Here's the simple way to make a USB based 26 button controller with a shift key to give you 52 buttons !
What I mean is a controller something like this ...
or perhaps a little bit like this
but built much worse, obviously
you can combine these with a small cheap midi dial box if you need some potentiometer control in addition to the triggering a button matrix provides.
basically you just have to 'think outside the box', instead of labouring over programming up a basicstamp for MIDI or blowing an eprom for usb ... we simply canibalise an existing controller board - a little soldering is required ... but nothing too frightening!
By dismantling a cheap USB keyboard (or one with a few keys missing) you can get the 'keyboard encoder' out. Make the most of their bulk discounts on cost and decent construction techniques. (IE nice soldering
)
a selection of keyboard encoder boards
That is the device that sends rational data to your computer and Live, all pre-programmed and ready to go. A lot easier than making a midi box, which required something similar to a BasicStamp chip and a bit of programming knowledge.
Obviously you will need to source a load of nice buttons or perhaps you prefer monster size triggers
... and a box. Plus it wont build itself ... so you need at least a little practicality.But if you are interested - read this article:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 427,00.asp
It is geared around building a 'game' controler , but it suits our purposes exactly.
I plan to use one to complement my doepfer Drehbank.
