zebra's x-y controls

ghast · Post by **ghast** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:10 pm

does anyone out there have tactile control over all 4 x-y's at once? I understand that something like a kaos pad could do one at a time, but 4 at once would be keen. My wife would never approve a Lemur, so I have been looking at using a tablet, and it seems like the cheapest way to go. Is there another way that I am overlooking? Is anyone out there rocking the tablet right now?

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:32 pm

maybe 4 nanopads
usb joysticks
pick up some used padkontrolers
or a combo of all that

rip it all apart and rebuild then post some pics

Bazaaa · Post by **Bazaaa** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:27 pm

Ipod touch might work also. The new version of touchoch is editable.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 6:03 pm

This is actually one reason I don't like Zebra2's X-Y pads, there's no controller out there that really even supports it easily. Yeah you can assign each axis to a knob or fader, but then why not just set up the mapping to virtual faders or knobs instead of X-Y's?

Maybe if you have 4 iPod Touches.....

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:00 pm

the xy stuff in zebra was very useful before live 8
because the x/y pads where the first set of controls so you could map them to what ever you needed.

ciw · Post by **ciw** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:10 am

i've currently got access to 3 at once with wii controller + nunchuck... total cost 30 quid from ebay. that's mapping pitch and roll of each controller plus the nunchuk joystick.

Nial · Post by **Nial** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:39 pm

Well damn!

I was actually waiting for another paycheck or two to get started on making a midi controller with 4 x-y pads/touch surfaces for a friend who wanted to use it with Ableton. I met up with him a few weeks ago and he's still interested. Maybe I'll get back on this project...

The plan was to get four touch screen overlays and wire them up to an Arduino board. The issue is I haven't figured out how to do MIDI over USB yet.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8448
or these:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8977

But if you're desperate for USB Midi instead of old school Midi you could get one of these and wire 'em up:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=9108

:gets out his soldering iron:

elxicano · Post by **elxicano** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:44 am

Hey anyone that's working with Zebra... thought you should know that on KVR in the forum for U-He, there is a patch creation contest, where there prize is a new Alpha version of a program that Urs Heckmann is working on...

More info here:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=255878

At the very least, it's a nice learning experience.

I'll be adding to the contest as well...

ghast · Post by **ghast** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:08 am

thanks for the help, guys. Iphone seems like the easiest solution, if only the screen were a little bigger. The tablet idea I had turned out to be not so great because you can only control 1 at a time.

logic_user99 · Post by **logic_user99** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:13 pm

Nial wrote:Well damn!

I was actually waiting for another paycheck or two to get started on making a midi controller with 4 x-y pads/touch surfaces for a friend who wanted to use it with Ableton. I met up with him a few weeks ago and he's still interested. Maybe I'll get back on this project...

The plan was to get four touch screen overlays and wire them up to an Arduino board. The issue is I haven't figured out how to do MIDI over USB yet.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8448
or these:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8977

But if you're desperate for USB Midi instead of old school Midi you could get one of these and wire 'em up:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=9108

:gets out his soldering iron:

Holy cow! Get to it man! I'd love to see what you come up with. Do you have Arduino experience?

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:57 pm

Nial wrote:Well damn!

I was actually waiting for another paycheck or two to get started on making a midi controller with 4 x-y pads/touch surfaces for a friend

do it man do it!..
i wonder how big the market is for making custom made to order midi controllers.
i've chatted with some of my nerdier then me makers faire friends about this but we never get anything done.. i also talk with other friends about making custom software but we end up getting high lol.. o well i'm going to go make a bass patch

o hey i Love Colorado Springs!! such a beautiful place to visit.
my old drummer is from their. we dropped in on his parents when we where on tour many moons ago and played a show at some coffee shop. then ended up at this jam party and played allot of punk rock music

ya good times.

ghast · Post by **ghast** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:10 am

bosonHavoc wrote: i wonder how big the market is for making custom made to order midi controllers.

I would think probably not so great. A couple of years from now, we will all be swimming in multi-touch tech. Maybe I should just chill out for a bit. Maybe switch gears to a nice big ribbon controller as a pet project for now.

Nial · Post by **Nial** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:05 am

ghast wrote:
bosonHavoc wrote: A couple of years from now, we will all be swimming in multi-touch tech.

That's actually something I got on my plate as well!

Multi-touch shouldn't be all that hard; MS has a C#/.NET API for it already. If yer into that sort of thing, download the source code for the demo they have. Compile it, plug in to USB mice, then get a friend and you can play tick-tack-toe on one screen.

On top of MS's stuff, take a look at some of the stuff that's been done with just a Wii-mote and a projector. I'm planing on using similar ideas to create a sort of "Multi-touch MIDI Controller Host" environment that I can project onto any surface I want. From there, I can start building applications that would be totally customizable.

Just imagine your whole desk being an array of x-y pads... hell, project x-y pads on the cat!

Honestly, I think a hardware device would be a much quicker project but I'll start poking at this stuff again tomorrow. I got nothing else to do at work...

Nial · Post by **Nial** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:16 am

logic_user99 wrote:Do you have Arduino experience?

Yea It's sitting here in front of me and I'm looking for those MIDI connectors I bought some time back...

The next step on this project is to order some parts...

And I just got paid so I'll get on that now!

ghast · Post by **ghast** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:05 am

Nial wrote:
ghast wrote:
bosonHavoc wrote: A couple of years from now, we will all be swimming in multi-touch tech.
That's actually something I got on my plate as well!

Multi-touch shouldn't be all that hard; MS has a C#/.NET API for it already. If yer into that sort of thing, download the source code for the demo they have. Compile it, plug in to USB mice, then get a friend and you can play tick-tack-toe on one screen.

I'm trying to keep the price around $150.00. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the beginning. Any price higher than that, I'll just watch multi touch pricing go down and spring for one of those. If I could find a cheaper model than this, like on clearance, I wonder what I could do with those. My tech level is pretty high, but my wallet is pretty pathetisad.

zebra's x-y controls

zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls

Re: zebra's x-y controls