Ableton Forum

I suspect if you are into experimental music and you like Ableton Live, then you also want to create your own custom midi/usb controller so that you can use Live in the most efficient way possible. Not to mention the extra cool style points you'll get for not using your mouse and keyboard on stage.

There are a lot of sites out there selling circuit boards and components, like Arduino ( http://www.arduino.cc ) and Doepfer (http://www.doepfer.de/) ... but my main concern is picking the right board to start with.

I personally want to create a controller with over 64 buttons... similar to the Monome (http://www.monome.org) that is nearly impossible to find/purchase. How do I know what the maximum number of buttons or other input-components will be for a board? Arduino's board seems to have 14 pins for inputs on its board, but can this be expanded with some sort of add-on chip? Do keyboards with 64 keys actually have 64 inputs on their boards?

Does anyone have other DIY sites or boards they suggest starting with?

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Here's the site you want: http://www.ucapps.de/
You're in for a bit of a learning curve but you can build anything kind of controller you could think up.

+1 for ucapps!