Ableton Live4 Remote Controller

MIDIbox HUIs
1

Hi all,

     I have been an electronic tech in the aerospace industry, studied BAL Assembler, and C in college, and I’m now a Systems Engineer. I have for the past 20 years or so had a dream that I am on the threshold of fulfilling, and I believe the MIDIBox64 is the missing piece. I am looking for advice from those of you already working with these custom HW/SW devices to go about building my own. I will explain my concept, and hopefully I will get enough information in responses to set about facilitating this dream.

    There will be an 16 x 8 matrix of clear plastic push buttons (16 across, 8 down). Each of these buttons will have three states indicated by a red light (Record), a green light (Play), and no light (off). My thinking is that each of these buttons can trigger a simple note-on command for each state (3 MIDI channels, 1 for each state, 128 MIDI notes for each of the 16 x 8 buttons). This can serve to control the clips in Live4 due to the excellent MIDI mapping functions in Live4. A readout would not be necessary because that would already be reflected on the computer screen. It would also be great to have a continuous rotary knob to control tempo. Does anyone understand my design logic?  :slight_smile:

    I can only guess at what I would need at this point, other than saying materials for the box, components, something to burn the EPROMs or whatever they’re called these days, and the necessary software. I would Love to benefit from your experiences. I have other ideas as well, but this would be an awesome start.

    Any help regarding the ways to go about beginning this process, through completing and finally using this device would be most appreciated. I don’t know what kind of expectations to even have regarding this . . . how much will it cost, how long will it take, etc. Will I have to breadboard it first or is the logic so that I simply get things interconnected, and then write to the PROMs ?

I will be trying to follow this forum more closely; this is very cool.

Thanks for all responses,

Glennzone

2

Not a single response from anyone.

Something’s not right. If someone could give me an idea, I would appreciate it.

Is the MIDIbox64 going to be able to handle that ? Do I need something more?

I would appreciate even a single response.

Thanks,

Glennzone

3

Hello Glenn,

welcome to the board. Have you checked the ucapps.de for the midibox 64.

Have you made up how many channels / buttons you want? Have you used search and typed in ableton?

Some people here are working on ableton live or wish to make a controller.

First thing is to decide is how do you want your layout to be. After that you can make a list on what you exactly need..

4

Thanks Twin-X for the reply. I thought my description of the interface was already pretty complete :

    "There will be an 16 x 8 matrix of clear plastic push buttons (16 across, 8 down). Each of these buttons will have three states indicated by a red light (Record), a green light (Play), and no light (off). My thinking is that each of these buttons can trigger a simple note-on command for each state (3 MIDI channels, 1 for each state, 128 MIDI notes for each of the 16 x 8 buttons). This can serve to control the clips in Live4 due to the excellent MIDI mapping functions in Live4. A readout would not be necessary because that would already be reflected on the computer screen. It would also be great to have a continuous rotary knob to control tempo. Does anyone understand my design logic?  :slight_smile: "

The idea of this interface relies wholly on the key and MIDI mapping features of Live4. It is a beautiful implementation.

So here’s a deeper look at my vision :

The bottom line I guess is that the physical interface will be a representation of 16 tracks in Session view having 8 clips in each. If you have everything coming from a clean start, there are no lights illuminated on the little clear rectangular buttons.

1.  If you hit the track 1, clip 1 button (upper left-hand corner of controller) it illuminates red (LED), and immediately puts that clip in record mode and begins recording. Technically, Record messages are sent over MIDI channel 1, one of notes 1-128 for a duration of about 250 ms, then note off.

2.  Hitting it again, the pattern (clip) stops recording, and turns the button to green (LED) indicating playback. Technically, Play messages are sent over MIDI channel 2, one of notes 1-128 for a duration of about 250 ms, then note off.

3.  Hitting that button again de-illuminates the clear button (LED) indicating that the pattern (clip) is not playing back at all.  Technically, Stop messages are sent over MIDI channel 3, one of notes 1-128 for a duration of about 250 ms, then note off.

By using this type of an interface you can start multiple clips recording at once, and at the same time. The reason I like to do things this way is that I have static tracks in Live4. Each track has a specific input going to a specific output, most of which are MIDI using VSTi’s. I can then take that track (and others) and bounce the audio out of those MIDI tracks into another track which takes the audio from the MIDI tracks (like a group mix by musical section)

Now, in Record mode, where exactly these tracks start recording (in measure or beat) depends upon the setting in Preferences for that function.

That’s all I can include for now . . . I’m at my “real job !”

Thanks again,

Glennzone

P.S. I will definitely be taking a closer look at the sites you specified over this weekend and coming week. Being a single father, my child is with me all the time but for a week per month (when he’s with him mom.)

5

Hi,

it shouldn’t be too difficult to realise something like this with the MIOS C wrapper, there are also assembler examples (with some comments) which explain, how button/LED matrices can be handled in an efficient way, and they can be easily ported to C

Best Regards, Thorsten.

6

Vielen dank TK,

This is good news. Perhaps you could tell me where exactly to find these things you reference? I don’t see any search tools on the uCapps site for these references.

I have also been failing at my attempts to locate the clear plastic switches I want. Then there’s the question of the red and green LED’s. Are there switches with those types of things already built in ? Where could I go with questions such as these?

I’m getting the feeling that a MIDIbox64 is more than enough to handle this (and the rotary encoder for tempo). If so, do you think I could realistically go about incorporating flying faders as a next step? I just don’t know if I’ll need anything more than the MF module. Either way, I will be taking it one step at a time. First, the interface with the buttons and rotary knob.

Thanks again,

Glennzone

Let me know

7

This is good news. Perhaps you could tell me where exactly to find these things you reference? I don’t see any search tools on the uCapps site for these references.

There is only one page which lists all MIOS programs: http://www.ucapps.de/mios_download.html

Note that these packages also contain the source codes, the code is mostly commented and gives you a lot of informations, much more than you can find in the forum or at my website

Best Regards, Thorsten.

8

Thanks TK. I have downloaded all the files and will peruse them.

I need to find my little clear rectangular button switches. I have downloaded and looked through the whole Mouser catalog, but don’t find what I’m looking for, though some things could be ok for “sloppy seconds”. I have seen them many times before, particularly on aircraft (I used to work in the aerospace industry). I’ll settle with anything that will yield the same aesthetic results.

Any input there would be appreciated.  I am certainly learning though ! !

Thanks again !

Glennzone

9

Some nice buttons can be found in the part archive:

http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=4361.0

http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=2688.0

Best Regards, Thorsten.

10

Oh, I found lots of buttons. Just not the ones I’ve been looking for. I may have to design my own (128 new subassemblies ! !  Yuck !)

I don’t know. I’m thinking I need three separate buttons for each 1 clip (pattern)

as record (MIDI ch1, note x with red LED illuminated)

      play (MIDI ch2, note x with green LED illuminated)

      stop (MIDI ch3, note x with no LED illuminated)

. . . Times 128 !

How do I wire up something like that ? Can I actually use 1 momentary switch for all three conditions with two LED’s in the circuit? (multiplied by 128 for each button in the matrix ) I see three-state rocker switches which seem like they could do it. I just don’t know whether these three states will be able to trigger 3 MIDI events.

I’m at a loss. If I could overcome this lack of foresight (regarding the switches), I think I would be able to begin.

Thanks again TK,

Glennzone

11

I just don’t know whether these three states will be able to trigger 3 MIDI events.

it’s just depends on the way how you implement this - you could store the button states in an array: 2 bits for up to 4 toggle states, grouped to one byte for 4 buttons, makes 32 bytes (no problem when you are programming an application from scratch with the C wrapper).

The LEDs have to be time multiplexed, they get their on/off state from the same array

Best Regards, Thorsten.