Creating the mother of all controllers...

James the Ant · Post by **James the Ant** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:27 am

I am attempting to create the mother of all controllers. I'm thinking of hooking up a microKontrol, a BCR2000, a trigger finger, and a Fantom x-8 to give me a decent amount of control for Live 5. I want to make it really obvious when I'm performing that the music is being created and performed. So I need lots of touching, tweaking, whacking, etc

Is anyone out there doing anything like this?

Ideally I'd love to get a custom made controller - and fill it up with more joysticks than you can shake a stick at (if you were so inclined). But sadly, I have no hope of getting my brain to figure out how to make my own, and no one in Australia (... or at least in Brisbane) seems to make them.

So I'll shell out my hard earned pingers and buy lots of commercial controllers.

Anyone tried using 3-4 different controllers at the same time...? Does it work? And does anyone know a controller with more than one joystick?

James

Tuur · Post by **Tuur** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:59 am

Maybe you could use one of these too?

http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/pr ... rview.html

blakbeltjonez · Post by **blakbeltjonez** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:32 pm

if you look at the midibox site, they pretty much lay out what you need to do in order to DIY your own controller. they aren't that hard to make if you're handy with a soldering iron. there are also people who make the circuit boards ,so that eliminates a major pain in the ass - all you have to do is figure out the layout, decide what components you want to use, and build the case. the metalwork for the case would probably be the hardest part, but it's certainly doabble. lots of DIY examples on the site

check it out... also search the forums here, it's been talked about a few times before

http://www.ucapps.de/

robin · Post by **robin** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:40 pm

I half-way house when DIY'ing a controller would be the use of the Doepfer components (like Robert Henke has done).

The tricky part with all diy controllers is the cost of the buttons (and to a lesser extent the other things like faders/knobs etc)

Macrostructure · Post by **Macrostructure** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:56 pm

http://www.doepfer.com
http://www.macrostructure.net/unitone.htm

If you tell me what you want we can talk about building it

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:56 pm

I use a uc33e, DM2, and BCR-2000 to control Live, along with keyboard mappings maxed out. Works great. If the devices you want have midi thru--great, just chain them one into another with midi cords. Sadly the uc33e doesn't do mide thru, so you either have to use up one midi input in live and a usb port on your computer, or have the uc33 at the start of any midi chain. The DM2 is a whole other ball of wax, requiring the use of a pc, usb port, midi ox/yoke, and the DM2toMidi software. The BCR products have great midi implementation, including midi thru. Bottom line, if you can get all the devices hooked up to you computer, they will work great. I personally think that it is a lot easier to simply buy warrantied new products that are built and tested, as opposed to going the DIY route. Why--the DIY route is often NOT cheaper, requires a lot of time and skill, has lots of possible frustrations and unknown issues, and by the time you design and build your custom controller, a new version of Live comes out or you change the way you work, or find a new favorite plug-in, and suddenly your all-in-one controller doesn't do it all anymore. Between the 3 controllers I use, I have everything I need right at my finertips without even switching presets/scenes on the controllers, which multiply your amount of things you can control.

Ryan

Macrostructure · Post by **Macrostructure** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 4:39 pm

quandry wrote:I personally think that it is a lot easier to simply buy warrantied new products that are built and tested, as opposed to going the DIY route. Why--the DIY route is often NOT cheaper, requires a lot of time and skill, has lots of possible frustrations and unknown issues, Ryan

Couldn't agree more!

quandry wrote:and by the time you design and build your custom controller, a new version of Live comes out or you change the way you work, or find a new favorite plug-in, and suddenly your all-in-one controller doesn't do it all anymore. Between the 3 controllers I use, I have everything I need right at my finertips without even switching presets/scenes on the controllers, which multiply your amount of things you can control.

Nah, don't agree with that. Not if you do it right, and with Building Blocks software tagged on to a custom unit the sky is the limit, sorry.