Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Long forgotten Mame controller
So, i was up in the loft at my mothers earlier today, looking for some vinyl records that i am desperate to find. Didn't find the vinyl but i found my laughable attempt at a MAME controller from 2003.
Not sure if it works but i intend to relight my fire for MAME an resurrect this long forfotten project. Certainly won't use mdf again as this thing weighs a bloody ton!
All the joysticks and buttons seem to be ok, the trackball doesn't spin freely though and i remember it did. These are real arcade parts and they were expensive then and i dread to think what they cost now but they feel awesome. i used multiple joysticks as i love twin stick shooters ala robotron and i wanted to recreate the rough button layouts to go with multiple games.
Anyway, did anyone go down this retro route? Or maybe you still do. It's a bottomless pit of addiction building your own arcade cabinets and controllers. My sudio/mancave is relocating to a sound proofed loft eventually so i would like to see a MAME cabinet in the corner hopefully.
Game on!
Comments
Hey, that's pretty cool. Wish I had any level of aptitude for electronics. Your skills in this are are better than mine.
No amount of electronics can control her...
Cool!
MDF does have some weight (pretty dusty to work with too), but what are you going to use in its place?
I haven't DIYed a game controller, but I have helped on the repair of a low volume sales commercial game controller recently and was able to source the high grade optical encoder that was needed from Mouser and the price wasn't bad. I suspect that you'll find that the availability and price is a bit better now than it used to be.
@Simon :
Not sure, I’m open to suggestions though. I’ve thought about Alu but not really looked into it in any detail yet and not sure when i will. Any project like this, whatever it may be, takes a long time to research and implement it in the right way.
At least i have the components here, if or whenever i restart it.
Aluminum panels would be interesting, especially if you had the tools to bend them precisely.
The controller I mentioned above used a combination of MDF that you'd find in kitchen cupboard drawers and plexiglass. The plexiglass top made it so you could print the graphics as an underlay. The bottom plate was held on with old style kitchen cupboard door magnets. Pretty slick, because it made it easy to pop the back off to make changes/repairs.
That's pretty sweet if you can get it working. I don't have the motivation to build something like that, but I do have a retro gaming machine built on a Raspberry Pi 3. It's amazing - I've got over 5,000 games on it and it can literally fit into my back pocket.
My kids and I love the RetroPie. We've traveled with it all over the world - played classic arcade games in Spain & Korea and all sorts of places. I spent ages dialing it in, ensuring that all the games had art work & descriptions, scouring the internet for games not released in America, hard to find games, etc. I'm glad I did - it super hits the spot when I just feel like blasting some baddies, y'know?