MidiFlow scales update - Musical scale to white keyboard keys mapper

adfa

How wonderful would it be to have a simple to use AB3 midi filter to map the white keys of a keyboard to the notes on a selected scale. Just that. You select the key and scale you want and then when you play the white keys of a midi keyboard, they are translated to sequential notes on the key and scale you have chosen. No closest match double ups or ignored keys (apart from the black ones).
I have sent a request to johannes for this. I imagine it is a simple thing to create and would be a thing of beauty for me anyways. Even better for devices like the qnexus that already has more ambiguous key architecture.
What does everyone else think?
Is there an app I am not aware of that does this without creating blank keys or double ups?

obiwahnkentobi

Thumbjam does this...

Kranick

MidiFlow Keyboard?

gonekrazy3000

@adfa said:
How wonderful would it be to have a simple to use AB3 midi filter to map the white keys of a keyboard to the notes on a selected scale. Just that. You select the key and scale you want and then when you play the white keys of a midi keyboard, they are translated to sequential notes on the key and scale you have chosen. No closest match double ups or ignored keys (apart from the black ones).
I have sent a request to johannes for this. I imagine it is a simple thing to create and would be a thing of beauty for me anyways. Even better for devices like the qnexus that already has more ambiguous key architecture.
What does everyone else think?
Is there an app I am not aware of that does this without creating blank keys or double ups?

Literally what Thumbjam's "white keys scale lock" does. and it can do upto 4 different midi keyboards in 4 different scales.

obiwahnkentobi

http://thumbjam.com/usersguide

Input Scale Lock This activates a special feature where incoming MIDI
note events are forced to play only notes in the currently selected scale in
the app. Adjacent white keys will play adjacent notes in the scale, so the
normal rules don’t apply. This becomes kind of the keyboard equivalent to the
ThumbJam touch interface, for instance if the Minor Blues scale is selected
you can play that scale just by dragging your fingers up and down the white
keys of a MIDI keyboard controller. The following control affects this mode.

White Keys only w/Scale Lock - by default this is enabled, so that Scale lock applies to adjacent white key midi notes, but if this is disabled, adjacent chromatic keys will be used.

adfa

I suppose you could then send the TJ midi out to an app of your choosing but seems a bit wasteful if you only want the midi converted and didn't want to use the TJ sounds.
What I'm talking about is an AB3 midi effect (middle slot) that does that (white keys only scale lock) for the incoming hardware midi notes and then you can insert any app of your choosing into the AB3 midi receiver slot. Possibly even have midi learn to change the scale remotely. This would be such an elegant solution.
I am currently looking at ScaleGen for doing this but nowhere near as simple as if we had the lovely Johannes make an AB3 midi filter that did it ))))))))))

adfa

TJ doesn't seem to have midi thru so scrub that one. I'm going to try and map the chromatic scale to just white keys in scalegen and then see if there's a way to use that midi data in another app to be able to select a scale.

BiancaNeve

You could also do it with changeling, with the added advantage that with the turn of a knob you could be playing the associated chord at that degree of the selected scale

adfa

Just found TJ through mode so this does work for now. Still feels a bit of a hatch job to control another app.

adfa

I'd been meaning to DL changeling. Doing it now

adfa

Still. To have an elegant Midiflow filter for this.........................

Enkerli

@adfa said:
How wonderful would it be to have a simple to use AB3 midi filter to map the white keys of a keyboard to the notes on a selected scale. Just that. You select the key and scale you want and then when you play the white keys of a midi keyboard, they are translated to sequential notes on the key and scale you have chosen. No closest match double ups or ignored keys (apart from the black ones).
I have sent a request to johannes for this. I imagine it is a simple thing to create and would be a thing of beauty for me anyways. Even better for devices like the qnexus that already has more ambiguous key architecture.
What does everyone else think?
Is there an app I am not aware of that does this without creating blank keys or double ups?

Add my vote for this. @JohannesD has been hard at work on these MF apps. Sounds like a fairly obvious addition to MF line. Especially if it could support microtuning.

But isn’t this pretty close to what the MF Scales app does? Or is it possible to achieve this effect with a combination of the MF Keyboard and MF Transposer MIDI FX? Still a bit unclear about how all of these apps work. No fault of the developper, of course.

TJ’s input scale lock has been a real treat, for me. Agreed with you that it’s overkill if you want to just use it as a MIDI filter to drive another app. But, noodling with TJ is such a joy, in part because of features like these. In part because my WX11 is so sensitive to timing in fingering, it’s easy to flub or flam between notes. Input scale lock has been a big part of the reason my WX11 became usable, years and years after my first steps with it. And the variety of scales offered by ThumbJam, including several outside of the 12TET standard which has been increasingly dominating music since Bach’s well-known advertising campaign and subsequent focus on the piano.
In other words, ThumbJam helps us fight pianocentrism.

@sonosaurus got my number.

adfa

Midiflow scales can't place one scale note per white note. Yet.

JohannesD

Ok, this is really a good suggestion and that's why I've just implemented it.

There are two new remapping methods: "Chromatic" and "White keys". The last option maps the white keys to the selected scale. The first does the same but with all available keys. If the scale contains more notes than the number of hardware keys (12/8), they will be ignored.

Those two modes transpose the notes, unlike the other methods. This means that playing a C in the example above will trigger an E, because that is the first note of Min Blue in E.

I hope this is what you wanted

gonekrazy3000

@JohannesD said:
Ok, this is really a good suggestion and that's why I've just implemented it.

There are two new remapping methods: "Chromatic" and "White keys". The last option maps the white keys to the selected scale. The first does the same but with all available keys. If the scale contains more notes than the number of hardware keys (12/8), they will be ignored.

Those two modes transpose the notes, unlike the other methods. This means that playing a C in the example above will trigger an E, because that is the first note of Min Blue in E.

I hope this is what you wanted

oh my god yes. thank you so much

[Deleted User]

@JohannesD is there a way to have Hold Unisono when using an external USB midi controller??? I tried and tried but no luck
I have an Maudio Mini Air 32 and when I press the hold button it does the regular hold. I hope this is not too difficult to code.

adfa

Johannes. You rock. This is amazing. I only put in the suggestion yesterday. Will have a play immediately.

adfa

Nooooooooooo. not in australia App Store yet. Harrumph

Will

Boom! Sweet.

TheVimFuego

There are reasons I just mash the Buy button for some devs ... outstanding work.

adfa

I have been checking the App Store like a nong. Of course it won't have been submitted yet. Argh

Enkerli

@TheVimFuego said:
There are reasons I just mash the Buy button for some devs ... outstanding work.

Good point!
(Ok, there’s a couple of things @JohannesD has released which aren’t on my devices, yet. But his name is a pretty good one for @JohnnyGoodyear style instabuys.)

Enkerli

@JohannesD said:
Ok, this is really a good suggestion and that's why I've just implemented it.

There are two new remapping methods: "Chromatic" and "White keys". The last option maps the white keys to the selected scale. The first does the same but with all available keys. If the scale contains more notes than the number of hardware keys (12/8), they will be ignored.

Those two modes transpose the notes, unlike the other methods. This means that playing a C in the example above will trigger an E, because that is the first note of Min Blue in E.

I hope this is what you wanted

Thanks for implementing this! And explaining it. Was a bit confused, but now it makes more sense. As with ThumbJam, you can play “outside” by using the “black keys” (feels weird to say from a wind controller perspective, but we now understand each other). Really nice to have you be so responsive. Presumably, it didn’t take too much of a redesign, but it does increase the app’s value.

Might go back to your intro videos, to figure how everything fits.

Been insisting on harmonization features, but they probably require more work. Same with microtonal scales. Still, it’s really just excellent to have such a responsive developer in our midst. Makes this forum more like a village, where you can send the blacksmith some special request. (In West Africa, the blacksmiths are really the equivalent of engineers, solving people’s problems through brainpower.)

oat_phipps

This is a really good idea that threatens to cramp my keyboard learning. I'd just moved past sticking to C, G, and F scales.

adfa

Is it submitted yet Johannes?

JohannesD

yes :-)

adfa

gonekrazy3000

@JohannesD said:
yes :-)

I think I broke my app store refreshing non stop

JohannesD

The update is live! https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1107244767?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3vbAX

RubenDari

@JohannesD this is awesome (and exactly what i was asking for a while back in our email exchange) thank you!

adfa

Thanks J