MIDI-mapper for OpenSpace (or any javascript API)

With the help of Claude.ai, I've put up a MIDI-mapper for OpenSpace at OpenSpace MIDI mapping.

The readme.txt lists the prompts used, and usage. Copy-pasting from my post on OpenSpace Slack: With this, we can control OpenSpace using any MIDI control surface or MIDI instrument. Interesting effects like speeding up time for one (MIDI) violin string, slowing down for another string, etc can be thought of.

I've used our KORG nanokontrol - earlier version of this product - to do the development and testing.

By adding suitable functions, this could be extended to call any javascript API using a MIDI controller or MIDI instrument.

upgrading from Korg Nanokontrol to Nanokontrol2

I mapped the MIDI CC signals of the Nanokontrol2 to Reaper following the method given at
http://hnsws.blogspot.in/2010/08/korg-nanokontrol-and-reaper.html

with the important difference that the Nanokontrol2 had to be plugged in keeping the
Cycle and Set 
buttons pressed to make it go into the MIDI CC mode, as mentioned in the instruction booklet supplied along with the device.

I tried rebooting the computer, the setting seems to be remembered. So, probably for daily use, this pressing of buttons at startup may not be needed.

In case you have issues with it, you may need to disconnect the Nanokontrol2, and connect it back keeping Cycle and Set buttons pressed.

(Specific to our use - other functions are similar as before, except that there are 3 buttons for each row instead of 2 for the earlier Nanokontrol - the lower buttons are mapped to SOLO for the slider tracks, the upper buttons are mapped to SOLO for the knob tracks. The middle buttons are left unused for now.)

updated live broadcast procedure

My old post on Mandir live broadcast procedure needs an update. A lot of steps have been removed.

1. Power on procedure is:
   (a) UPS input on
   (b) UPS on
   (c) Tascam US-1641 power on
   (d) Compressor on
   (e) MacMini power on
   Power down procedure follows in the reverse order.
2. In case they don't start automatically, start Reaper and BuTT. 
3. The setup can be tested by playing the output of reaper. Reaper channels 1-8 are mapped to sliders 1-8 on the Korg NanoKontrol. Channels 9-14 are mapped to knobs 1-6. Channel 5 is also mapped to slider 9, since slider 5 has some issues.
   
   
   Channel 12 (knob 4) has instrumental music and 
   Channel 13 (knob 5) has the pre-live announcement pre-loaded.
   Channel 3 (slider 3) has the full mix output of PA mixer coming in.
   Pressing play on the Korg NanoKontrol allows you to test whether the BUTT gets signal when knob 5 is opened, as seen by the lit up LED-style indicators on BUTT.
4. Start playback of pre-live Announcement in Reaper approximately 3 minutes before desired start of live broadcast.
5. 

   Press the 'Play' button in BUTT to start live broadcast on AsiaStream + TeluguStream.
6. Fade out knob 5 and allow knob 6 to maintain around -12 dB at the output when the program starts. Playback can be stopped with the stop button on the NanoKontrol.
7. Recording of programs is mapped to Channel 15 which is record enabled. The spacebar is the shortcut key.This recording is not necessary for daily bhajan and vedam - BuTT records those automatically.
8. If recording is in progress, if a filler instrumental is to be added, BI.mp3 can be dragged from desktop to Channel 12 (knob 4) which has record enable DISABLED - the dull red ar button.
   Unless the track has record enable Disabled, playback will not occur from the track.
9. 
   The same procedure as above can be used to drag and drop the ANN_END_LIVE end announcement file for playout at the end of special program broadcasts.
10. The ambient hall mic is connected to the XLR input Channel 8 on the Tascam, and this is opened for bhajan chorus etc.
11. The live broadcast is stopped by hitting the stop button on BuTT, and answering 'Yes' when asked if the recording can be stopped. 

Korg nanokontrol problem - USB cable issue

The Korg NanoKontrol midi controller used for live recordings did not work at all despite many attempts at disconnecting and re-connecting. Had to use the mouse and trackpad. Some tips:

• Hovering over a track and using the scrollwheel of the mouse will move the corresponding fader. Rotating the wheel slowly makes small changes, rotating the wheel fast makes large changes.
• Clicking on a point on a fader causes the fader position to move to that point.
• Multi-touch on the trackpad - two-finger slide is similar to rotating scrollwheel.
  

Tried out another USB cable - thankfully that made it work.

procedure for Mandir live broadcast

Documenting the Mandir live broadcast procedure.

1. Power on procedure is:
   (a) UPS input on
   (b) UPS on
   (c) Extension box power on (right-hand side of equipment box)
   (d) Tascam US-1641 power on
   (e) MacBook power on
   Power down procedure follows in the reverse order.
2. In the MacBook, the programs to be run are in right-to-left order in the Dock. We start by powering up the Tascam Control Panel app.

3. In the Tascam Control Panel, choose the dropdown to change the Digital output channels from line out 1 & 2 to line out 3 & 4.

4. Next, fire up the Jack Pilot app.

5. Press the start button in Jack Pilot to start Jack. Wait till Jack starts up, with a wait dialog box indicating the starting of Jack.

6. Next, start the BUTT app.

7. And finally start Reaper.

8. Now set up routing in Jack for broadcast. For this, click on the Routing button in Jack Pilot, and choose File -> Load Studio Setup, choosing the broadcast_setup.jks file.

9. The setup can be tested by playing the output of reaper. Reaper channels 1-8 are mapped to sliders 1-8 on the Korg NanoKontrol. Channels 9-14 are mapped to knobs 1-6.
   
   Channel 12 (knob 4) has instrumental music and
   Channel 13 (knob 5) has the pre-live announcement pre-loaded.
   Channel 14 (knob 6) has the full mix output of PA mixer coming in.
   Pressing play on the Korg NanoKontrol allows you to test whether the BUTT gets signal when knob 5 is opened, as seen by the lit up LED-style indicators on BUTT.
10. Start playback of pre-live Announcement in Reaper approximately 3 minutes before desired start of live broadcast.
11. Press the 'Play' button in BUTT to start live broadcast on AsiaStream.
12. 
    Double-click the "startlive.command" shortcut on the Desktop to start live broadcast on TeluguStream.
13. 
    
    
    Fade out knob 5 and allow knob 6 to maintain around -12 dB at the output when the program starts. Playback can be stopped with the stop button on the NanoKontrol.
14. Recording of programs is mapped to Channel 15 which is record enabled. The spacebar is the shortcut key.
15. If recording is in progress, if a filler instrumental is to be added, BI.mp3 can be dragged from desktop to Channel 12 (knob 4) which has record enable DISABLED - the dull red ar button.
    Unless the track has record enable Disabled, playback will not occur from the track.
16. 
    The same procedure as above can be used to drag and drop the ANN_END_LIVE end announcement file for playout at the end if no one is available for live announcement.
17. The microphone with stand available can be connected to the XLR input Channel 8 on the Tascam, and this can be used for Live announcements.
18. In case there is live video streaming, the network cable tagged "Studio" has to be disconnected from the Macbook and connected to one of the BLUE coloured LAN ports of the router. The router has to be plugged into the UPS. The lan cable from the router has to be plugged into the MacBook. This setup has to be restored at the end of the live broadcast by unplugging the router and restoring the "Studio" tagged network cable, connecting it back to the Macbook.

Logic gotchas and finally Reaper to the rescue!

The Studio got a Macbook Pro for Mandir recordings along with Logic Express for multi-tracking. According to the Wikipedia, the only differences for me between Logic Pro and Logic Express are the lack of 5.1 mastering and extra content - so Logic Pro is not required for my use. Anyway, when I tried to use it with the Tascam US-1641 and the Korg NanoKontrol and chronicled my adventures.

Initially when I created multiple inputs and tried to record-enable (arm) only one of them, all of them were being armed! This turned out to be a problem with the control mapping (I think) where the control was set to "arm selected track" instead of "arm track 1", and by creating multiple tracks simultaneously Logic had also selected all the tracks. Later, using the Deselect all menu item, this was resolved.

One of the most important things was a control room mix - doing an AFL (After-Fade Listen). Googling gave this google books link which confirmed my hunch that the only way to do an independent AFL would be to make sends to duplicate tracks (Buses in Logic) which are routed to a different output and mute those buses which I don't want to listen to. All right, I did that.

Then, the mapping of the NanoKontrol buttons and faders. Logic too has a "Learn Mode", but it is somewhat less user-friendly than the Reaper one, at least in my opinion. Click Learn Mode (it is difficult to see if it is enabled or not - this is a general problem with the MacOS buttons) and move a fader or button, then click on the onscreen control you wish it to be mapped to. Logic does the mapping without any success dialog box, and silently waits for the next fader or button. This caused some initial confusion till I got the hang of it. Also, Logic goes the route of allowing multiple actions per button press (or fader move) on the control surface, instead of Reaper's more elegant 'Actions'. So, for my requirement of muting 13 (out of 14) Aux Buses for AFL of one channel, I needed to map that button 13 times to 13 channel mutes. Makes a big mess on the MIDI mapping page. But at least it works.

Then another small gotcha - Logic by default trims any send to -inf dB! Tried buses, couldn't hear any output, till I figured out that the sends needed to be manually set to 0 dB or whatever using the dinky rotary control next to the send!

More Reaper features which I missed were: no customization of filenames of recorded files, un-intuitive LED graphs where -20 dB shows up as only a sliver of light! and far less complete realtime updating of recorded track. Also, probably it does not have the ability to add markers directly to the recorded wav file as in Reaper, though I did not test for this.

Then came the slow realization of the vital missing feature - without which Logic would be almost useless for me - cannot enable or disable EQ, effects etc on the fly onscreen while a recording is going on! (except maybe with mapped MIDI commands). So I went on a lookup and saw this DAW comparison wikipedia page, which mentions that Reaper has a MacOS version. Immediately downloaded, so now I can put my license in it due to Reaper's generous license terms,

Your license allows you to use REAPER on one computer at a time. Multiple REAPER installs for use by the same person are fine (home/studio/laptop, Win32/x64/OSX).

and get going.

Korg NanoKontrol and Reaper

Got a Korg NanoKontrol courtesy A2, and using it with Reaper was a breeze. Connected it to USB, XP recognized it. Started Reaper, went to Options -> Preferences -> Audio -> Midi Devices and chose the "USB Audio Device" giving it an alias and making it control only. Then, in Actions -> Show Action list choosing actions like Set volume for track 28 etc and choosing the Add button, the appropriate MIDI channel etc automatically filled in if the fader is moved. Since the NanoKontrol has 9 faders, 9 knobs and 18 buttons, it can control volume and PFL for 18 tracks from the same "scene". Since it does not have motorized faders, changing scenes is not such a good idea. I had only 14 tracks to control, the US-1641's 14 analog inputs, so this was more than enough. The earphones are Ultimate Ears Metrofi 220.

the sad story of Mandir mixers

After the Yamaha AW4416 went for repairs and came back in the same state, it was the turn of the Tascam TM-D4000 to give problems. Then I shifted to lower-tech - an old Studiomaster Diamond Pro. The Yamaha had Midi working, so I tried to use it in Mandir. Reaper had a good solution for the "PFL" problem with soft-mixers - Cubase 4 LE only had solo, which was going into the main mix also, and Nuendo 3.0.2 did not have the "Listen" button assignable to a MIDI controller. With Reaper, I could make a custom action to mute the monitor tracks, and the monitor tracks were being sent feeds from the main mix tracks. The main mix goes to main out, monitor mix goes to monitor out as a folder. So far so good. But then, once everything was set up, the Yamaha just died. Not powering up at all. Researched and found the Tascam TM-D4000 is capable of acting as a midi controller for faders alone. But it would not physically fit into the current rack! So now I'm looking for a low cost (used?) midi controller, preferably with 16 faders and buttons like the Peavey 1600x or the Korg Nanokontrol. And of course, my flash drive also failed...