New Custom Controller - Looping Advice
New Custom Controller - Looping Advice Posted on: 26.05.2009 by Keely Jurik Hey everyone, I didn't want to post anything up until I had a complete concept sketch and had my website up and running, but I'd appreciate your input. I'm making a set of MIDI controllers for Club DJ use, one for either side of the mixer controlling 4 decks. I will be documenting the making of these controllers on my website so that others may use the information to build their own.Currently I use an XONE 1D and as far as looping is concerned only have a pot to control the length and it pushes down to activate it on the currently selected deck. This is ok for the moment as there aren't that many buttons/knobs on the controller, but if I'm building my own I may as well get it perfect. Take a look at the attached picture and let me know how you would utilize the empty space for Looping/Moving, note that there is a button for each deck already that will activate the loop. Also any information on how you currently use loops with your existing controllers would be very helpful, the more the better as I'll try and whittle it down to what I feel will work the best for me. Thanks for all the inspiring examples on the site Ean and also to everyone else that contributes here. Monsta | |
| Keely Jurik 26.05.2009 | Hey everyone, I didn't want to post anything up until I had a complete concept sketch and had my website up and running, but I'd appreciate your input. I'm making a set of MIDI controllers for Club DJ use, one for either side of the mixer controlling 4 decks. I will be documenting the making of these controllers on my website so that others may use the information to build their own. Currently I use an XONE 1D and as far as looping is concerned only have a pot to control the length and it pushes down to activate it on the currently selected deck. This is ok for the moment as there aren't that many buttons/knobs on the controller, but if I'm building my own I may as well get it perfect. Take a look at the attached picture and let me know how you would utilize the empty space for Looping/Moving, note that there is a button for each deck already that will activate the loop. Also any information on how you currently use loops with your existing controllers would be very helpful, the more the better as I'll try and whittle it down to what I feel will work the best for me. Thanks for all the inspiring examples on the site Ean and also to everyone else that contributes here. Monsta |
| Keely Jurik 27.05.2009 | Thanks HoxoBoxo. Those things at the top are PS3 Thumb Sticks (Thanks for that idea Ean!). They will mainly control XY effects, but with the shift key will select what effects goes into each bank. 3 on the left are the sidechained ones, first one on the right advanced effects then the other two for song selection (probably won't use those that much). Had a quick believe about the looping this morning and this is what I came up with (see attached). Based on DvlsAdvct's suggestion, it'll have a button for each loop size with the extremeties being activated by the shift key. Each deck has it's own loop button to activate it on that deck on the transport section (see the last image). Shift loop will "HOLD" the loop on the deck, so if I loop deck A with a size of 8, then want to effect a loop on another deck, shift clicking the loop button on deck A will stop it being effected by any of the loop buttons (LED will flash). The bottom buttons are the move buttons, so selecting loopIn will turn off the LEDs on the others, putting it into that mode, then selecting the size and hitting the left right arrows above will move the loopIn by that amount. The outer arrows are fine adjust. This should basically give me easy access to all looping/moving functions without having to change "modes" much, apart from what the move is meant to do (LoopIn, LoopOut etc). And also give me a bit of freedom with how each deck is responding to the looping section. Sound good? Monsta |
| Chara Ravine 27.05.2009 | I use just 3 buttons for looping. Two are for loop length (x2 or /2) and the third is on/off button. I can change loop length pretty quickly with two buttons so i don't need a button for every loop (1,2,4,8,...) P.S.: I suggest you add another potentiometer for choosing the effect (you can then later choose which effects you use in traktor) |
| Keely Jurik 26.05.2009 | Hmm, I normally use pots for the length, I don't know why I never thought of buttons, it makes more sense really (see this is why I posted). I can fit either 8 or 12 extra buttons on each deck so thats up to another 24 buttons that will fit in there... I could easily have 8 buttons for all the loop sizes leaving the shift key to work on fine tuning and have another controller free for any extra stuff. I'd like to add some Filter pots for each deck as you can't always be garanteed to have them on the mixer, so this is quite a good idea. Thanks for the advice, I'm going to go and have a long believe about it! Anyone else? Monsta |
| Roberto Viccione 26.05.2009 | It really comes down to how many buttons you want to place there. I mean, ideally, I'd want four direct loop buttons (32/16/8/4) and a shift key to make them smaller (2/1/ 1/2 / 1/4). I'd also want a fine move button up and down, as well as length half/double buttons to work within the same loop as needed. Good luck to ya |
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