[linux-audio-user] m-audio Trigger Finger: Plug'n'play :)

[Christoph Eckert]

Hehe,


> It could be interesting to somehow clone the Enigma editor software
> to program the device, as Enigma is also used for many other Midi
> devices, that were made by Evolution and now belong to M-Audio, like
> the UC33.  Maybe it would be possible to get at some specifications
> about this (if the name Enigma isn't to be taken by its original
> meaning). I'm sure this could become a nice community project.

check out the software section at christeck.de ;-) .

To be honest, I wanted to learn some C++, and instead of waitin and 
whinin about the lacks of usability on linux better contribute. I'm not 
sure if I will stay interested, but currently I am.

Back to Enigma. Enigma is the try to support all m-audio devices with 
one software. A particular device in Enigma is described in an XML 
file. Regardless if it was Trigger Finger, UC33 or Oxygen, they all 
have the same features: Send Note on and controller events, so unifying 
the configuration software is the right idea - for m-audio.

My approach is another one. If I was a real coder, I want to support 
*any* device by an XML description file. That's what I'm thinking 
about, and that's why I'm reading about XML right at the moment.

I also have a Behringer V-amp guitar amp emulator and some parameters 
only are accessible via software. This was the starting point for my 
little project: Learn some C++ and then create a bank manager for my 
devices and some editors, mainly the Behringer one, but I've been asked 
about a programmer for the FCB 1010, a MIDI foot controller for 
guitarists.

I already have the sysex packages of Trigger Finger on my hard drive; 
decoding it isn't much work, and even write a programmer then shouldn't 
be that difficult.

But it is a one way tool: Configure in the PC and send it to the device. 
Chagning the device settings and getting it loaded into the PC seems to 
be done by Enigma via special USB commands instead of a sysex request.

There are already projects writing a sysex tool, namely Jsynthlib. But 
the last time I tested it,

* the UI did hurt my eyes (sorry)
* It did use OSS instead of ALSA
* I didn't find it very intuitive

That's why I wanted to try to make it better. OTOH, I think I can do 
better UIs, but I doubt that I will be able to do such a huge project.

So I'm currently thinking about better making individual tools for some 
devices instead of making one monster thing.


Best regards


    ce