomorrow i’d like to use the same controller, swap out a couple of modules, flip the positions of the knobs & faders & pop in a button matrix for ableton. without a screwdriver or having to tweak an excess of parameters in a midi translator.

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if you don’t have some local hackerspaces to get in touch with someone who will make you a personalized DIY midicontroller and you aren’t as much interested in electronics to be able to make your own you will have to wait ~1-2 years until its boxed in the store for the customers :wink:

i think their are already some big players developing this products for the market, for sure ;o)

Here you will find a very large international list of hackerspaces:

there you will find the contacts and know how you need ;o)

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ibtf

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Here’s another, although it seems specific to Cubase:

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/controller/cmc_series.html

They do seem to support standard MIDI though

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edit: oups, was about to give the link to Steinberg’s too.

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Ok thats really F*cked up! I was literally today thinking earlier on about a modular system and how to do it reasonably and the Mawser (of course) came to mind … always wondered what happened it, There is a fine line between quality vs price I guess they passed (way) over it.

Crazy that you had the notion though too, Great minds ? … or fools seldom differ :stuck_out_tongue: