Hi there my lovlies, i am new to arduino but not inexperienced, i would like to know if this is possible and if so which board would be necessary.
right i want to make custom hardware controllers for vsts, to give them the same feel you would otherwise only get on hardware synthesizers. These would at first be custom one offs for me and if i get the manufacturing process down and the consent from the developers i would start leaking them to the public.
I am coming from a predominantly software based background so it this is a little bit of a large step and although slightly intimidating quite liberating as well
How many hardware controllers do you want. Buttons, analog pots, sliders etc. Arduino can handle a few and with I/O expanders a reasonable amount but then not so fast.
On the other hand MIDI is not so fast, but USBMIDI is fast.
The MIDI connection, Arduino USB is a serial port, not a full USBMIDI port so there must be some adaptions. Or you can connect a standard serial MIDI port to the Arduino serial port.
thank you for the advice i might wait for the livid board in that case, i do need a few connectors to be honest i mean say i was making a clone of vanguard vsts i would need 10led screens quite a few rotary encoders/pots, a few leds and some buttons its quite a feat but im not advanced enough to build my own boards from scratch unfortunatly. this is the final end product i assure you im not gong to blindly jsut jump into that project straight away. The manufacturing is somthing that is easy for me :S but the actual backend isnt (although im quite comfy with the software/hardware integration)
One way to build a MIDI controller with LOADS of controllers and using Arduino for this, would be to add many arduinos and a MIDI-Merger. That way the Arduinos would share the load...
im just going to wait till these get out there so i can see what im dealing with, working in max/msp is also preferable to be honest becaue it increases the amount of time i can bare sitting down coding
I built myself a little midi controller recently with the arduino, for virtual DJ, 1x Crossfader, 2xPots and 8 buttons via a voltage divider on an analog pin. Very simple quick and dirty, didn't take into account any incoming data though.
If I was to build something bigger I'd go for a couple of arduino megas, enough pins for oodles of buttons, rotary encoders, 32 analog sensors (pots, sliders, breath control, force, touch pad, light sensors), with plenty of pins left over for an LCD and a memory card to read/store/update configuration data.
thanks reggie yeah i was looking at the megas i guess they are probably my only option at the moment, hmmmmm i dont know what to do, most of these boards dont handle the amount of leds i need i mean i think i mentioned 10 but i just counted and vanguard has 16 eeeeek i know this can be compensated for with a redesign but i want to keep it quite close to the original design to add to the appeal of the controller.
Simple : I'm finishing this controller http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyrillearndt/sets/72157621768853033/ (I will get the frontplate in a few days) that is very advanced... and I'll expand it to a platform with more pots possible, more buttons/pads possible and multiple displays. (Multiple displays is important for VST like Vanguard, you only counted the LEDs necessary ;))
I would say, the MIDIDIY platform you posted the link of doesn't convince me so much.
I'm very curious about your midi controller tep, I primarily wanted to build my own to keep costs down, I used to own a peavey pc1600x which was around £300, arduino + a bunch of sensors + my code != £300 I like the idea of the arduino controlling things, it can be as modular as you make it. My idea was to start small, 4 analog sensors, and then swap in banks of different CCs depending on what you want to control. Mine was going to be an Arduino, 4 pots, a box and a couple of buttons, with expansion slots for more sensors/buttons. I wasn't aiming mine at vsts in particular, just a plain ole midi control surface for anything that can take the input I wanted to allow the user to name the pages and controls, save/load snapshots that don't send out values until the sensor matches snapshot value.
As for the multiple displays, something like I2C LCDs would be a thought, hook up to 7 on the bus I think? But then you are starting to get into the realms of big money I fear.
Sacred Geometry, that is an insane amount of controls that you're trying to get at
I look forward to seeing it The things that struck me the most about the 2 control surfaces that I've used (Peavey PC1600x and Doepfer pocket control) was the configuration software, the peavey was by far and away the best featured, what let it down I think was the windows software interface for changing things.
It shouldn't need clunky convoluted software to do what is a relatively simple job, Send these bytes and call yourself 'this label' whenever you need to identify yourself, t'ain't rocket science.
The doepfer again, was limited to what was programmed onto the brick, lots of space left over as I recall, just 0 inclination from the manufacturer to add in the labels/CCs of your choice or provide a way for the user to do it themselves.
Looking at the time it actually takes to write out 16 labels + CC/Channel mapping and fire it across serial, I'm super annoyed at doepfers lack of foresight and effort. Then again, doepfer had some beautifully modular designs to their other kit.
