Re: [linux-audio-dev] Midi/OSC help - Continuous controllers

Hi Paul, 1 - a friend of mine showed me his brand new evolution uc33 midi controller. He's using that with a windows-based software called "Live". I was really suprised to see that this software use exactly what I proposed in this thread. First you enter a "capture-mode", you click on some GUI widget, then you rotate some knob, that's it : it's assigned. I promise I never saw a such thing when I had exactly the same idea.

2 - Tonight, I went to a concert of a jazz drummer, a friend of mine. He was using a macintosh coupled with a midi h/w controller. He spent more time playing with this computer than with his drumset, but nevermind... My point is : he was using both the midi controller, and the screen/keyboard/mouse set, just as my other friend above. Now, here's what I consider to be a very practical consideration : there are many GUI enabled apps, which can't run headless. A usual way of using a midi h/w controller is as a add-on, not as a replacement for the screen. I'd personally like to use a such midi h/w as a standalone device, on stage, but nothing will forbid me to unplug the screen in this case... By "midi-enabling" some toolkit widgets, _many_existing_ apps would suddenly become compatible with these dedicated controller hardware devices. I do agree you that the best would be for these apps to add some midi input support, as a separated "View". But on the other side, what about the "capture-style" way of assigning knobs to widgets ? Don't you see how this is efficient ? In 1 second, what you touch on the controller is connected with what you see on your screen (WYTIWYS ;-). Still, of course, in this case you may say that these are two separated layers that artificially appear to be one... But what about a shortcut to couple these two layers, if they are to get so tight ? I believe there could exist a library with which : 1 - you instantiate a core object (providing the alsa midi port as an arg) 2 - you "attach" to some widgets : sliders, spin buttons, etc.. (note that this is different from extending (bloating) widgets) 3 - you may call a function to enter the capture-mode 4 - 100 % of this capture-mode is encapsulated by the library : knobs-to-widgets assignations are handled transparently 5 - there is some way to retrieve these assignations to recall them later