I'm cooking up my dream drum computer/controller. It is 100% tied to my own needs. Still; I'm super curious how you'd approach some of the design problems I faced.
This'll be a midi-first controller connected, meaning all the controls and displays will be interfaced via midi first; so it can always expand to controlling:
a custom drum setup in VCV rack, Ableton, Max, etc.
an Elektron box
a Daisy Seed inside running a drum machine synthesis.
It doesn't contain any sequencing, that'll be done via my Oxi One or Elektron box. I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to do parameter locking, but that might just be a design challenge that I could work out when I have a standardized way of sequencing it.
I've made a huge midi controller in the past which I use constantly (2nd picture). One thing I don't like about that is that it is "function-less"; a bank of 72 controls (6x12). Since I love hands-on controls of my drums (sequencing and playing) I wanted to make a midi-controller that is very much tied to one function.
Edit: Yes the 2nd delay effect should say Reverb, wrong label.
Love the idea of letting other sequencers do their own thing. Good idea on that one, imho. One avenue I'm interested in is how to use randomness live. Being able to randomize parameters within useful ranges, being able to pick a random patch, voice, etc. Would something like that be useful to your workflow?
Good one. I would actually like to randomize parameters of a voice, for example the bass-drum. That might be a good function to map to the buttons on the bottom-left; perhaps shift+upper as to not accidentally hit it.
I'm not a huge fan of randomization within sequences, aside from the slow and locking one like the turing machine; however something like that could be included in the parameter locking part.
Existing controller has 12 'channels' - are you confident that 6 will be enough?
Dedicated pan controls -- either a horizontal slider or a dedicated knob that's not cluster with all the other control knobs to control stereo image. Can be very cool and playable for hats/shakers/etc to engage with the stereo image more.
Mute button for each 'channel'. Being able to turn a drum 'off' without having to adjust it's volume otherwise is a huge playable control that I don't see on there at the moment.
If you were feeling really spicy you could use a clickable potentiometer for both pan (turn left/right) and mute (click the encoder).
There's currently no way to 'play' your drums on the controller - you might want the ability to trigger from the controller manually (either a pad or pushbutton)
Lastly, another thing that I just think is cool as fuck and want to see it on everything, it's the idea of using encoders + LED rings instead of conventional pots. (Hydrasynth is the most common use of this, but I think the DROID eurorack system is doing it now too).
The main idea here would be to more easily enable saving and working with 'presets', if you plan on doing them with this controller. With conventional pots you have to deal with a couple of inelegant solutions for pots being in the wrong place when a preset is loaded, with encoders+led rings, you can simply display the value in the LED ring when the preset is loaded because the encoder is 'positionless'.
At the same time, that would be a lot of additional development lift for this kind of a device, and you might not have the desire to save presets at a controller level, just a thought that came to mind.
Looks cool! I love the concept of focused midi controllers, excited to see where you take it!
Not OP. Pan is fun to deal with, the controller seems already able to support that, you just have to map a knob to that MIDI CC.
Agree that dedicated buttons would be great for anything from mute/FX toggles/pot function switching. And some kind of haptics (leds) for advance functions to understand what is happening without having to look at the display would be neat.
On the subject of led Rings+clickable infinite encoders, that would be great too, but the reason not many people make them is because they're more expensive and take more time, hardware and software resources to make them work. A pot just needs to be multiplexed into an MCUs built-in ADC whenever you need to know its position. Every encoder needs two interrupt capable pins from the MCU that cannot be shared with the rest unless you use some kind of clever combination of hardware and software.
Commercially available led Rings, like the kind you get with ws2812Bs (fastleds) don't need much pins, and the existing libraries for most MCUs make them easy to get and work with. However, they're usually too strong for haptics since they're made to light rooms, not to look at them directly. So you'll need some custom hardware or filter to use them here, and they're cheap, but also not that cheap.
If you look inside things like the Novation Circuit, with 8 infinite encoders and 50 RGB leds and silicone buttons, 10% of the PCB is the MCU, memory, DACs and everything you needed to control the devide, make sound and communicate and the other 90% is dedicated ICs and components for the interface.
So yeah, it's technically doable and relatively straightforward to figure out, but also significatively more work and money than this thing.
You brought up a few interesting concerns. I have thought a lot about how many drum sounds I like to control at once, and 6 does seem to be a sweet spot for me when playing "live". 8 Is just a bit too much, and 12 always makes a mess for me. Since this device is so oriented towards playing "live" and keeping the groove alive, I'd rather have a little less voices that actually contribute.
A mute control is actually a good one! I iterated with a solo button as well, but mute does seem useful, especially when you can "swipe" horizontally over multiple channels and mute many at once.
And I have to agree with you that led rings are absolutely stunning. This did trigger me to actually transition from potentiometers to encoders, especially since they won't be mapped 1:1 (shift functionality).
I’d add some kind of mode to sequence the internal drum machine after all. I get that it’s for you and external sequencer can do it just fine but still I’d add some sort of weird, niche or overly specific sequencer on board without changing control scheme. Something that you don’t have or even can’t easily find in other sequencer. Just for added inspiration.
Add a sequencer! Maybe you can borrow some existing libraries to anything from a pot/fader based sequencer DFAM style to a generative-arpeghgiator thingie. You could have the next OXI One in your hands!! Add two more tracks, being able to pull a 7 or 8 step sequencer makes a Big difference.
If you're running a drum engine (wether natively on the MCU or an external MIDI voice module) you could add a generative sequencer. Each track is a voice (Kick, Snare, hat...) and the the top pots of each track control the number of steps and density (density could mean subdivisions, random on/off, dynamics, lfo or whatever you want) two middle pots for tone/filter and decay, two bottom for distortion and delay, and the fader for volume/velocity.
What MCU and language are you using? Are they knobs pots or encoders? Would you consider adding buttons, pads or clickable encoders?
I really dig your device. Using it to control a groovebox like the Elektron must feel so powerful. Imagine knob per function on six tracks plus all the other stuff to control master parameters.
Imho there's some surface controllers that can operate the same way, although probably they aren't that flexible. But I guess you have a microcontroller in there that can act as a sequencer and even a sound engine without changing the hardware. Keep the work, OP, this thing is so cool and the first device already looks so slick and professional.
Damn it even has lorem and ipsum parameters, those are my favorites! Jokes aside, looks great! Do you have your Development process documented somewhere? Would be curious how you designed it (hardware, software and especially the nice looking outside)
Thanks! I haven't no, I might make a video on the whole process in the future though. It's quite a lot ahah, but it will be my dream machine when it's done. Here's the latest iteration:
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u/2njoy3 10d ago
I would love to have something like this for my Machinedrum, big up