Been a while since I posted, just thought I would show off my latest midibox project. I have always been a fan of anything MOOG, and it seems my projects reflect this proclivity. My latest project is a midibox 64 (32 setup now with room to grow) interfaced to Arturia’s MiniMoog V virtual synth. Pictures available at:
The second picture shows it sitting in front of my DAW (Mac Pro down in the lower left, Logic Studio 8, Midisport 2X2 and Emagic A62M). Hopefully I will get it into my rack setup this weekend and start making noise!
Now I just need to figure out how to get Logic to read my setup file for the interface, as of yet I am only running stand alone for full control of all the knobs and switches. Guess I need to look at the ‘LC’ stuff to get this going.
Oh, all I have to do is turn on the midibox before I start logic… duh.
Working great in Logic 8, all knobs and switches work, sounds wunderbar! The software is a bit different from the original Model D in a few ways but one addition that I really like is the new built-in sequencer. I have not built that panel yet, it should take up the rest of the pots and switches for the mb64and be a 1U strip on the top.
Stryd_one: Yeah, the protective coating is kinda grodie looking. The panel under the plastic is 3 ‘letter’ sized pages from a laser printer spliced together just to get the drilling pattern. The final will be a single sheet of 13" x 19" Epson Photo paper, cut to size and laminated. This will be affixed to the outside of the panel. It should look a bit better.
nILS: I printed out a HUGE screenshot of the Arturia virtual control surface, then measured and redrew in AutoCAD, then took that into Illustrator to clean up the text. Believe it or not, Radio Shack has boat loads of those old Moog style knobs. I could not find a reasonable price for the colored rocker switches however. I had a ton of the toggle switches on my junk pile so used those, I hope in the future to be able to afford the rockers but the cheapest I saw those for was about 7 bux USD. Over $100 just for the switches. I didn’t pay that much for the kits and pots from Smash!
Anyway, thanx for the input, as I make mods I will post updates.
I have toyed with the idea of using rotational motor faders (not sure where I would find those) so that when I call up a patch, it would change the knobs… hmm what about the switches though?.. Anyway, if I do anything like that, it’s a bit down the road timewise. As it stands, I am familiar with the Minimoog interface (I owned one back in the 70’s-80’s), and it only takes a touch to have the midibox read the pots and reflect position on the screen. I really don’ t use the screen much and minimize the Moog window in Logic unless I need to do something with the sequencer bit (which of course did not exist on the original). I still need to build the sequencer controller surface. But, generally for sequences, I use the MoogModular V, it’s a bit more powerful.
I tried to get as close to the Moog font as I could, even looked for a Moog font online but they weren’t ANYTHING like Moog’s true font. For lighting the labels, I am kinda going for the Model D look … not the Voyager look.
Thanx for the input and check back often as the webpage will change often in the next few weeks.
Edit EPS file in Illustrator (clean up / Text objects)
Print 1:1 on Epson 2200 (13"x19" print)
Tape to front of Lexam panel (5.25" x 19")
Drill holes at drill press
Mount knobs and switches.
I still need to do a ‘photo’ quality print, remove all knobs and switches and the protective coating on the Lexam, then remount everything with the new ‘photo’ print.
The rockers from my original Model D were Reddish/Orange and kind of a ‘Robins Egg Blue’ or Cyan. I have not been able to find any stock switches with the exact colors… don’t really know if it’s worth a special mfg. run. I’m thinking a nice airbrush job (so I could match the colors) with a clear coat afterwards to minimize rub off.
I’ve been building these things (various midiboxes) for a couple of years now but have never needed to ‘label’ my buttons/switches so that I can read the controller change on the LCD.
In the *.ini file I upload to the midibox, I can see where to change the pot labels and have done so (when I touch a pot, the LCD displays the knob name on my virtual synth), but I am not finding where I can change the button/switch names so that they will display on the LCD when I flip the switch.
Am I simply blind/clueless? Or is it rocket science?
