December | 2014 | Imagination & Junk

After the first design was built there were a number of things I felt could be improved upon in terms of design and functionality.

The pre-made box itself was unnecessarily deep in comparison to similar professionally made products.
As the box was so high it was uncomfortable to play due to the fact the interface is horizontal and not facing the user.
I felt the single colour of the controller left something to be desired visually
After considering how the box would function in relation to the lights and the leap motion controller there seemed to be room for optimisation in terms of controls.

To address these issues with the second design I decided to implement the following changes:

Build my own box and minimise the dimensions as much as possible to make it have a lower profile.
Angle the interface so that it is facing towards the user and therefore easier to play.
Fabricate a piece of metal on the top to house the buttons.
Remove the rotary potentiometers as the Leap Motion has so much more potential for producing numerous control data using a single hand.
By removing the rotary potentiometers I would then have a place to actually place the Leap Motion controller (something that was overlooked in the previous design)

With these changes I decided on the definitive functionality of each of the buttons:

The top three rows (12 buttons) would be responsible for the triggering of samples.
The fourth row of buttons would engage an effect, the parameters of which can be controlled by the Leap Motion controller.
The Player One and Player Two buttons located at the bottom would be used to transition into the next composition (by allocating the top 12 buttons a different set of samples).

After implementing all of the above changes this is the final design:

Below is a 3D model of what the box will look like:

When first designing the controller I first looked at comparable examples such as the Native Instruments Traktor. I chose the Traktor as it has similar elements to my own design; those being illuminated buttons, rotary potentiometers and trigger pads for playing samples.

I decided to emulate the design in that the buttons for playing the samples should be most easily accessible to the user, therefore they need to be located closest.

In terms of measurements I would have to account for the width of the mounting holes required for each button (28mm), the depth of the plungers (65mm) and how much room would be needed to house the buttons, wires and Arudino comfortably.

With this in mind this is the first design for my controller:

As you can see although the buttons themselves are only 28mm in diameter there needs to be extra room to allow for the translucent rings on the top of the buttons (this coincidentally helped to make the wiring less problematic as well as there was more room).

The box was bought pre-made (the full dimensions of which are 280x200x180) from a lightweight wood with a natural finish (later for purely aesthetic reasons I varnished the box).

Here can be seen the completed build of the first design of my controller: