When I decided to build a my box it was
because I needed a controller surface for my music and
audio applications. The design was primarily made with
Cubase in mind, simply because this is my main sequencer
and music application. Within Cubase there are several
tasks that could use some hands on control, for example
tweaking effects and softsynths and also basic mixing and
EQ tasks. Cubase and many other audio applications these
days have lots of features for remote control, therefore
most of the functionality of the finished box is based
purely on the software setup of the computer.
The main part of the design is the mixer section. It
contains 8 channel strips and one master strip. Each
channel strip contains a button that selects the
according channel in Cubase, a led that lights up if a
channel is selected (have to work out how to make this
work), a volume fader, a pan pot and two aux. send pots.
The master strip contains bank up and bank down buttons
for increasing the number of virtual channels in Cubase
you can control. It also contains a master volume fader,
mute and solo buttons that work on the selected channel
and master aux. send pots.
The right part of the design was first made with VST
Effects and Instruments in mind. It has a 5x5 button
matrix that should cover the most advanced synths and
effects out there. It also features 4 faders (both
horizontal and vertical) and 4 buttons. After building
the box I discovered that the design was perfect for
DJ-mixing too! It's pretty basic really, but works like
hell!.
The last part of the design is the menu part. It features
the LCD display with it's contrast pot, menu left, right
and exec buttons, a combined snapshot and sequencer start
button and to the left, four programmable buttons. There
is also a power-LED and two MIDI signal In and Out
indicator LEDs (see special circuit later on in the
walktrough).
Copyright © 2001
Tor Arne Vestbų