[LAU] MIDI Input of LAU Applications

Patrick Shirkey pshirkey at boosthardware.com
Tue May 5 22:24:52 EDT 2009



Crypto wrote:
> Hi @LAU people,
>
> I would like to open a discussion about the MIDI capabilities of LAU 
> applications here.
>
> There is quite a number of great LAU software of course and we have seen 
> frequent announcements of new versions or even complete new applications.
>
> But from a particular point of view their use sometimes is a bit limited.
>
> I have found that most applications require the user to work (record, program, 
> finetune etc.) from behind the computer on which the application runs. But that 
> limits the usability in case someone is actually playing an instrument with 
> MIDI interface, especially in a live playing environment, and needs something 
> more convenient to handle parameters etc.
>
> I have seen few applications that allow for using MIDI commands let alone 
> allow me to enter a custom made (be it SYS EX message or any controller 
> message) MIDI message to trigger a particular action within the application.
>
> There have been a number of hardware controllers available for some time that 
> come with numerous drawbars, pushbuttons and similar stuff to ease controlling 
> mixer applications, drum applications or anything else, so having a flexible 
> MIDI input interface (software) seems to me to be a really great idea.
>
> At the moment things I would like to do force me to use a MIDI programming 
> language instead of using all these new fancy GUI applications with much more 
> and much better options apart from their MIDI support than the simple 
> programming environment has. I have to program nearly everything on my own. 
> And I find myself running against walls because there are just too many things 
> that simply do not work.
>
> I wonder if noone else has a MIDI "Start/Stop" feature on their wishlist for 
> their favourite drum computer program, or "Fill 
> 1/Fill2/Ending1/Ending2/Variation" etc. (which applications like hydrogen do 
> not yet have but they are on their way).
>
> I wonder if noone else prefers a real hardware turning knob over a GUI mouse 
> slider (which cannot be moved from keyboard, as there is no MIDI controller 
> input for the slider...).
>
> What do You think? Anything worth adding for You here? Is better MIDI input of 
> applications worth asking for?
>
> Would like to learn more...
>
>   

I htink everyone would aggree that midi support for devices is not as 
user friendly as it could be. It's something that has not had alot of 
attention because there are simply not enough people with devices who 
are prepared to spend time on it at the moment.

Have you tried working with osc to connect your device?

Which specific apps are you using to connect the device with and what 
are the specific issues that you see? If we strip it back to specific 
issues then we should be able to use your setup as a test bed of sorts 
to get round them or give the original devs a heads up.


Cheers.





Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd





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