I’m outright copying Moldover’s idea of open-sourcing a controller design. This one is for the PMM.

As with the Moldover MOJO Page, the freebies are on the top of the page, with a not-so-subtle solicitation embedded at the bottom.

PMM Open Source Page.

(Peter Kirn is going to yell at me again for not using Github. So I ask — do y’all have any desire to share your own alterations of this design online?)

Moldover and I are collaborating on another project. This one is concerns the MOJO, the custom controller he tours with.

The MOJO has become an open project, available for anyone to make. In the video below, Moldover details the MOJO’s history, its design and a typical build.

This is still Moldover’s baby, but 60 Works is becoming a clearinghouse for all things MOJO. (We’re also selling MOJOs for people who’d like to buy one instead of making one.)

What’s the reason for 60 Works’ involvement? Moldover is too busy being Moldover, artist extraordinaire… while I actually want to be tackling things like pre-sales support, invoicing and logistics. It’s an ideal partnership for the Artist dude/Business dude relationship we’ve developed.

Once again, the Mojo product page is here!

The controller is built specifically for version 2.0 of Arturia’s Minimoog V Virtual Instrument, which is in turn inspired from the original Minimoog. If you’re not familiar with Virtual Instruments, I’m sure this all feels quite “meta,” but it’s pretty common in music technology.

Mark B makes his living off music. He uses that particular Virtual Instrument extensively. He has very specific travel and MIDI control needs. In other words, his needs are a perfect fit for a custom controller. The PMM isn’t a luxury novelty to him. It’s a tool in his toolbox — one that took weeks of collaboration to conceptualize and design.

A bunch of anecdotes from the build are below. Scroll down further for tech details and pictures:

• International Feel Recordings is a damned fine label. I’ll describe it without getting into genre specifics (which thankfully, they defy). They make the kind of music that makes you feel you’re peeking into a world of people and places that are much cooler than you’ll ever be.
• Mark B found me without the benefit of my existing Rolodex in the music technology world. He discovered 60 Works thanks to Synthtopia’s posting of the Hale Micro Build Video. This is heartening. It means the business can attract clients on its own, instead of depending on the good graces of friends & colleagues.
• PMM stands for “Portable Memorymoog,” a cute joke about the MIDI & Polyphony functionality on that particular synth. I’m going to keep calling it the PMM to protect myself from the ire of the Moog folk. (Not that they’re particularly litigious. I just respect them too much to Bogart their name out of the blue.)
• Even though the end result of these projects is a box with buttons and knobs, the entire experience has much in common with contract graphic design or architecture work (as opposed to a factory or retail fulfillment experience). There were moments of great frustration and wonderful elation. A number of lovely concepts were canned or re-configured for the greater good. There were moments where we IM’ed so often that I jokingly referred to Mark B as my Temporary Work Wife.

A bit more on the controller:

• The lid is an exact “negative” of the knobs and buttons that stick out the top. It is kept in place by high-strength magnets at its base, and by additional magnets hidden under the panel of the controller.
• It’s smaller than it looks. The entire controller could fit on a Letter (or A4) piece of paper.
• It’s two UMC-32+Ms, chained together. It’s possible to fit all the I/O into a single UMC, but there were some specific MIDI CC requirements that forced a second board.
• There are indicator LEDs on two of the switches. They illuminate to match the behavior of the Virtual Instrument, but they’re NOT controlled by MIDI. They’re simply powered based on their position, then the position was rotated to match the user interface on the Virtual Instrument.
•  (Getting pretty technical for a moment.) We managed a nifty trick with the Rate and Waveform selectors. The underlying component isn’t a rotary potentiometer, it’s a 6-position rotary switch. Instead of connecting each switch to a digital input, I wired a resistor “ladder” between the switches and hooked the entire unit up to an analog input. The result was a rotary switch that would “jump” to specific CC values based on its position. This significantly reduced the number of required inputs, and allowed for control of the Virtual Instrument without any sort of MIDI translation software.
• Confused at that last one? Here’s the bottom line: the Waveform and Rate selectors behave like they would in a synth (clicky knobs that stop directly at the indicators), instead of like in a MIDI controller (smooth knobs where you don’t know exactly where you are).

Mark B and I may end up selling these. Please contact me if you have any interest in buying one.

Long spells between blog posts tend to reflect one of two possibilities:

1. A lack of anything meaningful to write about, and the perceived shame that goes with it.
2. Being too busy to market yourself further.

I’m happy to say that, for once, I’m falling into the latter category. February and March have been supremely busy, in the best possible way.

Highlights:

• A fun Zayik sale to a producer in Switzerland. I’ll post more about this via Zayik’s marketing channels when I have the time.
• A recently-completed project with a client in South America. More on this soon.
• An in-progress project with a customer in Canada.
• Multiple potential clients in the hopper!

The biggest highlight is the lightning fast transition from desperation to busy-ness. I’ve gone from praying that a custom controller market exists to working actively in it.

Fun fact for potential entrepreneurs: you’re not supposed to start a business for a market that you don’t know exists. I got lucky.

That said, I’ve only turned a corner.  It’s not time to rent a giant industrial space, or to hire people. It’s time to take five minutes to celebrate, then to dig back into this fun world I’ve created for myself.

(I also have the sneaking suspicion Kenneth did this to help me get off my butt and focus on a new project while 60 Works and Zayik slowly gained momentum. I don’t know if this is true, but it makes him appear very wise and sage, so we’ll keep thinking that.)

The build video went through a number of iterations, and eventually morphed into what you see here. Instead of simply presenting a build, I went for a more instructional style, with a complementary website here.

If this takes off, I could imagine selling “Drill Your Own” kits. That controller was designed in such a way that the most complicated assembly tool was a power drill. We shall see!

Anecdotes from making the video:

• Early on, I set a rough 5-minute limit, taking into account the typical YouTube viewer’s attention span. Five minutes of content is too much and not enough, all at once. The amount of work to create this was extraordinary, as was the amount of content that was cut from the script.
• I have newfound respect for one of my favorite TV shows: How It’s Made (on Netflix Watch Instantly in the USA). It’s a simple format, but I’m beginning to appreciate the amount of effort put into each episode.
• My subtle, classy orange/yellow walls in the workshop look horrible on camera.
• Editing video makes you watch content in a completely different light. You see things you previously didn’t perceive, especially cuts between shots. I imagine a basic Film class teaches this same vision.
• Looking at yourself in the mirror is very different from looking at video of yourself. It’s a bit horrifying at first. Then you get used to it, seeing beyond your past self on the computer screen.

This controller was designed to be re-created by a novice. The wiring scheme, the enclosure and the components all take this into account.

Some pre-emptive Q&A is below. ZAYIK has its own Q&A section; this one is focused on the relationship between these two sites.

What’s the point of this when you have 60 Works?

One-sentence Executive response:
To spin off a business model based around higher volume, and to generate additional Sales Leads.

Response from an actual human being:
ZAYIK represents one flavor of “custom:” unfettered placement of components on a fixed surface. It happens to be that this particular flavor is a low-hanging fruit — something that can be automated to the point that a web application can handle much of the design work. So one answer to the question is “…because I can see a unique business around it.”

Another answer to the question is “…to open the eyes of clients.” If people realize this one flavor of “custom” exists, maybe they’ll begin to fathom additional possibilities. For these people, 60 Works will be ready to help.

Then why isn’t ZAYIK a sub-brand? Why go through the hassle of making something new?

I want to ensure 60 Works continues to be a small workshop for custom controllers. ZAYIK currently fits in that mold, but it has its own trajectory. If it takes off, questions of inventory, scaling and logistics need to be tackled. Those are concerns I want to divorce from the warm fuzzy workshop vibe that is 60 Works.

This idea sounds familiar…

That’s because it is. The most famous example is the MAWZER controller, an ingenious idea that never fully blossomed (at least, as far as I know). MAWZER was all about modularity. Livid Instruments has also picked up this banner with some beautiful add-on units and prototypes. In fact, ZAYIK is a partially modular system, under the hood.

I shared this idea with Kenneth Graham of Hale Micro when I was working on the implementation. Turns out he and a friend had also thought of it… a decade ago.

So, do I go to ZAYIK or 60 Works?

Depends. If you’re interested in buying a ZAYIK controller (or some derivation/modification), try ZAYIK. If you’ve got a pie-in-the-sky idea, or have general questions about custom controllers, try 60 Works. You’ll notice ZAYIK is short on bloggy-ness. I’ll keep all of that rambling here.

One additional benefit is that 60 Works can now use ZAYIK to share ideas with potential clients. I can slap together a quick controller idea and send an email saying “it’ll be a bit like this,” without having to paint a picture in their heads. This benefit alone may be worth the entire project.

Acknowledgements:

ZAYIK is my baby, but it’s a collaborative effort. None of this would be possible without the efforts of three very important partners:

• Mark Hiner of Pierced Veil Projects.
• Kenneth Graham of Hale Microsystems.
• Front Panel Express.

It’s not you, it’s me.

We have these wonderfully exciting email chats where you share your music dreams. Then they end, with me advising you against my services. I’m not actively pushing you away, but the conversation just tends to trail off into oblivion.

I would love to work with you, but the reasons we don’t are numerous.

• Many times, you tell me your problem, and I show you how to solve 80% of it by buying stuff off-the-shelf. Then I show you the kind of effort, money and time it would take to achieve 100% satisfaction, and you realize 80% isn’t so bad.
• Sometimes, the technology has not caught up with your vision. The cost to realize your solution becomes huge, because I’m tasked with Invention as much as I’m tasked with Implementation.
• Sometimes, you get caught up in a deep conversation when you were actually just window-shopping.
• Sometimes it’s simple sticker shock.
• I’m guessing here, but I bet that many times, I never receive an email in the first place because of fear that I’ll steal & commercialize the idea. (FYI, I have non-disclosure agreements ready for these kinds of conversations.)

Believe it or not, this is pretty much what I expected. Lots of nibbling, but not too many bites. Many conversations started, just as many hanging forever in limbo. It’s the nature of this business.

To be clear, I’m not discouraging ANY of this correspondence. Anyone who I’ve talked to can attest to my fervor for finding solutions to their problems, even when they involve off-the-shelf components or a competing service. Every new email is an opportunity to learn about something new — an opportunity to improve my quoting and research skills.

Unfortunately, the current state of the technology makes it difficult to affordably serve most of you. This reality may change as the costs of MIDI electronics and Rapid Prototyping go down.

While this may seem discouraging to both of us, it’s OK by me. 60 Works operates on the fringes of the music technology world. My clients are few and far between, and consist of people who are as devoted to finding solutions as they are frustrated with the current state of the art.

Until I’m so busy that I cannot answer your questions, keep the emails coming. I can’t promise I’ll be the one to solve your problems, but I can promise to give you a clear idea of your problem from the perspective of a boutique builder.

-Dave

It’s a warm and fuzzy relationship — we’re genuinely interested in helping each other whenever possible. I believe we have a pretty clear idea of each other’s goals within this world of music technology: I prefer to be the “Business Dude” while he prefers to be the “Artist Dude.” But in order to get where we are, we both had to become MIDI controller experts.

This creates some overlap. Case in point: Matt’s recent gig creating a custom controller for Bassnectar. We shared resources to complete the project, though Matt is responsible for the bulk of the work. My contribution was minor, but Matt ensured I received credit for my contribution. That’s just the kind of guy he is.

You’re a generic service provider (accountant, lawyer, banker, supplier, etc): 60 Works is a small business in the Musical Instruments (MI) industry. We specialize in boutique and custom designs.

You’re a random person off the street: 60 Works makes gadgets for people who use computers to perform music. It sounds pretty geeky (and it is), but one of our goals is to empower these people to stop hiding behind their laptops, and to start providing an actual performance on stage.

You’re an instrumentalist/vocalist: 60 Works makes custom MIDI controllers. These devices control the computer gear you use to record. Some artists have begun using MIDI controllers as instruments in their own right. 60 Works helps make these.

You’re a DJ: You know those devices that let you control Serato or Traktor without using the keyboard? Those are MIDI Controllers. 60 Works makes them for people with needs beyond what can be found off the shelf.

You’re an Electronic Musician: 60 Works makes MIDI controllers. They’re more expensive than what you see at the store, but are built around a different philosophy. We build custom instruments for your performance. We don’t build generic plastic boxes.

You’re a business/tech journalist looking for an introductory sentence to start an article about 60 Works: What if a restless, jaded 30 year old — a devotee of the works of David Allen and Seth Godin — decided to start a company around his singular passion for music-making gadgets?