How many MIDI buttons do you need?

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:32 am

For those of you that want to launch clips & control lots of stuff..

Don't overlook your laptop keyboard! Just using the alphabet (lower-case & capitals) gives you 52 buttons.

My Ozonic has 20 banks x 127 notes, 14 buttons, 9 sliders, 8 knobs and a joystick. That makes for another 2820 buttons, 180 sliders, 160 knobs, and 20 joysticks.

Surely that's enough!

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:29 pm

The most important thing is actually the layout, to me.

I'm still dreaming of a 16x8 button grid - or bigger. A keyboard of either kind wouldn't get close to the ergonomics of a grid, and once you start jumping through midi channels and transposing up/down through octaves on a keyboard, you tend to lose track of "where you are".

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:39 pm

I agree with the transposition issue. I'm not going to do that. But it's so easy on the Ozonic to switch between the 20 banks rather than transposing, and you can see which bank you've chosen on the LCD panel. The Enigma utility makes the controller management really easy.

That still leaves 37 note keys and 14 button for launching clips, as well as the 52 on the laptop keyboard. Not as pretty as a nifty 16 x 8 grid, I agree.

And with a music keyboard, you might even get away with faking being a musician rather than a DJ...

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:12 am

If only I could figure a way to scroll to a predetermined scene without having to look at the screen, I could do without the screen altogether. Hence considering assigning individual scene launches to boatloads of buttons...

Need more sleep... Live keeping me awake... mmmm... Live... delirium setting in...

scot7y1 · Post by **scot7y1** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:54 am

Or a touch screen that you just put over your monitor and it controls live with the stroke of a finger. That would be cool

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:01 am

I've thought about that.

https://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPa ... cts_id=554

Kinda small, but just for scrolling around, could be cool.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:27 am

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/05/10.18.shtml

http://www.magictouch.com/KTMT-1214.html

http://www.macworld.com/news/2002/05/22 ... /index.php

scot7y1 · Post by **scot7y1** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:23 pm

So what exactly do they control? Is it just the mouse cursor, or can you just move anything on the screen??

Komplex · Post by **Komplex** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 2:21 am

www.ucapps.de

the midibox 64 doesn't have to be configured with knobs. you can just as easily set up a button/switch matrix with dozens of buttons...

Add to that 16 banks of settings...

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:27 am

an even easier way of doing setups with 64 buttons or more:
http://geocities.com/midiboutique/index.html

and it'll probably be cheaper than setting it up yourself. They even do a 2048 input scanmatrix!!! hehe.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:33 am

Ehm.... Hello?

I've had this thing for over 6 months. And i'm still running with the included battery's.
You cant get a much better layout then this for 256 buttons. (4x64)

And the knob on top can be used for scrolling through scene's and tracks.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:37 am

but it's still "just" a 64-button setup. I want a big setup, that's accessible all the time. I'm thinking something like 128x8 midi channels

Tuur · Post by **Tuur** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:24 pm

Expandable system by other micromodul controllers or another LX1

http://www.faderfox.de/Faderfox-Homepag ... glish.html

computo · Post by **computo** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:34 pm

that faderfox button box is the shit. Where can I get that Stateside?