Building an Advanced Traktor Controller with MIDIbox
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  1. #1
    Tech Wizard Guust-Fi's Avatar
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    Default Building an Advanced Traktor Controller with MIDIbox

    Hi folks, I learned a lot from this site so I thought it was about time to give something back .

    During the beginning of this year I started thinking about building a MIDI controller together with a friend. Actually I'll be helping him to build his own controller.



    The controller will be based on the MIDIbox hardware platform.
    I attached a rough sketch of it to this thread below.

    Because this is kind of long term project we decided to set up a blog about the work in progress.
    By trying to cover the entire process completely we hope it will convince other people to start building a MIDI controller themself.

    I'll try to update this post once in a while but its easier just to subscribe to our blog's RSS feed.
    If there are any suggestions or questions feel free to comment or drop us a line

    Summary
    • 4 Channels
    • Illuminated buttons
    • Backlit LCD Screen
    • Encoders (non-detended) with LED rings
    • Jog Wheel (Optical Encoder)
    • DIY wooden enclosure
    • Cost so far: 421 €


    Progress
    1. Parts ordered
    2. Core module soldered


    The Blog
    http://diymidicontroller.blogspot.com/

    Pictures can be found at:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/guust-f...7621776308768/
    Last edited by Guust-Fi; 08-22-2009 at 02:47 PM.

  2. #2
    Tech Guru Str8upDrew's Avatar
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    Nice layout, seems like it can be used in all kinds of setups.
    What optical encoder are you using for the jog wheel??

  3. #3
    Tech Wizard Guust-Fi's Avatar
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    The controller could be used with Ableton as well. I'm not using Ableton at the moment but we kept it in mind designing the layout.

    Something we deliberately left out (cf. Ableton) were "Send" knobs such as on the VCM-600. Of course if necessary the smart knobs (encoders) beneath the EQ could be used together with a modifier to achieve the same thing.

    In the beginning we might just mount a regular encoder until the jog wheel assembly is finished.

    Eventually, the jog wheel will be custom made - inspired by DJ Raseri's Scratchtroller.
    Infrared LEDs and an IR photodiode sensors from an old ball mouse will be used to accomplish this. An old motor from a hard disc should give the jogs a similar feel to those on the VCI-100. Moreover, they will be touch sensitive.

    There are some pictures of the sensors and the hard drive motor on my Flickr page already.

    More info on the concept can be found here: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/scratchcontroller
    Last edited by Guust-Fi; 08-17-2009 at 02:10 PM.

  4. #4

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    Very cool, and I'll be keeping up with your progress. A couple thoughts, as I've been spending a lot of time thinking about Traktor and controllers recently:

    1) For a Midibox, you'll need 4 buttons for the menu nav if you're planning on using the LCD. Those buttons are <,>, Execute, Snapshot.

    2) You might wish to give yourself some breathing room around the edge of the panel. As you know, most times the footprint of the component is larger than what shows on the top panel, and some of your buttons, etc, are pretty close to the edge.

    3) Does Traktor allow for direct button selection of the effects? It seems (although I'm not 100% sure) that it only allows for scrolling (next/previous) through effects types. Again, I could be wrong on that one.

  5. #5
    Tech Wizard Guust-Fi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by questionable View Post
    1) For a Midibox, you'll need 4 buttons for the menu nav if you're planning on using the LCD. Those buttons are <,>, Execute, Snapshot.
    Do these buttons have to be dedicated to those functions at all time?
    That might be a problem then.
    I was thinking about using the first row of buttons under the LCD screen together with a modifier key to put them or perhaps the entire controller into "navigation" mode.

    3) Does Traktor allow for direct button selection of the effects? It seems (although I'm not 100% sure) that it only allows for scrolling (next/previous) through effects types. Again, I could be wrong on that one.
    In the past that was the case. In Traktor Pro it is possible to directly select effects. The upcoming version will also feature 4 FX slots.

  6. #6

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    Re: LCD Nav Buttons

    I believe the nav buttons can be remapped, but not on the fly. That has to be done as a modification to the Midibox64 or 64E MIOS application that you're using. My nav buttons don't send out any Midi, and that's the default. There's probably more info on the ucapps forums.

    Re: Traktor directly selecting effects.

    Good to know, I'll have to break out the manual. I couldn't figure out how to do that last night.

  7. #7
    Tech Convert
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    very nice my friend be sure to post the final product!

  8. #8
    Tech Mentor kaleaf's Avatar
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    have you found any good led rings?

  9. #9
    Tech Wizard Guust-Fi's Avatar
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    The only preassembled ledrings I know of are from Ledtronics.

    There used to be a group buy on the MIDIbox forums:
    http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.p...c,12771.0.html

    They are expensive though. I'm just going to use 3mm LEDs which is a lot cheaper.

  10. #10
    Tech Wizard Guust-Fi's Avatar
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    Some progress... we managed to assemble our very first module. Perhaps the most important one, the core module, and it's working!



    I know, not a big deal
    Check out the blog for more...

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