The Choppertone - DIY Controller

I believe it was a post last year on Create Digital Music (with the announcement of the availability of the builder brain) that inspired me to consider building my own custom midi controller. I've been using Ableton Live for almost 5 years and have a couple controllers (Axion 25, Launchpad), but what I really wanted was something that could be used in an intimate live performance situation (coffee houses, living rooms, small theaters, etc). I also wanted the face of the instrument with its buttons and pots and sliders to face the audience, rather than be sitting on a desktop, out of view. And I wanted the enclosure to be all wood. No plastic, no aluminum. Soft rounded edges. Something you could play on your lap and (with a strap) standing up. Kind of a cross between an elegantly smooth-carved jewelry box, and a guitar body. Most of all, I wanted this instrument to feel warm and beautiful.

Last fall, I attended a short talk at the Seattle Decibel Festival on building DIY midi controllers with Ean Golden. The one suggestion of Ian's that really stuck with me was this: Take your time with the design; look at every angle and every possibility. I took this to heart particularly in regard to working with wood.

As far as choosing the components, pretty much straight away I purchased the Livid Brain and also bought turn boards, slide boards, and a breakout board from them. I had viewed the livid DIY tutorials and I liked the way you could configure everything in a very flexible way. For buttons, I really dug those arcade buttons that are used on the MIDI fighter. The action and response to the touch are really good. I bought 32 black ones from DJTT.

For the design of the faceplate, I found some free software from frontpanelexpress.com, which served my purposes. I spent several months toying with all kinds of enclosure shapes and arrangement of components. My design keywords were these: simple, elegant, warm, tactile. I made enclosure shapes out of cardboard and finally came up with my final design in early December. The dimensions were 30"long, 8"wide, and a depth/thickness of around 2". Here's a shot of the faceplate from frontpanelexpress:



Because the thickness of the faceplate would have to be around 1/4", I would have to make some adjustment with my pots and sliders (which are designed for thinner sturdier material). I decided to cut a rectangular hole in the faceplate with the exact shape of the slider pot. I would then attach the slider on top with some kind of guitar pickguard material. For the turn pots, the holes need to be burrowed out a little bit on the back side in order for
them to fit securely.

Now to the enclosure...I decided to go "all-in" and hire someone who had some skills. My wife was friends with a fellow in town named Carlos, who did custom woodworking. Carlos had a nice business going on, doing
custom high-end work; lots of furniture, and plenty of work on boats and yachts. He was also a big music fan and hosted a weekly world-music show on a local radio station. When I came to him and explained and described my
project, he totally got it. He suggested a 1/4 inch plywood top of maple burl, with the frame made out of walnut. He also made a great suggestion regarding the placement of the brain; he designed a little "lip" on the inside
of the frame so that the brain would sit secure when inserting and pulling out the USB cord. All the boards and the brain were attached to the back side of the faceplate, which made it really easy to keep things clean and
efficient with the wiring.

One week later the enclosure came back. Here's what it looked like:



The next project was finishing the wood. I decided to use a very simple, though time consuming process of using Danish finishing oil. Each day I'd put a coat on and then wipe it down. I put nine coats on. By that last coat, it was really starting to shine:



The assembly was the next challenge. It had been years since I picked up a sodering iron, so I got some mentoring from one of the engineers at the radio station I work at. I spent a few days just getting used to the whole process of sodering, tin tipping, and seeing how it all splurted out when it got hot enough. After I got comfortable I got working on the analog connections. And I got pretty good at it quite quickly. In the meantime, I figured out a design for the pickguards that would cover the slider pots. The design came from a Fender Thunderbird Bass. I bought the plastic pickguard sheet from stewmac.com and Carlos cut it into shape. Here's what it looked like about 1/2 way through:



The last assembly section was with the button matrix. Tedious, but doable. And here's the finished product., both the outside look...


and the inside look.


I had a few issues with the Livid Brain configure software at first, but got them worked out. And finally, I spent a whole day yesterday using the Choppertone with Ableton and working on a little mashup performance thingy which I'll soon record on video.

Thanks!