Reply to The Simpletron

Since I have posted a few comments in other threads about my new build, I thought it would be sensible to start a new thread on the subject.
The premise is to build a complete DJ solution for going round your mates house. For example, you want it to be cheap ... really cheap ... so, if there is an accident you won't spend too long crying about the loss of funds.

Another part of the idea is to make it as easy as possible to use Traktor in a 'foreign' environment, so I really wanted to be able to take all my gear with me. I came up with the idea of building a PC in an old Technics 1210 flight case and using a home made Traktor controller.

Since I had built a few PC's over the years, I had a few parts lying around that I was able to utilise. The hard drive (160gb Pata) came free with a piece of OEM gear I bought some months ago. The DVD drive was taken from an older computer I had built, as were some of the case accessories I needed to install the metalwork which was required to fit out the 1210 case. Ram is relatively cheap to buy these days, but I did have 1 x 1gb of ram in the house, so I used it. Here is an early shot of the computer.



As far as the controller goes, I wanted to make it as easy to use as possible. I've spent too long at parties looking through vinyl, getting the right pitch, performing the mix and then starting over for the next record, to be bothered with it any more. My friends know I can mix reasonably well, so I don't believe they are going to be too bothered if they see me turn up with out my beloved 1210's. In fact some of them may even get the chance to speak to me for a bit.

I wanted something that would resemble a 3 channel mixer. Something that made it simple to mix with. I came up with this....



The 10 arcade buttons on the top will be assignable for effects. The blue button will be a second function (Shift key), so you can perform other tricks. The round pots will be bass and treble, depending on whether you have the shift button pressed. The black will be sync. Faders will be volume, red will be load track and green will be play track. The small on-off-on switches will be used for track selection, pitch nudge and pitch select. Remember I only want to carry out the basic functions of tractor at the cheapest possible price. I have set a budget of less than