8 Knob Class-Compliant USB Controller - $20

[AldenM]

Hello all!

First off, while this is my first post, I have been lurking for years. Love this site.

Anyways I've always been frustrated with the lack of dedicated knobs when using virtual synths, and recently put together a clever (IMHO) little circuit that is USB compatible, MIDI class compliant, and works with any modern OS (including iOS (iphone/ipad)) without any drivers.

It's 2"x4", USB powered; it has 8 knobs, a power led, and a microusb jack. It's great for ableton live, as most of their built in plugins have a simplistic 8 knob control scheme. Imagine one of these, but thinner, USB only, and with 8 knobs instead of 16. Debating adding multiple banks, but haven't as of yet (seems silly to me when they are pots not encoders)

I've been running the numbers and thinking about creating a kickstarter for it. I think if I sell at least 100 units, I can break even at the $20 price point for kits, and $25 for pre-assembled. This is, however, without a case I've been trying to figure out the best option for a case - for me, I would want folded sheet metal, but even plastic seems cost-prohibitive at such small quantity unfortunately.

I intend on offering a kit with all DIP parts except for the microusb connector, which will be soldered on by me, but I would also like to sell a pre-assembled version which may or may not be DIP.

Would anyone on here be interested? Is there a demand for something like this or am I a niche user? If you would be interested, would you but a kit or preassembled? Would you still buy it without a case (I'm guessing kits would, but non-kits wouldn't)?

Thanks for your time! Hopefully I'll be posting a link to the kickstarter soon

[Antimon]

For some reason I missed this topic when it was posted. Interesting! Could you explain a bit what sets this controller apart from e.g. Behringer's BCR2000 or Korg's NanoKontrol?