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Midi "speed-dial" CC should be standard on all music apps

legsmechanicallegsmechanical
edited December 2020 in General App Discussion

Don't know if this exists in any app right now but, in a perfect world, it would be a standard feature in every single music app.

The idea is very simple (and should be easy to implement in any app that already supports midi mapping):

  • In the app settings, you specify a single Midi CC to be your "speed-dial" controller.

  • Speed-dial controller does one thing: always affects the last parameter you touched in the app.

  • Touch a knob, fader, whatever, in an app and then tweak with the physical knob/fader/whatever on your midi controller that's outputting the speed-dial CC. Touch another parameter and tweak it with the same physical control.

For me, this would improve my iOS workflow dramatically by giving me a high degree of precise tactile parameter control on the fly without having to midi map every single parameter I might want to use in an app.

This is basically how the new MPCs/Force and Montage integrate their physical controls (their big data wheels/knobs) with their touchscreens, and it is a dream to work with them. 90% of the touchscreen frustration I often feel when working on the iPad goes right out the window.

Any takers?

MIDI speed-dial CC poll
  1. Would this be a useful feature for developers to add/include?10 votes
    1. Yes (including "not for my specific workflow, but I can see the value for other workflows")
      80.00%
    2. No
      20.00%

Comments

  • rs2000rs2000
    edited December 2020

    If you have difficulty with fine adjusting controls in an app then that's what should be fixed in that app first, not the MIDI control.
    And 128 steps from MIDI CC is not what I call precise at all.

    Force and Montage, like many other hardware boxes, don't have that problem because they can work with high resolution internally.

  • NeonSiliconNeonSilicon

    Tracking what parameter has been touched can be more difficult to add than it seems, especially inside of Audio Units. Tapped to select, versus edited in the UI, or via the host to the AU, or MIDI in the AU are all disconnected to some degree.

    @rs2000 said:
    If you have difficulty with fine adjusting controls in an app then that's what should be fixed in that app first, not the MIDI control.
    And 128 steps from MIDI CC is not what I call precise at all.

    MIDI as it is now is really not good for parameter editing. It's truly a pain to map to logarithmic or fader to controls. 0-127 isn't enough. MIDI 2.0 should fix all this if they ever actually get it out into the world. Then all of this stuff will be worth revisiting for me.

  • legsmechanicallegsmechanical

    @rs2000 said:
    If you have difficulty with fine adjusting controls in an app then that's what should be fixed in that app first, not the MIDI control.
    And 128 steps from MIDI CC is not what I call precise at all.

    Force and Montage, like many other hardware boxes, don't have that problem because they can work with high resolution internally.

    I'd just note that it's not just about precision, but convenience and an alternative to full-on custom midi mapping. On the convenience side, tweaking a parameter while playing keys (to audition the sound I'm tweaking, e.g.) is much easier with a physical control than with a finger on a touchscreen.

    (resolution on akai's knob is 128 for most parameters, btw, and that's generally fine for me -- at least on my force)

  • rs2000rs2000

    @NeonSilicon said:
    Tracking what parameter has been touched can be more difficult to add than it seems, especially inside of Audio Units. Tapped to select, versus edited in the UI, or via the host to the AU, or MIDI in the AU are all disconnected to some degree.

    @rs2000 said:
    If you have difficulty with fine adjusting controls in an app then that's what should be fixed in that app first, not the MIDI control.
    And 128 steps from MIDI CC is not what I call precise at all.

    MIDI as it is now is really not good for parameter editing. It's truly a pain to map to logarithmic or fader to controls. 0-127 isn't enough. MIDI 2.0 should fix all this if they ever actually get it out into the world. Then all of this stuff will be worth revisiting for me.

    Old MIDI has enough facilities (RPN/NRPN and incremental controllers) but I've rarely seen developers who are interested in supporting them. Drambo is one of the few exceptions.

    @legsmechanical There's quite a number of apps that do support CC control already., but I agree that a 'big CC knob for the last control that was touched' would be nice and it should be possible.
    Drambo has shown that most AUv3s send proper controller values when a knob is turned so that could indeed be handled by the host.

  • wimwim

    That's actually a really great idea. I can see how the "touched" vs. "moved" problem could be a significant issue. I'm guessing you'd actually have to make at least a small adjustment to the control to get it to register ... and that only for the apps that properly report AU parameter changes. But in all, it would be great if hosts at least tried to support something like that.

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