MIDI Controllers
MIDI Controllers are hardware and software systems designed to generates and transmits MIDI data to MIDI-enabled devices. The most common types of MIDI Controllers are music keyboards, MIDI control surfaces and DJ control surfaces.
Here are the most recent posts at Synthtopia about MIDI Controllers.
Articles about MIDI Controllers:
David “Fingers” Haynes rocks the Korg NanoPad at the 2009 LIMS show.
Haynes is using the NanoPad to control Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0. Read more…
Junk Box Monome
Mike Cook made this Junk Box Monome:
A Monome is basically a simple eight by eight grid of push switches and lights. However, the official Monomes have always had a nod towards eco friendliness by incorporating renewable wood in their construction. Well I wanted to go at least one better and use parts that I already had in my junk box, or surplus obsolete parts I could scrounge, all based on a Arduino. This dictated the electronic and mechanical design, resulting in a unique variant on the Monome theme, which is why I call it the Econo Monome.
Let’s kick off by saying that 40 years of working, and playing, with electronics has given me a junk box that is perhaps deeper than most people’s, your mileage may vary.
Cool reuse of old junk, eh?
Tenori On Glamour Shot
This Tenori On shot comes from the Tenori On launch event in Tokyo.
via the Synthtopia Flickr Group
Akai APC40 Hacking Guide
Last week, we asked if the Akai APC40, the new, relatively inexpensive MIDI controller for Ableton Live, was going to make the monome irrelevent.
It’s clear that the Akai APC40 is stealing some of the monome’s mojo, because the APC40 is cheap and offers a great array of controls. At $400, the APC40 is cheap enough to become the new hot platform for music hacking.
As a result, videos, like the one above, are starting to appear on YouTube. The video demonstrates Akai APC40 customization and adding additional functionality with Bome’s MIDI Translator Pro.
This is just scratching the surface, though. CDM’s Peter Kirn has put together a nice SuperGuide to hacking the APC40. It looks at monome emulation, manual MIDI mapping, MIDI lights and more.
This is a must-read for APC40 owners, or if you’re considering the purchase of an APC40.
If you’ve got other ideas or resources for APC40 hacking, leave a link in the comments!
Sick DIY Matrix Music Sequencer
This video demos Lennon Luks‘ sick matrix-style MIDI sequencer, his senior design project for earning his BS at Western Carolina University.
Luks summarizes the project like this:
This project was to design and construct a hardware MIDI control device that will aid an electronic musician in the performance of electronic music. The main intention was to give the user as much versatility as possible without the need of a helper application running on a computer, so the device can be used to control audio on any device that accepts MIDI data, whether it is a computer or not.
The main feature of this device is an 8×8 grid composed of 64 LED-lit buttons, which can be used as a step sequencer. Another feature of the device is 8 knobs, one to control the tempo of the sequencer, and 7 to control various audio parameters via MIDI.
The device also has an LCD for displaying various settings, the current tempo, and status of the sequencer. Five buttons are used for navigation through the menus on the LCD and for changing settings. Three other buttons are used to control the sequencer. The design is centered around the ATMEGA644 microcontroller and the firmware is written in C. The avr-gcc toolchain was used for the software development.
Luks’ matrix sequencer shares a lot with other designs, such as the monome or the APC40 – but Luks’ sequencer is designed to interface directly with instruments via MIDI, independent of a computer.
via hackaday
