Which DIY controller?

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

Which DIY controller?

So I really wanna build something- but I am not that good at soldering so I can’t have it be too complicated. So I was thinking of a few options.

Option #1 Custom Kit From custommidicontrollers.com

It can’t be too hard because there will be step by step instructions that come with the kit.

Option #2 APC-80

Well, just following the instructions and printing that PDF doesn’t seem too hard and an APC 40 and an APC 20 cost up to only about $375 together so it won’t really break the bank.

Option 3 Everything but the kitchen sink

Just gonna take a bunch of cheap gear the performs well and try and just put them all together in a case and have a usb hub and sound card hidden inside it somewhere. Not the most reasonable but it is the easiest.

2

My advice is to start small.
Order a midifighter classic and expand it with 4 extra buttons and faders.
You will get all the tutorial you need from this forum.

Practice soldering by opening up crappy/broken gear and desolder components and solder wires were the components used to go.

I built a custom midicontroller this way in under 2 months not knowing anything about soldering from the start.

Theres tons of good tutorials on soldering on youtube.

But most importantly, do not rush things.

3

Doing option 3 with an old gamepad could be an easy project which would yield a lot of experience.

This thread has info on DIY controllers and some of the build logs here on DJTT:

4

I agree.

5

check out the arduino, little to no soldering and shitloads of possiblities, i am currently building a lazer grid synth with one :smiley: