I am very excited to share the Takeout Box, a DIY DJ controller I have been working on for the last 4 months. It started out from a personal frustration with the lack of small, portable controllers that I could tote from gig to gig.
The controllers are designed to be used in tandem with Djay on the iPad, and attempt to extend and add on physical controls, but still allowing for easy use of the iPad. Instead of a jogwheel, I opted for a touch bar, which operates exactly like track jogging on the iPad.
If you’re interested, I am hoping to be able to provide DIY kits somewhat soonish (there are still a few kinks that need to be ironed out). All the components are off the shelf, and the enclosure, buttons and caps are all 3D printed.
I am open to feedback and would really like to know what you think!
I am currently using low-profile keyboard switches, but am planning to make the next version of the PCB compatible with the tactile switches as well (found in most controllers)
I will keep this thread updated and try to respond to any questions, but if you want to see our progress, you can check out our instagram page here and our website here
As of now, the controllers can’t get any RGB data from a device running Djay, since it would require the Djay devs to do some magic and enable our microcontroller as a valid/recognized HID device.
This was one of the things that pushed us towards a redesign. We wanted to keep the layout of the first version (see the first pic), but that would have forced a vertical 2x4 performance pad layout. Even though there are controllers that use vertical performance pads (like the Reloop Mixtour Pro), they rely on RGB lighting to show what pad maps to what function.
This is the reason why the EQ knobs now exist horizontally on top of the controller and not in the classic vertical line layout.
TLDR:
No, and it is unfortunately out of our hands at the moment
Personally I’d prefer the first version of your controller (but mechanical switches would be great nevertheless) because the position of the potis makes more sense and I don’t need the performance pads that much. I’d use your controller along with an external mixer to maintain easy access to the stem separation and jogging while having a classic 4 band EQ mixer experience.
Couldn’t you just impersonate an existing controller which gets close to yours to get the feedback from djay and modify the mapping?
We thought about the impersonation technique for a bit, but decided against it because it seemed like a surefire way to get a cease and desist from Pioneer.
I have waffled back and forth about the performance pads due to the position it forces the pots into, but ultimately decided for their inclusion after doing a couple of hour long mixes.
Pros:
Can quickly jump to cue points in song instead of panic looping (complicated to navigate to cue point page on the iPad)
Similar to other equipment, makes going back and forth between setups easier
Can store a lot more features in 8 buttons (slip, beat jump, sampler, etc)
Cons
Forces EQ knobs into a horizontal layout; unfortunately not as intuitive as vertical
Takes up space on controller where other things (like stem control) could be instead
Thanks for your detailed feedback though, I might send a few emails to the devs at Djay and see if they would be open to chatting.
