In November, Bill Van Loo showed off his custom-painted Apple QWERTY keyboard for controlling Ableton Live. He’s been painting again, and has now completed his live Live rig with a beautifully-painted Peavy MIDI fader unit.
Peavey PC1600x MIDI controller re-paint [Flickr set]
Detailed, step-by-step instructions and an explanation of how this all fits into a music gig:
adventures in spray paint, plywood and velcro: my new controller board
And all of this fits atop a sizable MIDI keyboard and Line 6 PodXT Live on the floor. QWERTY keyboard aficionados will no doubt also appreciate the custom paint job on an IBM Model M. Not many computer QWERTY keyboards can be considered classics, but to us typing geeks there’s nothing quite like the feel and satisfying “clack” of IBM’s best.
How did he manage to paint this without it winding up a mess? Here’s painting 101 with Bill:
My painting tips are pretty straightforward – use a ruler and right angle when you’re masking off the pieces you don’t want paint on, and follow the directions on the can. Make sure you’re using lots of light coats of paint, not one or two big gloppy coats – otherwise you’ll get runs and the paint will look poor.
I have considered painting my Trigger Finger, but for now I think I’m satisfied…if pictures of an orange or light blue or brown Trigger
Finger start showing up in my photostream, you’ll know I got antsy, I guess!
Remember, if you have a project or gig photos, feel free to share them with fellow CDMers on the Create Digital Music photo pool. Don’t worry about quality — really, we’ll all feel better if some stuff doesn’t look so hot!
cool! i really like the color scheme and the keyboard mods. keep on pimpin'. i loaded my own slightly modded xsession controller for ableton live. i have added skull knobs and guitar strap buttons on the ends so i can wear it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31996074@N00/3839689…
Thanks for posting this, Peter.
A couple more notes about the IBM Model M. As you can tell in the photos, the key caps come off. This allows me to re-configure the keyboard for different situations.
I also use (for the Mac), a piece of software called ControllerMate. This basically allows you to rearrange which keys do what on the keyboard. Since Ableton Live recognizes the difference between lower and upper-case keys, I've switched some numbers and letters around to have a fully switchable (via caps lock) 4×4 grid on the keyboard.
The ControllerMate software is located here: http:/ /http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/
J.
I've done some painting on my BCD2000. When it's done – you'll see it.
[…] Update: This got picked up by Create Digital Music, a great music technology blog that I read. You can read the story and see comments at the site: Create Digital Music. […]
[…] to Bill van Loo, Friend of Bwack (and creator of his own manner of wonderful things), for the heads-up! Hello? It’s the Future Calling. We Have Your […]
[…] Update: This got picked up by Create Digital Music, a great music technology blog that I read. You can read the story and see comments at the site: Create Digital Music. […]
Yeah that keyboard is pretty tight.