Endless potentiometers for MIDI controller

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
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I am planning to build a MIDI controller for Ableton Live with my new Arduino. I'd like to include some endless potentiometers. Does anyone know the correct specs for MIDI use, where to find them, how to interface them with the Arduino, and how to program them? Any information at all would be much appreciated.
These endless pots are used in the Akai MPD24 and several other MIDI controllers.

Thanks.
Jesse

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are they endless potentiometers, or rotary encoders? A rotary encoder will output signals that can be decoded to give speed and direction of rotation.

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also, most rotary encoders have a tactile "click" as you turn them.

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Here's a nice reference for the MIDI spec that I've found useful: http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tech/midispec.htm

You can send/receive MIDI data with the arduino through the Serial library (although I haven't tried this) or just use the arduino to communicate with some "host" software that handles the MIDI IO such as processing (I have tried this and it works great).

If you search the forums here for "midi" you should be able to find some good threads.

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Thanks for the replies.
I believe that what I'm looking for is rotary encoders. They will send a simple increment/decrement message via MIDI. There are a couple of types - I just need the ones that send a simple up/down message - I don't need to know the absolute position of the knob. Now I just need to know what resistance value and other components I should look for to interface best with the Arduino - I've found a couple of places that sell them.