Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with Multitouch for Ipad

Abhi's picture

Hello

I am trying to create a custom interface with images as buttons that can out MIDI signals to Ableton and Resolume. Think TouchOSC with your own images as buttons and faders.

Can anyone put me in the right direction?

Ive tried to use the Interaction, Multiplexer and Toggle patches, but simply cant get it to work

The idea is to have 5-6 images on the comp, that when touched on the ipad, can send out Midi signal to activate a clip inside ableton. I have attached the image I want to use.

There are 6 animals, so when I click on either one, it should activate the corresponding audio file in ableton using midi

Thanks

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animals.jpeg
animals.jpeg56.22 KB

jrs's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

I'm not really sure where your problem lies, are you having trouble getting QC to trigger the midi signals when you click the pictures? if so posting your composition would help others identify where you are going wrong

If your having trouble getting things working on the ipad that's because QC doesn't work on the ipad - there are some OSC ios apps that allow a custom background but as far as I know there are none that allow you to use pictures as buttons

Abhi's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

Yes JRS im having trouble getting QC to send out MIDI or OSC data, this is because of my limited patch knowledge and experience. What patches should I use to enable a click on a picture to send out MIDI output to my software? Im planning to use AirDisplay or Splashtop app for ipad/osx to send the window in render mode on the ipad

bytezen's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

Take a look at the OSC Sender and OSC Receiver example compositions. The OSC Sender example has mouse interaction as well, which should be helpful to you.

I am a QC newbie as well, but maybe this quick and dirty example I through together might be helpful to see another example of mouse interaction.

When you click on the image in the center it toggles the clear color. Really simple, but just gives you an example of how to get the mouse interaction patch talking to the billboard.

HTH

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bad_mouse_click_example.qtz4.55 KB

r2specialist's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

Salutations. I've been working on QC based interfaces for a few months now and would be happy to share some of my findings.

First thing I'd like to re-clarify that QC patches do not run natively on an iPad, the projects I have been working on are all made for LCD TV's with multitouch frames from PQ Labs installed. The frames output multitouch coordinates in the form of TUIO but if the ipad is the only multitouch surface you have access to you can use the App TUIOPad to wirelessly feed multitouch data in Quartz.

To read TUIO within QC you will need to download the appropriate patch from http://tuio.org/?software

If multitouch is not necessary than you can use just the mouse and click for coordinate data.

One of the biggest hurdles I had was the absence of a "button" or "hit area" object in QC. After some digging I was able to find out how to access the hidden "Hit Test" module in quartz.

To enable a few hidden patches, open a Terminal window (Applications > Utilities > Terminal). If running Leopard, type the following and press Enter: "defaults write -g QCShowPrivatePatches 1" If you’re running Tiger, type the following: "defaults write -g QCRegisterPrivatePatches 1" and "defaults write -g QCShowPrivatePatchSettings 1"

Why Hit Test is not a default Quartz module is beyond me but in order to access it you must do the little terminal trick above.

From there you just need to setup a series of Hit Test objects and line them up over your images then have them output to a MIDI Controller Sender.

You can then forward this data to Ableton Live via the your mac's built-in IAC Driver. Just open Applications->Utilities->Audio MIDI Setup Click on Window->Show MIDI Window and double click on the IAC Driver.

Make sure "Device is online" is checked and that there is at least one destination created under "Ports". This is the virtual MIDI port that will connect Quartz with Ableton, make sure that in your Live Preferences the input for the IAC Driver is set to "Remote", then you can setup your MIDI mappings in Live and it all should work great.

Here are some example files. The TUIO version is only setup for 1 finger, if you want to use say 4 fingers than you would have to use 4 Hit Tests per animal button (I haven't found a way to simplify that process).

Hope this will get you on your way, best of luck!!

PS. I am trying to get this setup to work with Kineme's MIDITools but their "Global MIDI Notes Sender" module won't let me pick which MIDI device to output to. Has anyone had any luck specifying a specific device with Kineme's MIDITools?

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Animal MIDI Mouse.qtz102.81 KB
Animal MIDI TUIO.qtz101.72 KB

smokris's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

PS. I am trying to get this setup to work with Kineme's MIDITools but their "Global MIDI Notes Sender" module won't let me pick which MIDI device to output to. Has anyone had any luck specifying a specific device with Kineme's MIDITools?

If the "Filter" input port has a non-empty string, that string is substring-matched against the MIDI endpoint name, and the note is only sent to the matching MIDI endpoint(s). (If the "Filter" string is empty, the note is sent to all MIDI endpoints.)

r2specialist's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

Even with a blank field for "Filter" I still am unable to send MIDI notes through the IAC driver into Ableton. It's very strange.

I've made sure my IAC driver is enabled and that Ableton is receiving track and remote data from it. I also double checked that I had installed the latest MIDITools plugin installed in the correct directory.

Everything seems fine and the Kineme MIDI modules show up fine in my patch library but I haven't been able to successfully send MIDI to another program using MIDITools.

Is there something I've overlooked?

r2specialist's picture
Re: Custom QC based MIDI Controller + Interface, with ...

After a couple more hours of hair pulling I found a blog post that mentioned trying many different versions of the MIDITools plugin until you find one with a working MIDI Note Out object.

Once I installed revision 20071228 things seem to be working well now :)