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 Forum index » DIY Hardware and Software » Arduino
Help a newbie construct an unconventional MIDI controller
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davideh



Joined: Jun 26, 2015
Posts: 3
Location: Pune, India / Stockholm, Sweden

PostPosted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 10:38 am    Post subject: Help a newbie construct an unconventional MIDI controller
Subject description: I need a technical tutorial or something similar
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Hey everyone, I'm totally new here, hope I post this in the right subforum. Since I guess what I need will be based on Arduino I figured I should post it here.

Alright, some short info about myself. I'm a hobby DJ and producer from Sweden, currently living in India during 1.5 years doing some studying and internship stuff here within Public Health.

I am planning a fundraising activity for the NGO (FPA India, Pune Branch) I'm doing internship at and it involves me DJing. And I would like to construct unconventional controllers for that (and for usage later in other DJ activities of course).

I very much lack technical/electronic knowledge. My background is basically only musical. So I would need some help/advice/tutorial on how I can construct something like the following:

Around 10 long ribbon type (like 1 meter each) controllers that will make me be able to control things in Ableton Live that use continuous MIDI data, like volume of tracks, frequency cutoffs of filters etc. And I'm on a quite tight budget also, so CHEAP solutions are very much appreciated.

Now these controllers don't have to be ribbon based, but I want them to be LARGE, like 1 meter each, since I want unconventional stuff. Like a mixer with really long sliders and each slider can be physically placed where I want to place it (that is, the sliders should not be stuck together like in a conventional mixer, I want to be able to place the "sliders" maybe 50 cm apart where I feel they would fit well and cool in my DJ booth).

Thanks a lot for any help you guys can provide me with. I've done a lot of googling/youtubing already but can't really find any easy DIY tutorial on what I'm looking for.

/David aka Ehrnebeat

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blue hell
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Joined: Apr 03, 2004
Posts: 24079
Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 3:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Welcome David.

the two options that seem easiest are a ribbon controller or an Ondes Martenot like interface.

The first one in a DIY version works with magnetic tape (which happens to be conductive for some varieties). You put a voltage over the tape and press it down onto a conductive layer, and then from the voltage measured on the conductive layer you can infer the position.

The second one is a construction with a wheel on a potentiometer and a wheel on the far end of the controller. A rope is wound around the potentiometer wheel a couple of times, and then goes to the remote wheel and then back. A ring is connected to the rope and you stick you finger into that and then move the ring to make the wheel on the potentiometer turn - the maximum travel distance is determined by the wheel size. The potentiometer has a voltage applied over it, and by measuring the voltage on its tap you get positional information.

There are some articles about both solutions on this forum, I'm sure google would find those. For the first one you could try Scott Stites or Ian Fritz as additional search terms.

The varying voltage you'd get from both can be fed into an Arduino analog input, and from there with some software you could generate MIDI signals to control all kinds of stuff in a DAW or Synth environment.

Hope this will will bring you a bit closer to your goal.

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also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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davideh



Joined: Jun 26, 2015
Posts: 3
Location: Pune, India / Stockholm, Sweden

PostPosted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Thanks for your reply!

Being totally new to all of this DIY world and living in India at the moment (I've been to electronic stores here and they look like question marks when I ask them about membrane potentiometers and online I haven't been able to find any Indian provider of these either), could you (or someone else) provide me with estimations/guesses (on a scale of 1-5 where 5 is the easiest/chepeast/most newbie-friendly et.c...) of the following on the Ribbon solution and the Ondes Martenot like solution (and any potential additional solution that comes to anyone's mind):

1, Easiness of construction

2, Total cheapness of all the components needed (remember, I want to construct around ten of these controllers, and I want the information from them preferably to go through one USB cable into my laptop)

3, Availability of the components needed (like, are all components I would need relatively common and easy to find, even outside US/Europe/the developed world?)

4, Time needed for the construction

And also, if someone has a link to a really simple and good tutorial that would fit my needs as closely as possible when it comes to what they are constructing, and that someone with extremely limited knowledge about these things would have little problem understanding.

I have googled a lot (maybe too much, because the internet is so big and it's hard to sort out the information i need) and I have found tutorials (but none that really deals closely enough with what I wanna construct) and I have read several threads here on electro-music.com but they tend to be a bit too technical for me...

Sorry in advance if I'm asking for too much. Cheers.
/David

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Xangis



Joined: May 24, 2015
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Location: Beaverton, OR

PostPosted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

The oneString ribbon controller might be a good solution. It's available in kit form or preassembled:

http://www.straytechnologies.com/products-page/onestring-main/onestring-controller/
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BobTheDog



Joined: Feb 28, 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

No much help but my Grandfather was born in Pune (Poona then), his dad was in the army and stationed there.

I have visited a few times, a couple of friends live there , how do you find it?

Last edited by BobTheDog on Sat Aug 15, 2015 12:57 am; edited 1 time in total
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davideh



Joined: Jun 26, 2015
Posts: 3
Location: Pune, India / Stockholm, Sweden

PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

BobTheDog wrote:
No much help but my Grandfather was porn in Pune (Poona then), his dad was in the army and stationed there.

I have visited a few times, a couple of friends live there , how do you find it?


He was porn or he was born here? Wink

Cool. Well, I like the city, apart from the traffic chaos (a subway would be wonderful). The climate is among India's best, and that is one of the main reasons I like it - I come from Sweden which is way too cold and grey for me.

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BobTheDog



Joined: Feb 28, 2005
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Whoops, edited now Smile

Cities and Chaos go together in India!

I see your point, the climate is definitely more to my liking than Swedens.

I used to go to India for a few months every year but sadly haven't been for a few years now, other responsibilities getting in the way.
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