Touch OSC midi control software

[neils]

Thanks Lee for taking the time to write up that informative answer. Two things I had to change on my side.

1) I had CoreMIDI enabled on the iPad, disabled it
2) I had TouchOSC editor still open on the PC, I closed it

Still nothing

I'm wondering now, why do you need to specify 2 IP entries on the iPad for both OSC and MIDIBridge ?? Technically should this not be the same IP ? In my case, I have 192.168.2.21 defined for both the OSC and MIDIBridge, which is the IP of my laptop where FS and MIDIBridge is running. So these two IPs are identical on the iPad.

Besides a flashing green light at the top of the app, is there any way of knowing what MIDI note is going out on the iPad?? And what about on the FS or MIDIBridge on the laptop, any way of seeing if any MIDI notes are coming into these programs ?? I find it tough to troubleshoot blindly like this. Will keep hacking away at config combinations and see what gives.

Thanks again
Neil

[neils]

OK, just stumbled on 1 important point that we overlooked to discuss. Once all this stuff is up and running, one has to go into FS under MIDI, and select from the drop down menus the OSC bridge for input. Not sure if the bridge needs to be selected for output as well within FS. Then once the bridge is selected, you have to hit Start in the FS Midi menu.

Once I hit start, when I touch anything on the iPad, I see MIDI values changing on the bottom of the FS Midi window, so I know that something is working. But unfortunately nothing is affecting the lights. Trying some simple stuff like moving up and down the submaster list. Will keep poking around, I am sure there is something more within FS that I am missing, but just caught this one

[neils]

OK, update. I just realized that leaving that FS MIdi window open gives me my troubleshooting tool, once you set the input and output in FS to the TouchOSC Bridge, and then hit START, things wake up on the FS side and MIDI comm starts between the two. If you do not go into the FS MIdi window, then NO OUTPUT is used by default on both input and output, and MIDI comm remains disabled until you hit START.

Now the good news is that I see the note and value moving. I looked up your Submaster MIDI values, and when I hit UP or DOWN on the app, those are the values that come in. Now why it does not move within FS is a complete baffle to me, and I am sure has something to do with that FS Midi window.

The other thing I am trying to understand in your layout. Bottom left has RGBW colors, but Red slider (15) is mapped to Cyan channel, Green slider (16) mapped to Magenta channel, Blue slider (17) mapped to Yellow channel, and White slider (18) mapped to White channel (this last one seems to make sense). If that an FS limitation with the way the color channels are named for RGB in MIDI ???

OK, gonna keep hacking away, some sort of combination in that FS MIDI window has got to allow the light to react to the incoming MIDI data.....

[neils]

Stumped on another point. I just noticed that in your MIDI mapping file that I imported into FS, Notes are assigned to each function, but under Channel it says n.a. When I looked up the FS wiki for MIDI mapping, it says that it is under this Channel column that you define which DMX channel is triggered. Now I assume it is not that straight forward, since one could have multiple fixtures at different channel groupings, which means each function will fall under a different DMX value. So this is where I am stuck, and I am convinced that the hangup is here. The MIDI information is coming in, but FS does not know how to translate it to DMX, hence why nothing is affecting the lighting.

Your thoughts on the whole MIDI to DMX Channel mapping thing ?

Thanks

[neils]

Perhaps I should give you an example of my layout, to make you understand what I am trying to do, and I am guessing this should be how most people have things setup.

I have 6 LED fixtures that are spaced out every 16 DMX channels. In reality I think it is only a 9 channel fixture, but my backup console was laid out in groups of 16 channels per light, so did it that way in case I had to fall back on that console in case of FS or laptop failure.

LED 1 DMX 1-9
LED 2 DMX 17-25
LED 3 DMX 33-41

Fixture Profile
Channel 1 = Master Dimmer
Channel 2 = Red
Channel 3 = Green
Channel 4 = Blue
Channel 5 = White
etc

So should I not plug in some of those channel numbers next to the matching functions and MIDI notes ??? How will the MIDI window know what DMX channel to trigger based on incoming MIDI note. I am guessing that FS takes care of this based on function. So when I had defined my fixtures and profiles, I told FS which channel is RGB, and then it is probably mapped to this MIDI menu. And if you plug a note in next to it, that should be enough to move those functions in FS.

Sorry dude, almost talking to myself in this thread here, trying to apply the logic between incoming MIDI note and the mapping of that function and DMX channel in FS.

[dmxlighting]

Neil

Sorry buddy I've been away on gigs and stuff.
Will find some time to get my setup together and look at it properly rather than trying to do this all from memory. However it's got to be something dead simple because u have covered most everything I can think of.
If you see the midi signals coming into fs on the midi setup then it should work in the program to control the subs etc.
at the end of the day midi is a fairly basic protocal (not too different to DMX except its a 2 way
Comms)

How did ur gig go?

[neils]

Hey thanks man, you're a real classy guy for sticking with this thread and helping me out here, appreciate that. Gig went well, but ended up just using the laptop straight away. To be honest, my brother ended up DJing most of the gig, leaving me to lights, so it's not like I needed the light show automated or anything. Just wanted to fool around with a more organized and portable solution.

In fact, that was going to be my next challenge, once I would get this stuff working at home, bring it out where there is no router, and figure out what to plugin for an ad-hoc connection between the laptop and the iPad. Once connected, I know they would see each other in a closed network, but was not sure if there would still be some default IP address on the laptop (without a router), which I would then plug into TouchOSC again. Assuming yes. With ad-hoc, it would allow the cool factor, be able to walk around the venue and change colors and gobos and move things around. Of course that would really be only for cool factor, since there is no submaster labels to know what the heck I am controlling, and controlling movers manually is not really ideal, would fire the mover patterns with a submaster cue.

In a perfect world, I wish that FS would be re-written, such that a smart client would allow smarter remote control via an app, so that one would have direct access to submaster cues, not just up, down, play. Direct access to cues also, I think only the buttons are direct, and even then, no labels (although buttons are easier to do if labeling was available). You get my point. You go buy a Home Theater receiver, and the entire thing is mirrored on an app, would love to see the same thing with FS, even if that meant bringing a router to setup a network on site.

But I guess for now, the best to use is TouchOSC, so will keep hacking away at it. In my case, with MIDI notes coming in, gotta figure out how those notes interact with your MIDI layout, and how my fixtures play into all this. But as mentioned before, irrelevant of fixture type, profile, channel, I should at the very least, be able to move my way around FS, like up and down on submasters.

Like you said, we probably have to compare setups page by page to see why mine differs from yours.

Thanks again bud !!

[Kings]

I just take a router with me. Not only is it it good for Touch OSC but you can also remotely control other computers/laptops via VNC and even set up an IP camera to monitor an area or equipment.

[dmxlighting]

I just take a router with me. Not only is it it good for Touch OSC but you can also remotely control other computers/laptops via VNC and even set up an IP camera to monitor an area or equipment.

I take 2 wifi routers with me. (always good to have a backup)

However you can setup an adhoc arrangement which I have done before for exactly what you want to do.
Its not simple but not massively complex, can't say I recommend it really as the range is normally not that great and from memory it seemed to cause some latency problem that we could not work out.

Just get an old router off ebay or something.

Anyway Neil its been a while, just wondered if you have solved this yet?

[Mattotone]

[quote="neils"
In a perfect world, I wish that FS would be re-written, such that a smart client would allow smarter remote control via an app, so that one would have direct access to submaster cues, not just up, down, play. Direct access to cues also, I think only the buttons are direct, and even then, no labels (although buttons are easier to do if labeling was available). You get my point. You go buy a Home Theater receiver, and the entire thing is mirrored on an app, would love to see the same thing with FS, even if that meant bringing a router to setup a network on site.[/quote]

This functionality is actually already here, and is getting better support on each release.
The Android App and Windows Phone apps are the first to make use of this new functionality.

Matt

[buttza]

In relation to this.

How do you get the label names to show up on the Windows app? Also does it do message value back?