Building a foot controller... but not MIDI

[JeffHendricks]

I've been working with learning the ins and outs of SL, and I have an old ART X-15 MIDI pedal I have tried using with it. The problem I have run into is that it doesn't recognize quick double-steps, which I've seen other users here report from other controllers as well. This makes the multiply function almost useless, and causes problems with mute as well. Plus, I want to keep my X-15 to control my rack effects unit.

So I decided to build an HID keyboard controller inside a foot pedal, which will not only give me control of the program, it will give me foot functions that MIDI will not, like load loop, Save, and basic keyboard functions (up, down, and enter, for selecting loops to load). For any other functions, I have an Axiom 25 controller, to do things like set record threshold, output, etc. so I just need the buttons for performance functions.

I've bought an Ultimarc iPac 2 keyboard controller, which will let me hook up any button to it to map to a key press.


I ordered some buttons to go with it, and will be testing it out within the next week... has anybody else tried something like this?

[JeffHendricks]

Well, I got the buttons and controller in the mail, working on building a foot platform for everything. I will try to have some pictures up this week. Total cost for the parts was less than $75 (US), and that's with 20 buttons. If you don't plan on using anything except buttons, this setup looks like it will work great. I'm looking forward to getting it wired up and testing it out!

[JeffHendricks]

Well, I got a lot of work done on this today. I took two pieces of lexan and bolted them together 2" apart. Here's some pics of it coming together.

[JeffHendricks]

Thanks, M! I'm hoping to get lots of use from it.

To answer some of your questions:

It cost about $75 total for parts. I already had the plastic sheets and screws, but you could use 1/2" plywood.
The boards need to be about 2" apart for the buttons and wiring to fit inside.
The button spacing is the same as my X-15, it works well, so I just copied the spacing.
Buttons left-to-right are 2.5" (63mm) center to center.
Buttons top-to-bottom are 3.5" (88mm) center to center.
Total board size is 21" x 10" (48cm x 25.2cm) and there is room for 2 more buttons.

I finished the wiring this morning, then I programmed the buttons and tested it. It works perfectly!

The finished board (I may still paint it)


The Ultimarc iPac controller board

[jesse]

Very cool! Is the responsiveness OK, going through as keyboard events? I ask because it isn't the most direct path... MIDI events talk directly to the SL engine short-circuiting any OSC, whereas the keyboard events go into the GUI, which then get sent out as OSC messages to the engine and processed. It shouldn't be too noticeably different, in practice... just curious.

[JeffHendricks]

Very cool! Is the responsiveness OK, going through as keyboard events? I ask because it isn't the most direct path... MIDI events talk directly to the SL engine short-circuiting any OSC, whereas the keyboard events go into the GUI, which then get sent out as OSC messages to the engine and processed. It shouldn't be too noticeably different, in practice... just curious.

First off, I want to thank you, Jesse, for writing this awesome piece of software. I'm looking forward to future versions, and I do plan on using it in live performances. I'm running it on Ubuntu Studio. The first paying gig I do with it, I will be sure to donate.

As long as SooperLooper is in the foreground, it works exactly like pressing keys on the keyboard, and the Ultimarc board is nice in that it registers many presses simultaneously (independant switch inputs, not scanned like a keyboard) and also uses low-level interrupts... there is zero latency, as far as I can tell. I really wanted to use MIDI events for the pedal, but the cheapest DIY midi controller board was twice as expensive as the Ultimarc. I figured if it didn't work well, I could still make an arcade cabinet with it. Since it works well for arcade button-mashers, I figured it would be perfect for looping, and so far, I'm totally satisfied.

The cool thing about using a keyboard interface is that I can load loops with my feet... this is valuable for live songs sets where one song flows into another. I can play guitar through the end of a song, and while I'm doing a key/tempo transition, I can load a new drum loop with my feet, and kick off the new song without stopping.

As soon as I get the time and space to set up my entire stage rig, I will put up some videos of it in action.

[JeffHendricks]

Okay, here's a quick video showing my current looping setup. I haven't even began to scratch the surface of what this can do, but here's a quick song using the new foot controller.

I did notice after using 5 loops for several songs (without reloading the session) SooperLooper began to respond to input very slowly (keyboard OR midi), I'm guessing it had run out of RAM and was caching to hard disk. I slimmed it down to 3 loops, and reloaded after each song, seems to be working great so far. If I want to use more than that, I will need a faster PC with much more RAM... maybe someday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGtUHJH1gak

[adam]

Wow... I'm excited by this... I'm new (well not even started) to looping (my daughter pays guitar and sings and wants to work a version of KT Tunstall's Black Horse and the Cherry Tree as well as mix looped flute into performances and I have a few mad ideas for didjeridu, guitar and voice) and was looking at hacking a discarded USB keyboard to function as a USB controller as per this site here http://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking-a-USB-Keyboard/

Your progress gives me hope, though I've now set myself the task of creating the thing from entirely recycled materials, and am casting around for something that will work as foot switches

[JeffHendricks]

Tell you what, you'd have a hard time making or finding buttons cheaper than I bought these... they were $0.85 each from SparkFun.com (since I bought more than 10). They're a little noisy, but shouldn't be a problem on a live stage.

For everyone: I just upgraded the looper PC with spare parts I found in my workshop (yes, I have used P4 chips and RAM laying around) and it's now got a 2.7Ghz chip and 2GB of memory, the old setup had a 1.6Ghz and 1GB of RAM. I'm hoping this will eliminate the memory running out with 5 loops running concurrently.

Will post another video when I get the chance... I've got a good song in mind to try, can't wait to give it a shot!

[adam]

Sounds good... I'm UK based but sure I can find an equivalent... might have to sacrifice the all-recycled bit for a good working unit

[steph23]

This is great. I liked the video too. Everything looked pretty familiar. I am definitely falling for such a controller. Midi doesn't work for me either. Way to limiting imho. My digitech fsx3 plugged into this I-PAC thing look so much like my dream footcontroller come true. Thanks for sharing !

--
Steph23

[JeffHendricks]

I don't think you could use this controller with a Digitech pedal... it's a computer keyboard emulator. It plugs into the keyboard plug on a computer, just lets me use buttons instead of a regular keyboard... but if you wanted to, you could use it to type with your feet

[JeffHendricks]

I ended up accidentally "bricking" the Ultimarc iPac2... tried to program it using the wrong interface setting and it screwed it up somehow. Still, I ordered another one, it's still cheaper than a Hale Micro UMC32. I'm also going to replace some of the buttons that aren't working correctly. Turns out, cheap arcade buttons don't tolerate soldering very well. Hopefully within a week I'll have it back together and painted, and I'll be ready to go again!