3 Nov
2016
3 Nov
'16
7:18 p.m.
On Thu, 3 Nov 2016, Yassin Philip wrote:
On 03/11/2016 16:51, Len Ovens wrote:
I do work mostly with Ardour though and that is not a problem. But a
control surface, even something simple and cheap like:
http://www.ovenwerks.net/hardware/3dollarcontrolsurface.html is
another step up. (keys for fader up and down are _not_ the way to go
BTW)
I remember trying and failing to get your hack to work. May have been the
keyboard's fault..?
Shouldn't be. I have used it with more than one USB keyboard and even a
Wiimote (bluetooth) controller. SO long as the keyboard shows up in
/dev/input/ it should work. The main thing is that it has to run in user
space because it uses Jack MIDI. This means the keyboard device has to
accessable by the user running jack. So I created a new group "input" and
made a udev rule to put the /dev/input/* files into that group. I then
added me to that group. I would not use the main keyboard but a second
one. anyway, I am willing to debug with you if you like.
I am slowly working on a much nicer controller
with nicer faders.
Here is an idea of what the display will look like (9inch screen):
http://www.ovenwerks.net/paste/O-S-C-screen.png
This one does accept touch control (much better than mouse) and will
be able to be removed from the control for remote access. But the
controller will also have physical controls for many of these
controls and buttons. One 9inch screen per 8 strips and one just for
master and global controls.
Is this targeted at devices like phones/tablet or maybe small pi-like Arm PCs?
Which? I am running open stage control on the same PC as the DAW right
now. An Android can run Chrome and control it via that, but I have been
using on the same machine for now for SW development testing. It does run
on the Pi though and I intend to use a Pi as the brain of my controller.
The screens (for now) will be cheap androids ($60ish). I am starting with
one fader group (8) and one master. The master might include 6 bus faders
as well as master and monitor control.
Souvenirs... In the last decade, I had a (2, actually)
Nokia N900 with Qmidictl
(It needed Qmidinet, with the default settings) it was pretty cool (I only used
the transport functions, but still, neat) despite the N900's resistive screen.
Now, after a transition by the N9, I'm in the cold under Android :( I tried to
get TouchDAW to work, but somehow failed. Didn't try very hard, Android depresses
me. I agree, having a control surface handy is the best of both worlds.
I have been able to control Ardour (with full feedback) using either
Control or touchOSC. There are OSC/MIDI bridges around (you may have to
use two, one for each direction) that would allow these to work with MIDI.
Both allow designing an interface with only the controls you need (what I
saw of touchdaw had way too many things on the screen for my fingers to
operate). Both send OSC or MIDI (I notice looking at my touchOSC editor)
so you may not need a bridge even. The bad news is that both have horible
faders/pots which jump to your finger touch rather than just moving in the
direction your finger moves after touching. Open Stage Control gets this
one right and is worth the extra setup steps for that alone in my opinion.
TouchOSC has slightly faster response than Control, but Control is free
and open and allows creating custom functions or even widgets (maybe
better faders?)
I do not know qtractor well enough to say what
is possible in direct
control from keyboard or other controller.
Probably. From my experience, it's very standard in terms of external control,
it's my understanding that it's in its DNA, that it was intended first to
control, and be controlled by, external MIDI hardware. My experience is that
everything works, like if you plug a Novation X-Station (AKA Remote Audio 25,
both quickly discontinued for excess of affordable awesomeness) then transport
buttons do their job out of the box, that sort of neat things.
So just a controller then. MIDI should be easy no matter what you start
with (keyboard, Wiimote, tablet, toy midi keyboard from the thrift store)
I found a Yamaha PSS-480 for $18 in a thrift store. Each note can be maped
to a different control for transport... no faders, sorry.
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net