Can I use a MPK Mini to make a custom Midi Fighter?

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Can I use a MPK Mini to make a custom Midi Fighter?
Posted on: 30.03.2012 by Shonda Derouchey
Could I use the internals from my MPK Mini by Akai put them in a different case (believeing about an old bookshelf speaker) with arcade buttons in place of each of the keys? In total there are 25 keys, 10 rubber buttons, 8 drum pads and 8 knobs. Could I use this to design a custom Fighter with 24 buttons (6 rows of 4 horizontally), 8 pads on top, 8 knobs on the bottom, 5 of the rubber buttons on each side and the remaining keys as an on/off switch? Any insight would be great, this will be my first DIY controller project if possible, I am adept at soldering. Thank you!

P.S Would it be worth it to murder my MPK mini for this or just do one from scratch?
Chasidy Heckenbach
31.03.2012
Originally Posted by kevz718
I believe that your limited by two things:

1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)
not needed afaik if u use the 1.03 (?) instant grat tsi - as it has the logic for the super combo's in the tsi and doesn't use the extra notes. this confused me for ages... my midimasher midi fighter 4banks emulation code doesn't create those super combo cc's but i do get the super combo effects when using the instant grat with it.

2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant believe of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
if using a midimasher config to do the 4banks emulation anyway then u can add these extra cc's in very easily.

e.g: this line would create a new "fader1a" ranging from 0 to 127 when the real fader is between 64 and 127

Code:
superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 64, 127, "fader1a", 0, 127)
and this would create an event when the fader is just at it's min and max positions:

Code:
superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 0, 0, "fader1min", 127, 127)
superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 127, 127, "fader1max", 127, 127)
u can then use lua code to do anything with these new fake events just like any normal controller event. i should probably also write a superfader_send() function that just sends out the new events as midi directly too as opposed to "faking" controller input as it does atm.
Cliff Lohman
31.03.2012
Originally Posted by DStridium
Well I feel like the lack of the super combos is made up by having a drum pad, 24 buttons and 8 knobs. I believe the controller will be pretty cool can I buy midi buttons straight from here or no?
U can certainly map a 5th button to do what the supercombo triggered note would do (at least i believe).

If not, look into something like bomes translator maybe
Melinda Shick
31.03.2012
Originally Posted by kevz718
I believe that your limited by two things:

1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)

2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant believe of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
You could replicate both of those pretty easily with a max/pd patch running in the background, and more.
Shonda Derouchey
30.03.2012		Could I use the internals from my MPK Mini by Akai put them in a different case (believeing about an old bookshelf speaker) with arcade buttons in place of each of the keys? In total there are 25 keys, 10 rubber buttons, 8 drum pads and 8 knobs. Could I use this to design a custom Fighter with 24 buttons (6 rows of 4 horizontally), 8 pads on top, 8 knobs on the bottom, 5 of the rubber buttons on each side and the remaining keys as an on/off switch? Any insight would be great, this will be my first DIY controller project if possible, I am adept at soldering. Thank you!

P.S Would it be worth it to murder my MPK mini for this or just do one from scratch?
Kellie Myrum
10.09.2012		I got Beatmasher and T3Delay+F92-O combos working in my hid fighter mapping. Wouldn't mind to share how I did that...
Dorian Herzberg
10.09.2012		I believe its a right way to use your mpk mini with your system. I have also done this with my system.
Divina Fosbinder
09.09.2012		Did anyone ever get the Mini to replicate the instant grad mapping? If so, any way I could steal your genius?
Trista Karle
09.04.2012		Interested in where this goes I have a mini on back order and this looks promising
Frederic Acidera
09.04.2012		Perhaps you can use one of the knobs to achieve a super combo...at the end what happens is that the 5th note increases or decreases the level depending on the combo, a knob (or Super Knob) could do that function to.
Shonda Derouchey
08.04.2012		Thank you all for your advice! Does anyone out there have any more input on this topic, I thought it may have been a bit more popular.
Chasidy Heckenbach
31.03.2012
Originally Posted by kevz718
I believe that your limited by two things:

1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)
not needed afaik if u use the 1.03 (?) instant grat tsi - as it has the logic for the super combo's in the tsi and doesn't use the extra notes. this confused me for ages... my midimasher midi fighter 4banks emulation code doesn't create those super combo cc's but i do get the super combo effects when using the instant grat with it.

2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant believe of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
if using a midimasher config to do the 4banks emulation anyway then u can add these extra cc's in very easily.

e.g: this line would create a new "fader1a" ranging from 0 to 127 when the real fader is between 64 and 127

Code:
superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 64, 127, "fader1a", 0, 127)
and this would create an event when the fader is just at it's min and max positions:

Code:
superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 0, 0, "fader1min", 127, 127)
superfader("mf", "fader1", 0, 127, 127, "fader1max", 127, 127)
u can then use lua code to do anything with these new fake events just like any normal controller event. i should probably also write a superfader_send() function that just sends out the new events as midi directly too as opposed to "faking" controller input as it does atm.
Cliff Lohman
31.03.2012
Originally Posted by DStridium
Well I feel like the lack of the super combos is made up by having a drum pad, 24 buttons and 8 knobs. I believe the controller will be pretty cool can I buy midi buttons straight from here or no?
U can certainly map a 5th button to do what the supercombo triggered note would do (at least i believe).

If not, look into something like bomes translator maybe
Melinda Shick
31.03.2012
Originally Posted by kevz718
I believe that your limited by two things:

1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)

2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant believe of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
You could replicate both of those pretty easily with a max/pd patch running in the background, and more.
Shonda Derouchey
31.03.2012		Well I feel like the lack of the super combos is made up by having a drum pad, 24 buttons and 8 knobs. I believe the controller will be pretty cool can I buy midi buttons straight from here or no?
Cliff Lohman
31.03.2012		I believe that your limited by two things:

1. classic MF - for the combos, it basically sends an extra midi note if u press certain button combos.. so if u press 4 buttons - it will send 5 notes. Thats unique to MF and MPK cant do that. So ull have to live without supercombos (or map a 5th button to actually be the supercombo)

2. MF pros - same thing but with the faders + knob.. an extra NOTE (not just knob ccs) is sent when knob/fader is all the way up/down. also unique to MF. Cant believe of any ways to recreate that without alot of work.
Evelyn Navarijo
31.03.2012		You should bear in mind that the MIDI Fighter has got some pretty fancy firmware running on the inside, as far as I understand there's it can send several CCs with the press of one button among other things, so it might be difficult to replicate the exact functions of a MIDI Fighter when you map it to Traktor.
Melinda Shick
31.03.2012		I can't see any reason not to, i might do something similar with mine.

Obviously you lose the velocity of the keys, but should be able to stick a button on without much trouble, haven't seen inside the MPKs keys but they'll probably share a ground and have two pins for velocity/note on.

It's a good idea - especially if you make use of the octave +- you could have 88 (i believe off the top of my head) buttons mapped.

Do the Pad mod to increase their sensitivity, add some better knobs (or even swap a couple out for slide pots) and you've got one sick controller there!

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