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@ABrokenRecord said:
Just added another toy to the collection
Nice looking setup. Very clean and organized—a necessity when creating complex music. What's the deal with the cajon? Do you have a microphone or a pickup of some sort on it?
Most definitely
It's a real fun learning experience with looping
Heres my home made cajons.
The dual holes cajon has no snare
Both full sized cajons have adjustable snares
Mini cajon has a permanent snare
Bottom right was my first cajon then experimented with multiple holes in the bottom left then experimented again with a small dual hole cajon then a 1:2 sized cajon which actually sounds quite exceptional and with a pretty good bass sound from such a small cajon.
@Nikon
Nice home-made cajons, Nikon. Now you've got me thinking about doing the same. Looks like you could make some money from it if you had a mind to.
Thanks @Justajiva
If I was to make money from cajons I would need to buy a contractors table saw for precision cuts as the el' cheapo ozito table saw just doesnt cut too perfectly and with the top right its bent upwards for some unknown reason so I make do with subpar cuts.
Woodworking is a great hobby and building something that works just as good if not better than retail products leaves me warm and gooey inside knowing I have achieved something and the accomplishment money cant buy.
Sure I could buy a $200 cajon with a nice finish and build etc... but I like to surprise others of something I made with my own hands and intuition
@maya Actually the logic would be the same as theres a common ground for the pads and the other would basically be the active.
To make full use out of the nanokontrol2 I would suggest removing the pots and faders if you want full use of the board. If its just for the pads then thats pretty simple.
The best way is to use a multimeter and use the continuity mode to see what is common ground and if you are going to wire some led lights you definitely need to find the common ground else if the anode (+) and cathode (-) is wired up wrongly the inside will probably blow and you need another led. Please make note that not all leds and pads use the same common ground.
I think with my nanokontrol v1 it was the first 4 columns 1-4, then next 4 columns 5-8, then last was the 9th column which was the master? All different grounding and I would just test the ground from the 4th and 5th column which didn't have continuity thus I didn't connect them together.
If you do decide to strip the pots and faders off the board make sure all the traces actually arnt broken and if you seen mine there are some that have been lifted off the board and I had to use the super thin yellow kynar wire to jumper them.
If you have a general understanding of circuits then rewiring is pretty simple and straightforward but if you have no clue then do some reading on basic circuits.
I've made guitar pedals from schematics where I etched the circuit onto a blank pcb and wired it up with the needed BOM (bill of materials) from electronic stores so rewiring a board is nothing difficult to me but could be for a beginner. I've also repaired a DOA wah pedal with a busted from the factory opamp so yea... lol
Thank @Nikon, I found a way to make contact without welds or glue. I will use only 21 contacts cc #. The wooden box is ready, just need to buy the start buttons (hard to find around here).
@maya Seeing its just the 21 pads then you dont need to remove the pots and faders unlike mine
Hope that button is momentary and N/O (normally open). In order to connect the buttons to the circuit board you need to solder directly to the board and glue wont help.
@Nikon said:
maya Seeing its just the 21 pads then you dont need to remove the pots and faders unlike mine
Hope that button is momentary and N/O (normally open). In order to connect the buttons to the circuit board you need to solder directly to the board and glue wont help.
yes, the button is without locks. just make contact when you are depressed. When the solder, I am testing a plug with eva rubber between the slide controls where the wires will be fixed at the exact point of contact with the plate. If it works well, I post photos showing how I did. So when you want to mount the nanoKONTROL again, will be intact. :-)
@Nikon said:
Im intrigued in how it will work. Post photos back tho
then, I glued a small piece of electrical tape next to the contact of the board, then pasted the wire so that its tip leaned this contact. it even works, the problem is that needs a lot of pressure on him to work with stability. I tried in various ways, but unfortunately was not 100% stable. sometimes contact failed, even touching the board.
I have absolutely no idea on how to do this, but thanks to you two (@Nikon and @Maya), I'm going to try and tackle this midi pedal project. I already have a NK2 that I'm not using. I'd really like to make it a strip (like 4" by 20") with 12-14 buttons on it. After watching a YT video on it, it seems fairly simple to accomplish this. I don't want any expression pedals or anything, just the buttons to make something similar to this:
Yep. Those are the same type as what I've used which are momentary N/O
To have a layout like that it depends on the software you're using if it allows you those tasks, other than that its as simple as soldering wires to the midi controller and configure the software with it.
Well, the software would be Audiobus and loopy (plus dfx), and I've already used the nanokontrol with them to test everything out, so I think I'm good!
Sounds like it would be pretty straight forward with soldering then. Make sure you know which grounds are common for the buttons. If you also want LED lighting you can solder the LED in parallel with the surface mounted LED and use the same resistor.
I'm actually having my dad help me. He solders boards all day, so he said it should be pretty simple. Any advise on the enclosure? I've been looking all over for something that is like 18-20" long and about 4" deep.
If you are handy with cutting wood then you could make a wood boxed enclosure similar to mine? MDF top and bottom with MDF sides or you could use plywood. Drill holes for the foot switches and go from there or bought one from ebay out of metal with the switches already there for simplicity sake but limited with size and button layout.
@ABrokenRecord said:
Just added another toy to the collection
I'm guessing it is the cajon right? If so, are you intending to loop it as well? I've been thinking of including mine too but capture can be quite tricky with cajon live sounding great but capturing sounding like a cardboard box. I know great results can be achieved by using 2 mics (front and back) but I don't want to complicate it too much. Any ideas?
@Nikon said:
I went cajon crazy after building my first one
Nice work. I've built 2 myself. You're right, they're so quick to put together it can become addictive. I also used that cut in half snare technique. The size of the port is absolutely crucial to the amount of bass you'll get. I did some experiments with different sizes and it turns out to be an exact science. I also find that 3mm ply for the face is definitely better than 5mm but I suspect 2mm would be even better but probably with some varnish for extra strength.
@Nikon I actually had to buy two DPDT switches as well to control the mute function on Mimix as a momentary switch would mute only when I'd hold the button down and unmute upon release. Does that make sense?
Comments
Nice looking setup. Very clean and organized—a necessity when creating complex music. What's the deal with the cajon? Do you have a microphone or a pickup of some sort on it?
Yes. I mic it out for some gigs,
@ABrokenRecord
Nice. I'd love to see your setup in action. Any vids online, perchance?
Not yet. Soon
@ABrokenRecord
Give me a heads up when it happens. : )
Most definitely
It's a real fun learning experience with looping
Heres my home made cajons.
The dual holes cajon has no snare
Both full sized cajons have adjustable snares
Mini cajon has a permanent snare
Bottom right was my first cajon then experimented with multiple holes in the bottom left then experimented again with a small dual hole cajon then a 1:2 sized cajon which actually sounds quite exceptional and with a pretty good bass sound from such a small cajon.
I went cajon crazy after building my first one
@Nikon
Nice home-made cajons, Nikon. Now you've got me thinking about doing the same. Looks like you could make some money from it if you had a mind to.
Thanks @Justajiva
If I was to make money from cajons I would need to buy a contractors table saw for precision cuts as the el' cheapo ozito table saw just doesnt cut too perfectly and with the top right its bent upwards for some unknown reason so I make do with subpar cuts.
Woodworking is a great hobby and building something that works just as good if not better than retail products leaves me warm and gooey inside knowing I have achieved something and the accomplishment money cant buy.
Sure I could buy a $200 cajon with a nice finish and build etc... but I like to surprise others of something I made with my own hands and intuition
Get on the cajon making bandwagon mate
@Nikon, your project with nanoKONTROL is very good. :-)
I also saw a tutorial on youtube how. Then I bought a nanokontrol2 with the same goal.
The problem is that the board is completely different from version 1 and do not know how to weld the wires.
Any idea?
@maya Actually the logic would be the same as theres a common ground for the pads and the other would basically be the active.
To make full use out of the nanokontrol2 I would suggest removing the pots and faders if you want full use of the board. If its just for the pads then thats pretty simple.
The best way is to use a multimeter and use the continuity mode to see what is common ground and if you are going to wire some led lights you definitely need to find the common ground else if the anode (+) and cathode (-) is wired up wrongly the inside will probably blow and you need another led. Please make note that not all leds and pads use the same common ground.
I think with my nanokontrol v1 it was the first 4 columns 1-4, then next 4 columns 5-8, then last was the 9th column which was the master? All different grounding and I would just test the ground from the 4th and 5th column which didn't have continuity thus I didn't connect them together.
If you do decide to strip the pots and faders off the board make sure all the traces actually arnt broken and if you seen mine there are some that have been lifted off the board and I had to use the super thin yellow kynar wire to jumper them.
If you have a general understanding of circuits then rewiring is pretty simple and straightforward but if you have no clue then do some reading on basic circuits.
I've made guitar pedals from schematics where I etched the circuit onto a blank pcb and wired it up with the needed BOM (bill of materials) from electronic stores so rewiring a board is nothing difficult to me but could be for a beginner. I've also repaired a DOA wah pedal with a busted from the factory opamp so yea... lol
Thank @Nikon, I found a way to make contact without welds or glue. I will use only 21 contacts cc #. The wooden box is ready, just need to buy the start buttons (hard to find around here).
@maya Seeing its just the 21 pads then you dont need to remove the pots and faders unlike mine
Hope that button is momentary and N/O (normally open). In order to connect the buttons to the circuit board you need to solder directly to the board and glue wont help.
yes, the button is without locks. just make contact when you are depressed. When the solder, I am testing a plug with eva rubber between the slide controls where the wires will be fixed at the exact point of contact with the plate. If it works well, I post photos showing how I did. So when you want to mount the nanoKONTROL again, will be intact. :-)
Im intrigued in how it will work. Post photos back tho
then, I glued a small piece of electrical tape next to the contact of the board, then pasted the wire so that its tip leaned this contact. it even works, the problem is that needs a lot of pressure on him to work with stability. I tried in various ways, but unfortunately was not 100% stable. sometimes contact failed, even touching the board.
I had a feeling it wouldn't be a 100% perfect solution without soldering direct to the board
I have absolutely no idea on how to do this, but thanks to you two (@Nikon and @Maya), I'm going to try and tackle this midi pedal project. I already have a NK2 that I'm not using. I'd really like to make it a strip (like 4" by 20") with 12-14 buttons on it. After watching a YT video on it, it seems fairly simple to accomplish this. I don't want any expression pedals or anything, just the buttons to make something similar to this:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/221807520788?nav=SEARCH
Would these switches work?
http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PPP&Product_Code=9014&Category_Code=SWI
I'm hoping to something like this:
Yep. Those are the same type as what I've used which are momentary N/O
To have a layout like that it depends on the software you're using if it allows you those tasks, other than that its as simple as soldering wires to the midi controller and configure the software with it.
Well, the software would be Audiobus and loopy (plus dfx), and I've already used the nanokontrol with them to test everything out, so I think I'm good!
Sounds like it would be pretty straight forward with soldering then. Make sure you know which grounds are common for the buttons. If you also want LED lighting you can solder the LED in parallel with the surface mounted LED and use the same resistor.
I'm actually having my dad help me. He solders boards all day, so he said it should be pretty simple. Any advise on the enclosure? I've been looking all over for something that is like 18-20" long and about 4" deep.
But the smell of molten solder is amazing
If you are handy with cutting wood then you could make a wood boxed enclosure similar to mine? MDF top and bottom with MDF sides or you could use plywood. Drill holes for the foot switches and go from there or bought one from ebay out of metal with the switches already there for simplicity sake but limited with size and button layout.
I like your first idea. I'm going to use like one row of 12 and one row of 6 buttons so it needs to be fully customized.
I'm guessing it is the cajon right? If so, are you intending to loop it as well? I've been thinking of including mine too but capture can be quite tricky with cajon live sounding great but capturing sounding like a cardboard box. I know great results can be achieved by using 2 mics (front and back) but I don't want to complicate it too much. Any ideas?
Nice work. I've built 2 myself. You're right, they're so quick to put together it can become addictive. I also used that cut in half snare technique. The size of the port is absolutely crucial to the amount of bass you'll get. I did some experiments with different sizes and it turns out to be an exact science. I also find that 3mm ply for the face is definitely better than 5mm but I suspect 2mm would be even better but probably with some varnish for extra strength.
You could try peizos but may be limited by tonality compared to mics capturing the pure cajon sound.
All my cajons have 3mm tapas with the rest just 12mm mdf
@Nikon I actually had to buy two DPDT switches as well to control the mute function on Mimix as a momentary switch would mute only when I'd hold the button down and unmute upon release. Does that make sense?
I assume you didnt poke around with the software for the nanokontrol 2?
The default is set to momentary but you can change the buttons to be latched which I've done for 6 of my switches to act as effect pedals.
Checkout the button behaviour and change from momentary to toggle and volia. No need DPDT
http://www.ckmusic.com.my/webshaper/pcm/gallery/lg/p16159j0oeu0j18j313in1ba9sps1-516-lg.jpg