i’ll have some spare time this year and i would like to learn in depht how to develop mios applications…
here i describe my idea… i’will try to learn all the necessary to make this real.
i want to realize a 4x4 (or 4x3) velocity sensitive pads with visual feedback.
for visual feedback i thougth there are two possible options: 1- use little glcd with rgb backlit
2 - use 8x8 led matrix (mios can handle up to 16 of these matrix , right?)
the led matrix or the glcd will be but under the trasparent cover of the pad.
but fixed with the enclosure of the box and detached from the pads to avoid damages…
regarding velocity measurement i think that the most economic and practical solution is the use of piezo discs under the pads. but there will be problems with the note off messages, so some kind of contact or optic switches may be used.
why?
why not to buy a trigger finger???
i use a pc based music setup. i use many different music softwares: energy-xt for composition and sound design, cubase\nuendo as sequencer to make complete projects, adobe audition to trim samples and many other programs…
i constantly search new solutions (mantaining a low budget) to have the better feel possible working in studio. i use touchscreens and midicontrollers very often to control everything in the most natural way possible.
there is a list of thingh i want to do with my pad-midicontroller:
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play jazzy drum solos with great detail regarding velocity and timing, having a visual feedback of what sound a pad will trigger
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play chords or riffs or melodies, seeing the note names on the pads
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trigger program functions like fade-in fade-out in a wave editor
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trigger toggle functions (eg.loop function in traktor and so on…)
since i want to use it with pc based configurations i think that all the preset\patch handling will be in the hands of the pc.
i tryed this solution with my midibox64e and i’m really satified: i use and instance of energy-xt alwais running with the so called dummy-asio driver, so it can be used as a midi only modular vst host, it works as an interface between my midibox64e and all the music softwares i use. virtual midi ports like midi yoke are used to connect midi between different programs…
the midibox64e power is directly connected to the pc (rack mounted)
so the “dummy energy xt” instance is alwais active, i made a configuration that permits to change presets (different cc assignment of toggle\hold mode for buttons…) via software, with a latency of 1ms, and without the need of any lcd on my midibox64e.
i found this solution very very helpfull… you can do a lot of things: use the midibox to trigger complex keyboard key cobinations or mouse directions and buttons (very helpfull with touchscreens when precision is needed). different pot\enc modes or morph functions will be enirely programmed by pc.
many free-midiplugins can be downloaded and can be used as modules for various presets\configurations.
regarding my 4x4 velocity visual pads i want to do the same: buid a software interface that will handle presets, note assignments, pad mode(toggle-hold), various nice features (a strip of 4 pads could be used as a virtual fader), all via software.
the difficult point is how to make computer control the glcd or led-matrix.
is the sysex comunication fast enough to send sprites to the midibox?
if not, is there enough memory in the midibox to store a large number of sprites\symbols that can be wieved\triggered by the software.
can i control 16 glcd with rgb backlit? what model can i use?
is better to concentrate on 8x8 led matrix(one for each pad) or on glcd’s?
i’m intereasted in visual feedback more than in velocity sensing.. but is there the possibility to control 16 piezo discs and convert in midi impulses or it’s better i use an unelegant combination of edrum and midibox?
i actually have an alesis d4 with trigger inputs, i think i will concentrate on visuals first, and then in velocity sensing
