garageCube

[The Midi Thief]

I'm starting a thread for the Midi Feedback Module that I promised in another thread a while ago. Yesterday Vibber revealed that she is working on a similar module and anomad seems to be on the same track. The thought is to collaborate on this module and anyone who wants to contribute in any way i welcome! (PM me if you want to join in, we might send some files back and forth for testing etc. Or just contribute more passively below in this thread).

I have a concept and I'm currently trying to get proof that it's really working. I guess trough collaboration and testing, the final module might turn out totally different.


The concept

First - what doesn't work

You can't really make a module that gives midi feedback on other modules without modyfing each module or having some new keywords available for listening to them.

The general thought

The general thought was to make a module that gives midi feedback on what's going on in the main interface. In a way it will give feedback on other modules too, since most modules use the functions represented in the main interface. So if a module does z-rotation and blur, that could be shown on your midi controller but it will not be represented by one control as on the module (*got a little idea here though, se further down) but rather with two contolls representing blur and z-rotation in the main interface.

My idea is do make a module that looks something like the BPM Router Master/Layer module. You pick the fuctions (keywords) in the interface that you want to feed back to the midi controller and then you have some additional settings for each keyword (we have to figure out what those should be). And there could be premade presets that matches the factory settings of some well known midi controllers that has midi feedback.

* The little idea: maybe there could be a way of grouping keywords to simulate listening to a module? Say if the module, like in my example, was doing blur level and the z-rotation, maybe we can make the Midi Feedback module listen to these two kewords but only feed back one value to the midi controller? We would have to figure out some settings that covers this in that case... It's kind of a backwards way and it could make the module a bit too advanced.


How far are we?

I only got this stated earlier this week but will put down some time right now to see if the initial concept is working.

- Got the picking keywords part from the main interface working. (Easy, just copy past from the BPM Router (layer) module.
- Listening to one of the picked keywords is working.

Things I will be working on next:

- Save the settings for each keyword. And apply the setings each time a keyword is picked in the list. (this is pretty much already coverd by the BPM Router (layer) module.
- Get it to listen to all keywords that you've picked.
- Convert the data to MIDI and send it back to a MIDI controller.

[The Midi Thief]

So after the second day of working on the module:

- You can pick keywords (functions) from the main interface.
- Settings for each keyword. For now just Midi Note.
- The module is watching the selected keywords, converting the values to midi and feeding the midi back to a midi controller.
- Tested with the Behringer BCF2000 and it worked well even when the keywords were controlled by the BPM Router (layer) module. (Fun to see the BCR2000's motorized fader move by themselves...)
- Tested with faders, potentiometers and buttons so far.

[Vibber]

That sounds really promising what you have done. I only just discovered this thread now
Did you get any further with it?

Will the module be sending new midi values to the controller whenever you change to another layer or layerset? This is quite essential I think.

Let me know if I can do anything to help...

[The Midi Thief]

That sounds really promising what you have done. I only just discovered this thread now
Did you get any further with it?

I've been stuffed with work and performance the last two weeks, so no progress unfortunately.

Will the module be sending new midi values to the controller whenever you change to another layer or layerset? This is quite essential I think.

Let me know if I can do anything to help...

The module is supposed to be layer contextual - so yes, it will send the values associated with that layer.

As for layer sets. Maybe, but it depends on what you want the midi controller to do when you send that message?

I wanted to be able to controll the midi controller's "midi pages" but very few midi controllers lets you do that by sending a midi message to the controller.

I will both help and feedback but I need to fix a few things first. Maybe I will get some free time the upcomming weekend, but can't promise. My weeks are totally crazy at the moment.

[Vibber]

No pressure. It can get pretty busy here also - so I can't promise to be responsive either...