In terms of modules, these are what i came up with that could allow people to grow at their own pace and budget
Fader pad
8 motor faders 8 encoders and buttons (This would cover vol/pan/rec/solo/mute/sends, the sends would work like so, when you press say 1 of the 4 send buttons the motor fader would jump into send level position of that send, you adjust and when you release the send button the motor fader jumps back to vol level)
Action pad
16 buttons for actions/Transport buttons/joystick/1 Motor fader (This would essentially be the master section)
EQ pad
13 encoders/4 buttons (This layout was chosen after discussion with others, the 4 band usage seems to be the most common)
Universal pad
17 encoders 8 buttons 1 LCD (4 rows of 4 encoders plus one data encoder next to the LCD, this would be used for universal control of plugins)
Keep in mind with these layouts that the idea at the time was more about hands on mixing and not editing, in discussions most people i chatted to about this wanted to stick with mouse and keys for editing but moving the control of mixing outside the box and onto hard controls was wanted.
With these layouts the user gets to add fader pads as they can afford
The downside of a layout like this was always the cost of ALPs Ks
If Nick can get them at $5 though i am in for 32 at least
