Hi everyone, I just finished my MIDIbox SID and wanted to share some pics. I’m really happy with it! Thanks to everyone contributing to the vast amount of documentation here. Luckily I didn’t run into any big problems, mostly typical things that have already been asked and answered. I had intended to just build a mono box, but after playing with it mono I decided to go stereo, and I’m glad I did, it sounds great!
The enclosure was salvaged from things thrown away at my work. It was originally an off white, I decided to spray it Commodore 64 beige and put the 64 nameplate on it. I love C-64 game music and plan to play quite a bit of it using this box, it was the inspiration to build this. I planned on doing some vinyl overlays for the labeling but decided I like the minimal look a lot. It looks like it’s from 1982, kind of.
I have a second box in progress, actually it’s the first box I started building, another stereo SID - I chose a really uncommon enclosure which has made finishing it really difficult. Will post pics of that as soon as I’m done with it. Thanks to Thorsten for making it possible to build this, to SmashTV for the main boards and various parts, and to everyone contributing to the wiki and asking and answering questions in the forum. Now to hopefully post some music I’ve made with this in the future. A couple more pics (to show some shoddy inside work, messy wiring, failed JB-welding etc) can be viewed here http://www.foundphotos.net/images/MIDIbox
Now to create the most logical knob/slider map for my Axiom 61 controller. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to map all of them with it, but having some of the more important ones at hand will be nice. The axiom 61 has eight rotary knobs and nine sliders, I think a few assignable buttons as well. Any opinions on what to assign to the eight rotary encoders? I was thinking the ADSR’s for the envelopes, and assigning the env depth controls to the sliders . . and maybe the LFO depth and rate to more sliders? Looking for some knob / cc advice. I will have to experiment with this, but just thought I’d ask if anyone has controls set for their controller, and which cc’s you have set or use the most.
Thanks imp! And thanks for the info on the controls, I appreciate it. I’ll give that a shot this weekend and see how it goes.
I used a cheap drill and jigsaw by hand for the LCD, and then hand filed the LCD cutout to get it straight and clean looking. I made a template in CorelDraw for the hole and LCD placement, then printed it on transparency and marked everything on the case using that. Luckily it worked fine without adjusting anything, but doing all the holes by hand made me wish for a drill press!
Thanks imp! And thanks for the info on the controls, I appreciate it. I’ll give that a shot this weekend and see how it goes.
I used a cheap drill and jigsaw by hand for the LCD, and then hand filed the LCD cutout to get it straight and clean looking. I made a template in CorelDraw for the hole and LCD placement, then printed it on transparency and marked everything on the case using that. Luckily it worked fine without adjusting anything, but doing all the holes by hand made me wish for a drill press!
That cutout is *very* impressive, it didn’t even occur to me it was handcut until Imp asked about it. Can you post more details on exactly what steps you took? Might come in handy someday. It sounds like you used a drill to cut enough holes to get a jigsaw blade in to do the rough cut, then filed it down. I’ve never tried that, but if that’s what you did I’d never have guessed you could get such a nice final result.
thats a really nice looking case there and the front panel is really nice, im just wondering though.
it would look really nice if all those dome head silver screws were replaced with countersunk black screws and the knobs changed to a black knob with a red line marker in the top. it would look really nice then and a touch old school access virus looking also. but i do like that very much, very very niec!
mule> that looks really nice build there, as you say very 80’s indeed.
it would look really nice if all those dome head silver screws were replaced with countersunk black screws and the knobs changed to a black knob with a red line marker in the top.
I agree about the screws, but I like the silver knobs with the black with the timber… looks nice next to my older school Prophet 5 & Minimoog ;]
@Fussylizard, that’s exactly how I cut the LCD out, drilled large enough holes for a jigsaw blade to fit through near each corner (with some room to file) and jigsawed out the piece. From there it just took a flat file and a lot of patience. It didn’t take all that long, I couldn’t shut off my OCD while filing, which helped it look nice and straight.
The shipping was cheap from this seller (to the USA), and free if you are in the UK. This just fit my drill hole size nicely, I had some of the smaller ones and realized my drill hole size was too large, which was the primary reason I looked for ones with a slightly larger diameter. It’s my second completed DIY electronics project, so there was some learn by mistakes going on.
@futureman, @mule - I’ve always shied away from square holes since I thought a DIY approach would look, well, DIY. But your two projects prove otherwise! Thanks for the inspiration!
Today I made a simple enclosure (for an AOUT_NG and a Paia +/-12VDC power supply for it) out of an old plastic box that some chocolates came in (Rochers). It was fairly thin plastic so it cracked a bit with all the drilling but it’s good enough for now. I made a horrible looking hole for a 9 pin d-sub but the connector covers it. I probably should have tried the “file to size” method instead of winging it on the mini mill. I’ll post some pics later this week.
@futureman - btw did you make your own knobs for that panel, or did you buy them? I particularly like the knurled one in the bottom center of the panel.
I have some alps knobs coming from the bulk order, but I was thinking about trying to make some similar to the knurled one you have.
@futureman - btw did you make your own knobs for that panel, or did you buy them? I particularly like the knurled one in the bottom center of the panel.
I have some alps knobs coming from the bulk order, but I was thinking about trying to make some similar to the knurled one you have.
It looks a bit like the knobs you’ll also find on electric guitars. But that’s just me guessing
Have fun with it!
