jg,

I've thought about getting one of those small VGA touchscreens but at least for rapid live switching I'd prefer some good physical buttons with good tactile feedback plus the micro fanless PC's that I have are all in active use.

I've also considered small tablet PC's but those seem to be pretty expensive.

So I thought a Netbook would be a good solution at a reasonable price but after looking at some this afternoon I must say they're a bit bigger than I would like. Choices choices.

Thanks for the code offer. C would be just fine as I'm actually waaay more comfortable programming in C and especially C++ than C# but I just happen to have this .NET MIDI library lying around plus I figured that other might want to build on my project and .NET seemed more suitable for that than doing it in raw C/Win32 (I hate MFC). I doubt that your Linux C code would do me much good on Windows anyway which is what I know best.

I guess for now it doesn't matter if I go touch screen or mouse/keyboards for the interface. How does such a VGA touch screen interface btw? Does it emulate a mouse or something? I've never used one.

I initially thought about a tablet, or a netbook, but I gig a lot and frankly, I doubt one of those would hold up very long. Having the server in the rackmount ultimately was the best choice because it's well-protected. Also I don't have to attach the power cord and USB cable to the XR every time I gig. It's all in the rack. I just attach the touchscreen cables, and a USB cable to my controller keyboard. I also set my custom software to run as soon as the system boots.

I can't see operating a physical mouse as the least bit efficient in a live situation. I need to quickly change patches even during a song. It's quick and simple with a big graphical button on a touchscreen located close to my right hand. At one point, I tried using a computer keyboard to control the software. I mapped the 12 function buttons to 12 patch change events. But it was more difficult to quickly hit the correct Fn key than use the touchscreen. It would be an absolute horror using one of those netbook keyboards, especially how there's no physical space between the Fn keys and other keys. Plus my touchscreen can display 32 large-enough graphical buttons simultaneously.

After the computer keyboard, I tried the XKeys Button Panel, plus a small non-touchscreen monitor. It worked fine, but ultimately I found that the touchscreen was easier to setup and use live.

A touchscreen typically has two connections to the computer. It has a video connection, and a USB connection. You need to get a touchscreen with a VGA video input so you can attach it to the computer's VGA out. Then a separate USB cable is run to the touchscreen for the touch support. It's like the touchscreen has a USB mouse built into it. Think of it this way: The monitor has an invisible mousepad over it. It's like an invisible wacom tablet. And your hand is the actual mouse. You touch some point on the screen and it generates the WM_LBUTTONDOWN (and other mouse) messages just like a USB mouse would.

Actually, there's a company called Mimo which makes a touchscreen that does both the video and touchscreen connections both through one USB cable. Plus, it's USB powered. It just requires an OS that supports DisplayPort technology (VIsta or better I think). You wouldn't want to try displaying video playback on it, but for your graphical needs it would be good. They make a non-touchscreen model, so make sure you look at the correct model (I think it's around $175). I didn't get it because DisplayPort support on Linux isn't there yet.

I have a web page at http://home.roadrunner.com/~jgglatt that contains a lot of info about MIDI programming. Click on the link "Technical Docs and Programming" and then read the article "Windows MIDI and Digital Audio Programming ". (The sub-section on Low Level MIDI API is what you need). There's some example code there in C/Win32. I don't do MFC.

Well, got up early this morning and got version 0.000001 working :-)



The idea is that you can prepare a whole bunch of states and cycle through them by hitting the >> button or << if you tapped >> one time too many, although currently you need to hit the Set state button first before the data is actually sent to the Fantom but it actually works. Get state of course gets the keyboard on/off state for all parts from the Fantom. The yellow bar indidates the currently selected state.

Currently the checkboxes control the KBD switch for each part (or zone actually) but controlling the Receive switch is just as easy. In fact I may provide an option to control both these parameters, and perhaps the keyboard range too.

“At one point, I tried using a computer keyboard to control the software. I mapped the 12 function buttons to 12 patch change events. But it was more difficult to quickly hit the correct Fn key than use the touchscreen.”

I don't think I'd have time to hit the touchscreen without breaking it :) So instead I'm thinking about just hitting _any_ key to advance to the next state, just like you can use a pedal with the Fantom G or Oasys to advance to the next patch or performance.

Gotta run now, hope to have some more time this afternoon. Currently this things is still kinda useless because you can't save and restore the states and they need to be tied to a specific Performance I think. Other niceties would be displaying the patch name and maybe a kind of crosshair when you move the mouse to indicate the part that is related to the checkbox your mouse is hovering above.

L8r,
Arjan

We're up to version 0.000002 :-) It's almost usable now. Currently Fantom X Live Commander is syncing to the performance that you select on the Fantom and also retrieves the Performance and Patch names from the Fantom. It also remembers settings for each Performance but I still need to write them to disk to make this permanent.

I'm still very much attracted to using a touch screen and was thinking that perhaps something like the Asus EEE PC T91 might fit the bill as it has a swivel-type display which means you can turn it into a tablet PC:

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/07/asus-eee-pc-t91-touch...

A bit more expensive than I'd like and surely not as robust as some other solutions but I take care of my stuff so I think it will last. Some nice things are that it has _no_ fan and a 16GB SSD (+16GB memory card) so there's no moving parts inside. Obviously it will have a external power supply but you can't have it all I suppose. I probably don't really _need_ the touchscreen I suppose but it just seems so cool :-) And it should be easy to use.

The one thing I don't like about it is that according to the review it has one of those reflecting screens (glare, brite or whatever they call it) but according to one of the etailers I checked it's a non-glare type so what's up with that?

There's also this one:

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/02/ctl-2go-pc-convertibl...

Any opinions on either of these or suggestions for something better?

For updates on my little project go here:

Fantom X Live Commander - LIVE sound switching software for Windows Netbooks

Arjan, Andy Keys originally asked whether there was a way to increase or decrease MIDI parameters by a percentage but your commander doesn't seem to address that. I know it is only version .0.000002 but I wonder if you plan to add that. That functionality wouldn't presumably require us to hit a Get State or Set State command. I assume you would just select the MIDI parameter and then select the amount of the increase or decrease. Then the software would execute the Get State command automatically and then do some calculations and then send the sysex required to change that parameter.

Also, do you want us asking questions about the Fantom X Live Commander on that other thread or this one?

Howard,

It could be done but I doubt if it's necessary given how the Live Commander is designed. Instead of implementing relative changes it might be simpler to just define volume for each 'phase' for all parts.

Andy,

What are you actually trying to accomplish in terms of the actual objective? Would you stil need relative SysEx if you'd be using the Live Commander?

Questions about Fantom X Live Commander itself should go to the other thread I think.

Hey,

My original intention was to reduce the sound of several of the <16 sounds in a Performance by a certain amount, keeping their relative levels the same, whilst leaving other Patches in the Performance untouched.

On reflection, the listener would only notice a change in volume of some of the voices, so whether the change is relative or absolute is actually irrelevant in practice. So, I've decided to go absolute.

I'm still interested in Arjan's program, but my aim is to reduce the gear I have to take to (most) gigs, so adding a laptop is not really the direction I want to go in. I'm moving towards the Behringer FCB1010 footpedal triggering all the twisty stuff via RPS SysEx patterns.

Regards
Andy

“I've decided to go absolute”

Good choice imho, it should provide more predictable results (imagine sending the relative command twice or three times by accident).

“my aim is to reduce the gear”

Believe it or not but that's exactly mine too with this software. I used to gig with 3 keyboards, one of which was just an extra MIDI controller for the Fantom to map different sounds to.

During the recording of our new album I have added a Korg CX-3 (Hammond emulator) and an XV-5080 with two additional SRX cards. I don't want to be hidden behind 4 keyboards (2x2 in L shape) so my personal goal for the Fantom X Live Commander is to remove the need for the extra MIDI keyboard for the Fantom.

In fact I may also be able to replace the other two keyboards with modules except for the fact that there is no module version of the CX-3. The thought has actually crossed my mind to do a chop job on the CX-3 and turn it into a rack module myself :-O

The nice things about the Netbook is that it will fit neatly on top of the Fantom X, at least that's the case for my X7. It you only have one keyboard to control you could actually connect the X7 and Netbook through USB so you wouldn't even need a MIDI interface for the Netbook.

Have fun,
Arjan

Hi Arjan,

I used to use 2 keyboards live (a Roland D-5 running an Alesis nanoPiano and a Juno-D running an SH-32) all through a sub-mixer. I replaced all that with my Fantom X-7, but unhappy with the Hammonds (like you) I bought a Nord Stage, so I'm back to 2 keyboards for most gigs.

I'm trying to programme the Fantom so it will play the Nord's Hammond without my having to take the latter out of it's flightcase at gigs (ultimately, I might try sampling the Nord, but I need a MIDI drawbar controller for that). I know that Jordan Rudess uses just one master keyboard live (with Dream Theater, at least) to control a (faintly ridiculous) number of modules and one other keyboard synth (I think it's something that was never made as a module).

As I said previously, I'm moving towards doing all the flashy controller stuff via RPS from a footswitch. I already make what I consider to be fairly extensive use of Performance layering, splitting and switching to enable me to play everything from just the one physical keyboard.

I agree that a Netbook would fit on the end of the X-7, and that's how I'm building my current home set up, but I don't fancy taking a fragile laptop to some of the places we end up playing! It would be too easy to knock off, damage or get nicked, I think.

My biggest problem with any kind of intense live sound switching is knowing what state the keyboard is in at that moment, so your application is still of interest to me :o)

Regards
Andy