MIDI CONTROLLER PROJECT

During my freshman year at Columbia College Chicago (spring semester of 2013) I requested to work on an independent project in the Audio Arts and Acoustics department. This project was to research and produce a functional midi controller. The final product was to be able to work with Ableton Live and have functional use. 

Thanks too a professor I had in my Intro to Audio Theory, Ben Sutherland, this project was able to happen. Also because of this project and my friendship with professor Sutherland I found a passion in electro-acoustic music and the study in the field of "Music Technology". A definition of what "Music Technology" is in the context that I have put it in is "here".

The project started by choosing to use the Teensy++ 2.0 microprocessor for PJRC (link for product). This was a decision based on other projects I have reviewed, pricing, and size. 

I started working on the prototyping of the code for this project. The code is saved as a .txt file here. This code has not been worked on after the project and may not be as efficient as it could be but it works. Once the code was completed I started working on my design for the box. 

I decided to go with an ergonomic designed around the contour of the hand in a resting position. This was for easier and faster button pressing while performing with the device

Once the devices internals and design were finalized work on the housing started. I came into contact with another professor at Columbia College by the name of David Dolak who is a geologist and also a luthier. He had materials to create a wooden box to house the internal electronics for the midi controller. This took the longest to complete because of time constraints and lack of experience with wood working. The shop where I worked on the housing had no power tools which also increased the difficulty and time to create the housing. 

In the end, project ended up being a success with minimal problems along the way. There was an error I came across. The computer sent me a message stating "Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled". This was fixed by moving the wiring sending the power to all the resistors before the resistors instead of after them on the circuit board.

The final product of this independent project was a great experience and an awesome Midi controller.