Topic by Jake Johnson

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Topic: Interesting MIDI controller software

This is not necessarily directly related to PianoTeq, but instead directed towards controlling any MIDI keyboard. Open source, but only a few, and mostly older, keyboards and instruments have prebuilt panels:

http://ctrlr.org/

Yes, similar programs exist, but this one seems cleanly designed and relatively straightforward. And it can be run as a standalone or as a vst insert.

Notes:

1. On the Downloads tab, you will need to download both the program and a prebuilt panel for your keyboard or hardware instrument, if one is available. HOWEVER, there are some rough demo panels available by default if you click on File\Open panel\Panels\Demo (You can build your own panels, as well, with some  basic knowledge of SYSEX commands and CC controls.) Note that one of the prebuilt panels is for our old friend the GEM RealPiano Expander
2. In Windows 8.1, after downloading the exe file, I had to open its folder, and then right-click and select "Run as administrator" to get it to install.
3. The very first help document (Documentation\Getting Started) explains how to edit a panel, and that's a good starting point, as opposed to trying to build a panel from scratch on the first try.
4. The development is ongoing. The latest update was in June, 2015.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (18-07-2015 03:41)

Reply by groovy

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

Jake Johnson wrote:

This is not necessarily directly related to PianoTeq, but instead directed towards controlling any MIDI keyboard. Open source, but only a few, and mostly older, keyboards and instruments have prebuilt panels:

http://ctrlr.org/
[...]
Note that one of the prebuilt panels is for our old friend the GEM RealPiano Expander

Hey, that is very interesting for me, as I have an old GEM RealPiano with a defect LCD-Panel! It seems, 'ctrlr' would be able to display many options on the PC-display instead, nice!

I guess, I will try, thank you Jake!

Reply by feline1

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

Ah - so is this a program that basically lets you put "widgets" (sliders, knobs, etc) onto your computer screen,
and lets you assign any MIDI message to then?

I've been wanting a proper program to do that on Windows for years now - surprisingly, there is not actually much out there at the moment that can do it,
only as part of expensive things like Max by Cycling 74, or else they are really basic and don't support SysEx.

I have quite a few MIDI hardware devices that I would love to build a touch-control panel for that I could run on my Windows Surface tablet.

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

I hadn't thought about the possibilities with a touch screen. Seems as though this program could offer a lot of possibilities there. I want to explore building a panel for my CP300, which has a lot of its controls hidden away from the interface. I've used other programs for it, but they are a little unpredictable.

I must admit that this program is going to take some time to learn, however. Working in the panel at the far right means a lot of clicking and sliding around to find things. On the other hand, it seems to give us a lot of control over what can be done.

The basic but essential thing that it took me some time to discover:

To assign a MIDI CC or SysEx id to a slider or knob, click on the slider or knob, and in the tabbed panel at the far right, on the General tab, slide down to MIDI (or collapse the Modulator section by clicking on the wedge beside the word Modulator) and then, in the first box in that section, you can choose the type of message--a CC command, SysEx, Note-on, Note-off, etc). For a CC command, you then enter the actual CC number three boxes below that one. For a SysEx command, you go to the last box in this MIDI section and click on "SysEx formula," which opens a new box where you can type in the numbers.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (18-07-2015 03:44)

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

groovy wrote:
Jake Johnson wrote:

This is not necessarily directly related to PianoTeq, but instead directed towards controlling any MIDI keyboard. Open source, but only a few, and mostly older, keyboards and instruments have prebuilt panels:

http://ctrlr.org/
[...]
Note that one of the prebuilt panels is for our old friend the GEM RealPiano Expander

Hey, that is very interesting for me, as I have an old GEM RealPiano with a defect LCD-Panel! It seems, 'ctrlr' would be able to display many options on the PC-display instead, nice!

I guess, I will try, thank you Jake!


Well, this is a control panel for the old Piano Expander--the first module, not the keyboard or the later module. Did I misname it in my original post? Maybe it was just called a Piano Expander.

But I have a RealPiano with LCD problems, too. Together, we might be able to build something that would let us control a RealPiano. (Which works well with Pianoteq, since it registers Note-off velocity.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (18-07-2015 03:46)

Reply by groovy

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

Jake Johnson wrote:

Well, this is a control panel for the old Piano Expander--the first module, not the keyboard or the later module. Did I misname it in my original post? Maybe it was just called a Piano Expander.

But I have a RealPiano with LCD problems, too. Together, we might be able to build something that would let us control a RealPiano. (Which works well with Pianoteq, since it registers Note-off velocity.


I just know the module, called GEM RealPiano Expander. - The installation-process of 'Ctrlr' under Linux seems not to be very well documented, eventually it is just to start the shellscript and load the prefab "panel":

Ctrlr-x86_64-5.3.122.sh
GEM-Real-Expander-v11.bpanelz

But starting 3rd-party shellscripts I'm having some reservations, I don't want to corrupt my netbook that is running Pianoteq. Maybe building/compiling of 'Ctrlr' is the cleaner (but more time consuming) way ...

UPDATE:
No luck in a first quick-test. I downloaded the latest Ctrlr-x86_64-5.3.122.sh, made it executable for the user with 'chmod u+x Ctrlr-x86_64-5.3.122.sh' and started it from the commandline with ./Ctrlr-x86_64-5.3.122.sh.

Afterwards there is a binary ./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64 that starts the application. But when I try to open a panel in Ctrlr (for example GEM-Real-Expander-v11.bpanelz), the application crashes on my Debian (Jessie) Linux:

Ctrlr crash at: 18 Jul 2015 16:52:11
Stack trace:
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xfeb2fc]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xc4b126]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xfdd57b]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0xf8d0) [0x7fd3fa8dc8d0]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xe5bd01]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xe4f754]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xe4cb4b]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xe55899]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xe12103]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xc32c4d]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xc23d3f]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xeb92a8]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0x10bf91a]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0x1032b5d]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0x10305dc]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0x1030709]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xc19fc2]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf5) [0x7fd3f96f1b45]
./Ctrlr/Ctrlr-x86_64() [0xc1c458]

Last edited by groovy (18-07-2015 16:14)

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

groovy wrote:
Jake Johnson wrote:

Well, this is a control panel for the old Piano Expander--the first module, not the keyboard or the later module. Did I misname it in my original post? Maybe it was just called a Piano Expander.

But I have a RealPiano with LCD problems, too. Together, we might be able to build something that would let us control a RealPiano. (Which works well with Pianoteq, since it registers Note-off velocity.


I just know the module, called GEM RealPiano Expander. - The installation-process of 'Ctrlr' under Linux seems not to be very well documented, eventually it is just to start the shellscript and load the prefab "panel"....

Yes, that's the Piano Expander for which there is an existing panel. You have to have the expander actually connected to see the CTRL program work, however.

Sorry, but I know next to nothing about Linux, so I can't be any help there. As much as I like the idea of an open-source platform, the problems that people run into steer me away.

Reply by groovy

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

Jake Johnson wrote:

You have to have the expander actually connected to see the CTRL program work, however.

I connected the Expander via MIDI to the laptop, but the 'Ctrlr' keeps crashing. So I compiled the application now from the sources on my Debian (Jessie) and Ctrlr 5.3.127 is running now with panels. I don't know, if it is the recommended procedure, but I locally cloned the author's git repository and started the build from there with ./Scripts/post-commit. On my slow Celeron J1900 Barebone this compilation took 1-2 hours, but now I have an up-to-date standalone binary 'Ctrlr-x86_64'.

Jake Johnson wrote:

Sorry, but I know next to nothing about Linux, so I can't be any help there. As much as I like the idea of an open-source platform, the problems that people run into steer me away.

The same here with Windows :-) - No problem as long as there are nice forums and internet-communities that offer solutions for any us. Really smart and well designed softwares (like Pianoteq) try to be platform independent.

But back to Ctrlr. Do you understand, how this controller-software should be integrated in a basic MIDI-environment of keyboard, PC and soundmodule/expander? Is MIDI-thru the keyword??

keyboard (MIDI-Out)--> (MIDI-In) USB-MIDI-adaptor --> (MIDI-thru) PC with Ctrlr-Software --> (MIDI-Out) USB-MIDI-adaptor --> (MIDI-In) soundmodule --> Audio-Out

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

I think the MIDI-Thru would be at the keyboard\controller, so you can pass messages from the CPU to the rack unit. But can't you just have a Two-Out to One-Out MIDI cable, with one Out running from your computer, and the other Out running from the keyboard, with both going into the rack unit?

These cables don't seem to be advertised much. I don't see them listed on any of the major retailers' sites, but I've always found them at Guitar Center and other big shops. They may be unpopular because if you try to send messages at the same time from both the keyboard and the computer, or another controller, you can get freeze-ups or delays, but I've used this arrangement often and it works, so long as you don't play notes and make adjustments to the software at the same time. There are also MIDI merger boxes, but those are relatively expensive. The cables are in the $10-$15 range if I remember correctly, maybe less.

MIDI-Thru may work just fine, however. My MIDI setup is broken apart, right now, so I can't experiment. I hate trying to work it through in my head, since I use MIDI-Thru so little that I worry about telling you the wrong thing.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (19-07-2015 16:51)

Reply by groovy

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Re: Interesting MIDI controller software

Yes, a merge box is an viable option. I have the "midiman merge 2x2" and it works as expected (combines the keyboard notes with the controller events of 'Ctrlr' and sends them to the expander module). But that is one more external device and my guess is, that 'Ctrlr' can merge internally. - Ahhh, how nice it is to have Pianoteq: One laptop + keyboard and that's it! :-)

I pack the GEM expander back in a box. With the defect LCD-display it is too much hassle to use and develop the panel. But 'Ctrlr' has very much potential in my opinion and sooner or later I will find a use case.

Thanks