4MidiLoop Arcade Button mod + 4 Jog Wheels !!!

Hey just wanted to post pics of my new setup.

I recently bought a 4MidiLoop believeing that it would be a solution to the dreaded "Layer" theory that drives me insane while playing Live. Perhaps I stand alone on believeing that "layers" are a drag, but I do believe "layers" interfere with the natrual work flow....especially while playing live.

Anyways I do love the 4MidiLoop, but its not the be all end all 4 Deck solution it boasts. First of all the Button are small and the Play & Cue Buttons are way to close to the Volume fader IMO. Also the Buttons are not the most responcive Buttons ive dealt with. If you dont strike them dead center they dont engage, and even if you do strike them dead center, but not hard enough, they dont engage or they will engage for a millisecond then stop. I can deal with this Button behaviar on most functions (Cue Points, Key Lock ect etc) but I CAN NOT deal with this problem on "Play" buttons. Addmittedly there is a learning curve with these Buttons, but still I dont believe getting use to these Buttons will totally enliminate the possibility that they might not engage. Its not fun to DJ live while believeing that there is a possibility that the "Play" Button might not engage properly when stricking it.

Also The 4MidiLoop doesnt have a good Jog Wheel solution. It does have deticated Endless Encoders that try to act like a Jog Wheel, but it is an Epic Fail if you are used to using the standard Jog Wheels that most Midi Controllers have, mainly because you cant spin the encoders in a constant way, you always have to stop then turn again as your fingers cant continually turn the encoders. For this reason....the Encoder Jogs pretty much suck.

So after much thought and research I decided to tackle the Jog Wheel problem first. I wanted 4 Jog Wheels to acompany the 4 Deck situation that the 4MidiLoop offers. So I ended up buying 2 ICON IDJ midi controllers and stripping them of everything but the Jog Wheels. Then went to EVERYTHING PLASTIC and got 2 Plastic top plates custom made to cover all the holes from the Buttons, Dials and Faders that I stripped out. Once the face plates were on, all that remained was dual Jog Wheels on both controllers. The ICON IDJ Touch Sensitive Jog Wheels are THE strong point of the contoller. I would compare their usability to the VCI-100 Jogs. The dials faders and buttons on the ICON IDJ are total crap and its not possible to get LED feedback from the buttons (even while using the included software). However you can use the included software to change Midi Channels and velocity etc etc, so thats pretty useful. Also if you make changes to the controllers with the software, they are fed to the controller and the controller then stays in the state you program it in without having to run the software again. Also there are several Buttons that have an "always on" state (which I covered with the top plate), as well as the Jog Wheels which also have an "always on" State (Red & Blue) depending if the "touch senser" is engaged or not. When I custom made the top plates, I made sure to make seperate holes under the Jog Wheels where the "always on" LEDs where so the Jogs are always lit from underneath. This is great in low light siuations.

Next I tackled the Button problem (4MidiLoop Buttons dont always work) by adding Arcade buttons to the bottom of the 4MidiLoop. For the brain of the Arcade buttons, I used a MidiFighter board that easily fits inside the 4MidiLoop. BTW there is PLENTY of room inside the 4MidiLoop for modding. Of course I couldnt fit an "assembled" MidiFighter inside the 4MidiLoop, so I just used the brain portion of the board and soldered wire from the board to each Arcade button and made sure to insulate the board so it is seperated from the 4MidiLoop board.

To drill the holes in the 4midiloop I used a step drill for metal. The trick was to make the drill speed slow and to take my time. But all I used was an adverage drill, no machine shop of press of anything. And for the template, I used the top of the MidiFighter for a guide to mark the hole size and spacing.

The final width of this this entire setup (including the Jog Wheels) isnt even as wide as an NI S4......

Here is pics of the finished project !!!!