Using DAW-buttons on a midi-keyboard

[Tutorius]

Hi,
as you might have read on the other track, i have a new Midi-keyboard.
This midi-keyboard has some buttons that were intended to control some things on a DAW.
The keyboard uses a second midi-port for this, it sends some note-on/off-commands.

I have thought how to get this running with MusE. A plugin that can be connected to the Midi-port and simulate pressing keyboard-keys, or something like that.

I don't know it such keyboards (not only from Arturia) use comparable techniques for interaction between keyboard and DAW, perhaps this can be used for many hardware-products.

Any hints on that, or perhaps working solutions for hardware controlling the DAW?

[Impostor]

Any hints on that, or perhaps working solutions for hardware controlling the DAW?

I'm assuming you mean the transport buttons of your midi keyboard (start, stop, forward etcetera)? They send normal midi cc messages.

In the MusE Midi>Remote Control> dialog you can assign those cc's to the various transport functions. To find out the cc numbers that your buttons send you could run

Code: Select all

aseqdump -p 24:1

in a terminal and press them. Change 24:1 to the actual port used by your keyboard (find out with aconnect -i)

Assigning Record doesn't seem to work too well though. The highlighted midi track will be armed, but the transport record button is inactivated again when releasing the physical one on the midi keyboard. But maybe you can set up that button as a toggle (refer to your keyboard's manual).

[Tutorius]

Must have a look at it... Did not find that remote-settings inside MusE

[j_e_f_f_g]

imposter,

Notice that he has two MIDI Out ports on his keyboard. His transport messages are sent out one MIDI port. And his notes and other controller data are sent out the other MIDI port,

So he needs of way of having Muse open/read from both MIDI ports at the same time. The first MIDI port must be routed to Muse's "transport control", and the second routed to a Muse track for recording.

[Tutorius]

It works almost, not everything... The record-button switches Record on and directly off again... Play, Stop, Back to Start and backward/forward operate very good...

Thanks for the answer

[Impostor]

Muse's "transport control".

Seems to be port-agnostic.

[Impostor]

The record-button switches Record on and directly off again...

Yes, that's why I suggested to set up a toggle button on your keyboard for recording. Could be possible. If not the one specific button then maybe another.

By the way, if you set MusE to "rewind on stop", does the playhead accurately return to where the playing began, when pressing stop on the midi keyboard? Here it's off by quite a margin. Stopping with a mouse click does work as intended.

Edit. I notice it depends on how you pressed play: If started via midi, then stopping (either with the mouse or with midi button) does not return the playhead accurately. If started with the mouse, then both ways to stop playback do return the playhead correctly.

[Tim E. Real]

I looked at the code.
For some reason it was written so note-on turns on the setting while note-off turns it off.
Which is not very helpful - you would have to hold a key down for say, the record to stay on.

I will try to turn it into a toggling effect which responds to note-on only.
May take some time - busy today.

[j_e_f_f_g]

toggling effect which responds to note-on only.

Or a CC message whose initial value is 0, then goes non-zero, and then back to 0?

[Tim E. Real]

In case y'all have never discovered it, this might be useful in some cases:
The "Input Midi Transformator" (Main Menu > Midi) can do some advanced processing of incoming midi events.
It can transform their range, value, even convert to another type of event.
There is no documentation so it takes some trial and error.
But it is powerful.

[j_e_f_f_g]

The "Input Midi Transformator" (Main Menu > Midi) can do some advanced processing of incoming midi events.

Yeah, it's modeled after Calkwalk's "Event FIlter" dialog, which is probably the best feature cakewalk had.

But I was under the impression that this is a non-realtime effect. Can this be applied to a MIDI data stream while it's being recorded? That would probably eliminate a lot of things people may be doing with mididings.

[Tim E. Real]

Correct. The "Input Transformator" is real-time. Live transformations.
There is also another similar dialog, simply the "Transformator" which operates on existing song midi events (non-real-time).

[Tutorius]

Thanks a lot for your answers. Your work is unbelievable, big companies should look at how good support in open source software-products works...

[Impostor]

I looked at the code.
For some reason it was written so note-on turns on the setting while note-off turns it off.
Which is not very helpful - you would have to hold a key down for say, the record to stay on.

I will try to turn it into a toggling effect which responds to note-on only.
May take some time - busy today.

Ah, that explains the discrepancy of "rewind on stop". A new play command is issued when you let go of the button (the "note off") and that's where the playhead returns on stop.

[Impostor]

Okay, been playing with the "Midi Input Transform" mystery box a bit. To block release button messages I can do the following:

1. Set "Function" to "Filter",
2. Click on the top "Module" (whatever that is. If I don't click it nothing works.)
3. Set "Event Type" to "Equal" "Control Change"
4. Value 1 apparently stands for CC number. My start, stop and record buttons send CC's 118, 119, 114, so with setting "Value 1" to "Inside" "114 to119" I got them all in one go.
5. Value 2 is apparently the CC's value. We want to ignore messages of value 0 in my case since pressing a button sends value 127, while letting go sends value 0. So set "Value 2" "Equal" to "0".

Now the buttons work correctly in principle..no more duplicate action on releasing a button.
But for the record button, this one still should be set as a toggle since you want to press it once for recording, and then a second time to stop recording.
And forward and rewind should be momentary buttons (stop on release).

EDIT: By the way, what's with the "Dismiss" button? I would expect a "Save" button there..