KVR Audio

phreaque · Post by **phreaque** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:22 pm

Hello guys,

Well, thinking about combining the good stuff into whole self contained package which includes:
1. PC (Laptop or tablet)
2. A decent grade 61 keys midi controller
3. Something like Akai APC40

Yes you might think of Openlabs or Musiccomputing. but I'm not into these stuff. I'm looking to make my own container. The main point of it is portability.
I remember I saw a guy on youtube had some sort of custom made midi controller & fits a PC inside it it was cool indeed.
What do you think? What advises you have for me?

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:38 pm

If you use Ableton Live then

buy a Laptop + Ableton Push

Then just put it all together somehow into a 61 key setup.

You could detach the laptop monitor so it sits on the right side above the keyboard, and then place the Ableton push controller in the middle. Then place the actualy computer body on the far right besides the Push. Build this all together and you have a nice Ableton keyboard controller thing.

phreaque · Post by **phreaque** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:52 pm

V0RT3X wrote:If you use Ableton Live then

buy a Laptop + Ableton Push

Then just put it all together somehow into a 61 key setup.

You could detach the laptop monitor so it sits on the right side above the keyboard, and then place the Ableton push controller in the middle. Then place the actualy computer body on the far right besides the Push. Build this all together and you have a nice Ableton keyboard controller thing.

Hmm, appreciate it mate.. But still somehow loose setup. Not solid self-contained which I can carry it & perform easily. I want the cables to be hidden inside and use single power cable to turn on the whole setup.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:57 pm

I sketched this together. Yah i think you would need to work on building the case enclosure yourself, but thats the fun of DIY.

I was thinking after i finished drawing that that youcould probably build a suitcase folding style thing and have both sides equal length so you could just open it like a rifle case. Then the upper folded part would have your computer and ableton push and the lower part would have the keyboard. *I used a roland a-800 for the design in case your wondering*

phreaque · Post by **phreaque** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:08 pm

You did great efforts mate

thanks I truly appreciate that...
Don't You know any manufacturer which do some neat container? Bcz if I'd do it from wood it will be heavy. Aluminium maybe good alternative & ofc durable but perhaps a good plastic chassis would be better, right?
Thanks once again mate

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:12 pm

Np! Actually one of the reasons im so interested is that I have a similar goal, so I'm kind of sharing what I want. I think the only difference between my design and what you want is that I'll be using a MBP in my system.

Anyhow with my picture, I always thought maybe trying to cram that idea into one of these pelican cases *link below* would be a fun idea. Only thing is i'm not sure if you can buy them considering they are labeled a "military" solution. I imagine you probably could since it's just a case.. (It would be pretty cool walking into a gig with one of these

)

http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail_mob ... PWC-DW3200

I think it would work for the Roland A-800 which is 39 - 1/2 inches wide and 3 - 5/8 inches high.
(I used to own a A-800 and they are very portable)

The pelican cases are water proof and very well built too.

phreaque · Post by **phreaque** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:26 pm

That is really neat! Just put little hanger to maintain the required angle & that's it! Thanks mate

really grateful for this idea

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:44 pm

phreaque wrote:That is really neat! Just put little hanger to maintain the required angle & that's it! Thanks mate really grateful for this idea

Yah actually i just realized if you got one of those newer PC laptops with the touch screens that you could use the screen to control certain plugins with X/Y pads which would be pretty awesome.

My design was gonna have some Ipads and the Lemur App on them for that touchpad functionality, but i'd have to do the measurements and see if they would even fit into that setup.

One thing I also thought about is that maybe the push might cause problems when you have to reach up and touch it because it might cause the entire case to rock or move. It depends on if you are planning on using it like a MPC where you are triggering sounds with its clips or just using its built in sequencer and clip launching abilities. If you are banging out a beat on it, then it might cause the case to rock. It would be interesting to test out a setup just to see though!

The main reason i chose an Ableton based setup is because it's perfect for "live" performances. If you a keyboard player you could setup a Ableton session and have all your jamming tracks ready to play on the fly. I've been using Ableton for a while and it is very much oriented towards live performances.

phreaque · Post by **phreaque** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 10:01 pm

V0RT3X wrote:
phreaque wrote:That is really neat! Just put little hanger to maintain the required angle & that's it! Thanks mate really grateful for this idea

Yah actually i just realized if you got one of those newer PC laptops with the touch screens that you could use the screen to control certain plugins with X/Y pads which would be pretty awesome.

Exactly, it is fantastic idea.

V0RT3X wrote:One thing I also thought about is that maybe the push might cause problems when you have to reach up and touch it because it might cause the entire case to rock or move.

Yes I'm thinking about that

V0RT3X wrote:The main reason i chose an Ableton based setup is because it's perfect for "live" performances. If you a keyboard player you could setup a Ableton session and have all your jamming tracks ready to play on the fly. I've been using Ableton for a while and it is very much oriented towards live performances.

And it is so perfect solution.. I agree with you totally, specially after I recently started to use Live Intro, it is amazing

Thanks mate

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:32 pm

Got Money?
Get StudioBlade 4 mac or pc or ControlBlade
https://www.musiccomputing.com/store/home.php?cat=249

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 8:20 pm

tapper mike wrote:Got Money?
Get StudioBlade 4 mac or pc or ControlBlade
https://www.musiccomputing.com/store/home.php?cat=249

I had my eye on those for a while, but I think I'd rather make something myself.

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:19 pm

Laptops are crammed together compact gadgets which would be problematical to separate into two parts like cracking an oyster.

Making extended wiring between the two could become problematical, and mistakes might make the laptop useless for any purpose, painful unless you have money to burn. Even if the wiring harness is successfully extended, it may be too prone to intermittency and emi and rfi interference.

To get about the same computing power in easier to integrate packages, a separate monitor hdmi or vga, the size and price you can accept, and something like a mac mini or one of the tiny pc's with similar appearance and form factor.

If you need more computing power, but smaller/lighter than a 19" rack mount pc, you could build/integrate one of the "micro" desktop puters which are about the size of a shoebox and can be built as fast and capable as a tower computer, except with more limited expansion card capabilities and such. Putting a speed demon in a shoebox, you would want to pay pretty close attention to cooling/ventilation.

The advantage to such modularization with fairly long-lived form factors-- If the monitor alone fails, or the keyboard or mouse or cpu, you only have to replace what broke, hopefully with minimal mods to your custom enclosure.

You would want to choose very common sizes of components, though sometimes progress is surprising. For instance for years I habitually used pairs of 1920 x 1280 24" monitors. Every year or two replacing one of the pair upon failure. Even starting with a matched pair, one unit always fails first. Then suddenly that form factor got rare as hens teeth over a period of only a few months, and I had to switch to something else.

Using a laptop, if any part fails, you would need to find an entire new laptop about the right size, and then laboriously crack the oyster all over again.

I would want all ssd drives in such a beast. No moving disk drives to worry about if the thing accidentally gets dropped down a flight of stairs loading in.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:23 pm

JCJR wrote:Laptops are crammed together compact gadgets which would be problematical to separate into two parts like cracking an oyster.

Nah I've done it before it's not that hard. However what you mentioned about interference might happen but I doubt it. I think most monitor cables are shielded very very well and if necessary all i would need to do is find an extended cable and patch it together.

If anything you can always just use an external monitor with the video card outputs.

I understand the part about laptop failure and not having access to parts in the future due to having stuff go obsolete so quick. I suppose you could design a desktop system for less money and still have better odds at upgrading in the future.

With that pelican case I suggested, you could probably drop it down a flight of stairs and everything would be fine as they are very well designed.

mztk · Post by **mztk** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 7:18 am

you could use a rectangular PVC guitar case: not too big, and light and sturdy.

Albert.VST · Post by **Albert.VST** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:33 am

To get some good diy ideas, have a look at the synthproject site http://www.synth-project.de/index.html

PC Based hardware workstation DIY maybe