For all my fellow newbs out there.. I think it’s all correct. I have not been able to get the tempo fader horizontal slide to work for me yet, but otherwise I think it’s all working. Didn’t label the Master brightness, clipdeck scroll, zone on/off, effects 1-8 on/off, and group buttons. The one with the red around it is stop all cips. Hopefully, this is helpful for those visual learners out there.
Couple pics of the setup using a 49” monitor. Creating crazy long complicated clips and editing timelines is sooo great with the monitor!
The project on the screen is one that a friendly and familiar user here is letting me play with to become more acquainted with Liberation. Can’t wait for that share portion of the site @seb !!!
Getting the overlay perfect won’t be hard I think!. The top 2D view already looks quite exact and can be dimensioned if 1 measurment is taken for reference (or maybe AKAI can just share a DWG/PDF of the overlay, as this existing would also be in their benefit). I think lasercutting some thin material and engraving text onto it would be easiest. I can be of help if this is something people are really interested in
Has anyone tried using Ai to generate something? I think an overlay for the right half of the controller is all that is needed. Forget the clip area. Ideas that I have not fully implemented yet but works is butting a cut piece of wood to the bottom and the side for additional surface space. I have square plastic cable tracks that easily works as on alternative to wood.
The ultrawide is sooo awesome!! I thought it was a bit much to keep on my coffee table and tried to switch back to a normal 27”.. That lasted about 5 minutes before I was switching back to the ultrawide.
It’s florescent gaff (gaffer) tape with neon sharpie and a mini par uv led “eliminator” that I have mounted with zip ties to the back of my middle lasers bracket, pointing at my controller . I’m totally nerding out with this!
I believe the usual way these are made is by printing and vinyl cutting a thin overlay with all the button holes cut out. I actually do have a vinyl cutter myself, but getting something like this right takes a lot of trial and error. The cut-outs have to be positioned very precisely and it usually takes quite a few test runs before it fits perfectly. Probably not something I should be spending my time on right now haha!
However, if anyone here wants to take this on, I would be very grateful. I’m happy to help with the layout and design side if someone is willing to experiment with cutting and testing.
One possible shortcut might be to find an existing APC40 overlay template (for other software) that already has the correct hole positions and dimensions. That could save a lot of the trial and error.
Anyone have any experience or connections that could help with this let me know!
Seb
PS wouldn’t it be amazing to get UV ink on the overlay!
My only concern with using gaff tape, especially if it’s good gaff tape with strong adhesive, is the residual glue when you remove the labels after the adhesive dries. “Goo gone” is the goto adhesive remover. A base layer of painters tape should make this a non-issue.
We have these plastic sheets at work that are used to protect documents like a contact list. If you pop the encoder caps off, you can easily just mark it, punch a hole and just cut a square around it and not focus on the roundness because I don’t think it’s necessary. Also, i think transparent platic would be best around encoders because of the LEDs. This is just a scrap piece from what I use at work, but I’ll try to make something pretty in the next few days.
Edit - i think if you had the right size tape you could just run a strip directly over the encoder and just cut around the rectangle. Should make it easy enough to do this quickly.
What I think would be really useful in the long term is a general template file that anyone could download and take to a local vinyl shop to get printed and cut. That way people could easily make their own overlays without having to reinvent the wheel each time.
If we can get the hole positions and overall dimensions right once, then it becomes much easier for anyone to customise or produce their own versions.
I found a template image and then rescaled it in Inkscape. Might work !?!?!? Cleaned it up and left blank. If someone is able to print it off whole to see if it is accurate, that’d be great.
i recently got a cnc router, i may end up getting a dragknife for it so i can do this stuff…
but getting the vinyl printed is another thing, i have a contact that does this for cars, but resolution of printer is not that great to do small text on APC….
Actually, I think the scale was correct except I think my printer wasn’t set to print 100%. I think fastest results is to print this on a card stock and get an exacto knife and a good ruler and make this one piece. Personally, I think you can do away with some sections. Until the arrows are implemented, I may be masking them just to reduce visual noise. I don’t have all my tools on hand for precision but you can see the printout lines and everything seemingly is in place.
I was able to print on card stock. I bought a cheap exacto-like hobby knife. Not great. Need to do two passes. Clampdown is required to do somewhat straight cuts. The guillotine-type paper cutters in my life all suck beyond 15cm. Hand cutting is the way to go. Trying to decide how I am going to proceed. Likely will go with two parts or keep it whole.
I am totally down for a full size vinyl version and may look into vinyl sheets. Cutting is the obvious issue. Online, a custom overlay is about $100 CAD. I was starting to look at local shops, but I suspect a one off like this would cost around the same, if someone local is taking this type of job. I think I’d rather spend the 100 on chroma caps if i had to pick one.
Edit- this is a really old piece of cardstock. Seems porous. I have a fresh piece I’ll do up soon. Pro tip - bring a big flap of cardboard or a method of protection. Gets scuffed really easily.
If you print portrait, remove margins (I’ve been printing in MS PAINT and it reduces margins to whatever, but it prints to scale). Still needs some refinement. Sort of a colour code in effect, which should make the cheat sheet stuff easy. I hand cut out around the squares (not strips like in previous photos) and despite not being perfectly square, you can’t tell and it fits over nicely. Hope this helps someone.
. I’m totally nerding out with this!
