Fancy button grid style controller with a whole lotta buttons.

This is my newest project. I'm a violinist and have been for thirty years, but although I really enjoy that, I wanted a MIDI instrument with really good tracking. There are a few MIDI violins out there, but they track very slowly (like 200+ milliseconds between playing a note and hearing it). I didn't want to learn another instrument (like keyboard or guitar), so I decided to slap together my own controller.

Since MIDI, unlike a violin, uses note numbers and quantized pitches that are NOT infinitely variable, I decided I wanted a controller that allows violin fingerings (fifths tuning), but is quantized (like a piano; there are only 87 wrong notes you can play, rather than an infinite number like on a violin). In short, I don't want to try to argue with the MIDI spec. I like note numbers. This has the added advantage of allowing me to use this thing as a clip launcher.

So I used the MIDI Fighter design as a basis for my own design, made it a lot bigger (slightly larger than two adjacent MIDIfighters; the button grid is 8x5), and did some red oak / walnut burl work for the case. The brain is a Hale Micro UMC-32+M. The buttons will hopefully be a set of forty clear buttons with black plungers (same as those used in the MF3D).

Still working out lighting options. The ThingM products known as BlinkM and MaxM are looking pretty good, though.

Edit: pictures deleted so that I have enough space to post more pictures. Once I get access to my department's webspace set back up, I'll put all the pics there and link them. Meantime I have to juggle, so I'll keep the newest pictures available and get rid of the older ones.