Would any of you benefit from a book on building midi controllers?

[exoro]

Hey everyone,

I've been writing tons of content for a music production blog and one of the topics is building DIY midi controllers. (I am not going to mention the blog name here because I am aiming to keep this post non-promotional)

Something I clearly noticed was that there is a lack of information on building custom midi controllers. Of course there are some youtube tutorials, but I feel that I could release much better information.

Before I go off and write the ultimate ebook, complete with step-by-step instructions and high quality pictures, I'm trying to find out if there's a need for it.

• Would any of you benefit from a detailed book that will walk you through creating any type of midi controller imaginable?

• Would you pay money for the book if it meant you could save a ton of research time?

I have already surveyed part of my audience on my blog and have gotten really positive reactions. I thought I would ask the KVR forum as well. I'm still new here, but I'm really digging the DIY section. I'll definitely be participating in many threads here.

Thanks, I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say
-Doug

[deastman]

I think this sounds pretty interesting. Are you considering a physical book, self-publishing through something like Blurb, or virtual like an iBook, Kindle, or plain old pdf?

[werp]

I think this sounds pretty interesting. Are you considering a physical book, self-publishing through something like Blurb, or virtual like an iBook, Kindle, or plain old pdf?

I think getting a physical book printed takes roughly 3 years...writing, editing, submitting, re-editing, artwork etc...school textbooks were always three years out of date...

[exoro]

I think this sounds pretty interesting. Are you considering a physical book, self-publishing through something like Blurb, or virtual like an iBook, Kindle, or plain old pdf?

I'm thinking an ebook will be the best option. Then I'll use a payment processor like Gumroad. It's the most secure option and the customer receives the book as soon as they purchase.

[deastman]

I think this sounds pretty interesting. Are you considering a physical book, self-publishing through something like Blurb, or virtual like an iBook, Kindle, or plain old pdf?

I think getting a physical book printed takes roughly 3 years...writing, editing, submitting, re-editing, artwork etc...school textbooks were always three years out of date...

http://www.blurb.com

[werp]

I think this sounds pretty interesting. Are you considering a physical book, self-publishing through something like Blurb, or virtual like an iBook, Kindle, or plain old pdf?

I think getting a physical book printed takes roughly 3 years...writing, editing, submitting, re-editing, artwork etc...school textbooks were always three years out of date...

http://www.blurb.com

cool. how things change. I'm seriously considering becoming a luddite and growing carrots for a living.

[deastman]

I hope I'm not setting my expectations too high, but I'm imagining something along the lines of this book (only for MIDI controllers, obviously):
http://windworld.com/products-page/book ... nt-design/

[exoro]

I hope I'm not setting my expectations too high, but I'm imagining something along the lines of this book (only for MIDI controllers, obviously):
http://windworld.com/products-page/book ... nt-design/

Never read that book. What I'm planning on doing is creating a complete guide that walks you through every single step of building various types of midi controllers.

[Winstontaneous]

cool. how things change. I'm seriously considering becoming a luddite and growing carrots for a living.

Please be sure to self-publish an account of your experience.

Back OT, I'm interested in such a book.

[sin night]

I'm not interested right now because I don't plan building a midi controller anytime soon, but I see it being useful.

I built a midi controller two years ago as a spare time project. While I "enjoyed" (somehow...) the process of looking for docs/tutorial for every single piece I needed to build my project, I would have benefit from a good guide, especially if it guides you through the issues you could face (for example my project had some bouncing issues, so I had to debounce both in hardware and software) and it helps you to design things the proper way from the start, and it shows you how to grow up into bigger projects (for example, for another project - which I have yet to finish after beginning it more than a year ago - I used the i2c bus, which I was completely unaware of, untill I was told about it by the store from which I buy electrical components). Fortunately, the code side is easier for me because I'm a programmer, but it still required some search and some planning to make it work the way I wanted to.


If your book is going to give an organic guidance through the tasks required to build a controller, I see it being useful.
If a book is going to save me a lot of time or it enables me to reach better results than those I can achieve by doing it all by myself, I think I would buy it.

[Fabriciom]

Hello,

I'm very interested in this subject and have no experience in building a MIDI controller. I researched a bit and found that the best platform was MIDIBox but I was turned back because of it licensing scheme (can't sell comercially your creations). So if do make a book about please cover things like Arduinio, MIDIBOx, Raspberry, etc.

-Thanks

[herodotus]

I'm in.

[Theprotectionracket]

I think this would be an excellent idea. Its something ive been interested in for a few years.
Things like lists of components, compatibility, creating the custom casing with 3D printing or the new resin printer that uses one whole structure/ chassis (stereolithography or something similar. Company is called carbon 3d)
Also how to expand a controller and canibalise parts from old controllers or even synths.
So defo count me in.

[Pytchblend]

The things I'd be interested in is making pressure sensitive switches and jog wheels... But rather than using the expensive Arduino boards, I've been looking at the ATmega boards as they are so cheep. I guess the final design should be modular so the builder can chose pots, switches, leds and so on.

[.jon]

I already signed up via some other site, but a resounding YES please.

Reason is really simple: There isn't a single dedicated soft-synth controller on the market, period. Most keyboards come with insufficient amount of controls, and often the faders and knobs feel like plasticky crap, mostly because they actually are plasticky crap. Or even more often, the knobs are rotary encoders with notches, making them irritating to use.

Ableton Live is responsible for creating the demand for clip launcher buttons, which have taken space from knobs on keyboards, and also dominate the separate controller market. There are only a few knob-only controllers, but they most often come in stupidly unintuitive grid designs- or feature rotary encoders with blingy led rings. The better ones combine knobs and faders in a mixer-emulating layout, which is also counterproductive for VSTi use.

I want a controller interface that feels tactile and inspiring to tweak, like a hardware instrument, and purpose-built for programming synths. In 2015, the only option seems to be building one myself. While there's info available online, it's very scattered and I've wasted a lot of time now in searching for various trinkets of guidance. Having a thorough, well written and detailed book would be awesome.

My current plan is based on Teensy 3.2 (Arduino-compatible, affordable and powerful little board with more direct analog inputs than Arduino), mostly because of the open nature of the software, but also due to cost- it's unlikely that I nail the design 100% first time, and I expect to make at least one iteration. The commercial DIY offerings from Doepfer and Livid could be good, but I don't trust in long term support for them, and there's even less info available on building them.