I know that Daft Punk uses at least 4 Jazz Mutant Lemurs when they perform, but those are extremely expensive ($2,000 a piece), so I want to create my own touchscreen controllers for when I'm DJ-ing. I've got a bunch of programmers who are willing to help me with this project already, so I guess I'm just running it by everyone here to make sure it's feasible. Here's what I'm thinking:
I run VirtualDJ on my Mac when I'm DJ-ing
It accepts generic MIDI controllers
I'm planning on buying a Microtouch 15" touch screen overlay (product number 10994) and hooking it up to an Arduino. NOTE: the Microtouch 15" touch screen overlay is not an actual LCD screen or anything, it's a clear panel thing.
On the touchscreen controller, I want various different events to happen when I touch different areas of the screen. For example I want these effects: high-pass/low-pass, flanger, phaser...
So...is this possible? Which Arduino would work best for this application? How would I connect the Arduino to my computer? Can an Arduino output a MIDI signal to my computer? Also, would I be able to (at a later time) integrate some sort of lighting (LED array?) underneath the touchscreen and have it react to what buttons I press on the touchscreen?
Sorry for all the questions, but as I said, I'm a complete noob.
If the touchscreen you mention is of the "4 wire resistive" type, then it is absolutely possible to interface it to Arduino.
It would also be possible to detect a touch in different zones.
Sending MIDI from Arduino has been done a lot
Just google Arduino + resistive touchpad and arduino + MIDI.
EDIT: You should not plan on implementing the actual effects on Arduino, it is not powerfull enough for that. But i can send MIDI commands to other effects units.
It's actually a 5-wire resistive. That's the problem I'm running into; there aren't really any fully documented interfaces for a 5-wire. What sort of other unit would you suggest I send the MIDI commands to?
Does the manufacturer provide any documentation for the touch pad ?
By the way the Lemur is a s far as i remember it a multitouch interface, you can not implement that with a resistive touch pad. You will only be able to sense touch at one point on the surface at a time, unless i'm seriously wrong here
I suggest implementing the effects by sending MIDI commands to some kind of multi effects unit. There are many available, ranging from simple floor units for guitars, to rackmountable multieffects units that support serveral simultanious effects, and some can be used as stereo units or two seperate mono units.
But if you have to buy both an Arduino board, the touch pad and a effects unit, then it might be cheaper to by a Korg kaos pad, i mean, it's basically an effects unit with a touchpad interface.
I haven't been able to find any documentation on the touch pad. All I've found is here
I know the Lemur are multi-touch, but I'm alright with just having it be single-touch. The BlipBox is kind of like what I'm looking to do, and it works, but I don't know how it's implemented. I've emailed the person and hopefully they can explain that to me.
Eventually, I do plan on buying the KP3 Kaoss, but as of right now, that amount of money is an issue (poor college student :-/ ).
