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Midi note/cc to keystroke
I want to be able to use a midi controller to type out a chord progression on the fly using my feet.
Is there any way to do that?
Any search I do brings up keystroke to midi but not the other way around.
Comments
I’m guessing you have some hardware that works with your feet. Is that true and if so, what is it?
For example, I have an IK Multimedia Blueboard but there are many options. You use the verb “type” so I could be way off the mark. Can you type with your feet?
If we can settle on a device I suspect a Mozaic script could be crafted to make a solution.
Check out Midi Messenger. It's free and can send one or multiple midi messages in response to any other type of midi message. Highly recommended.
mfxConvert is another app that's handy for simpler conversions.
Mozaic and Streambyter are scripting environments that can do more sophisticated things if needed.
What searches are you making? There's a reason you're finding 'keystroke to midi' but not vice versa. The typical use case is to allow keystrokes pressed on a computer keyboard (virtual or hardware) to be converted to midi messages. A computer keyboard is not a midi controller, but there are ways to convert the data one sends into midi.
On the other hand, there are ways to process midi controller input into something other than the midi messages the controller sends, but it depends on what you want to do, and on what controller you're using. What do you mean by saying, "I want to be able to use a midi controller to type out a chord progression." I'm trying hard, but I can't think of any midi controller that you "type" on. There are midi controllers with buttons, sure, but they aren't typically used to "type" (which seems to imply pressing letter keys on a keyboard). So that's first question: what sort of midi controller are you talking about, and how do you intend to "type" on it?
The StreamByter scripting language has a couple of features that might be useful here. StreamByter normally receives and sends MIDI messages. But it can also send keystrokes, on Mac only; iOS sandboxing likely makes that difficult on iPads. So, you could use it to convert MIDI notes (or other messages) to keystrokes. It can also send a UDP message to any device on the network (including this one). You'd need an app to receive those messages and store the data for later use.
The use case is this:
I have several midi foot switches that can send cc/pc whatever.
I want to display(type out) like a keyboard the chord progression as it’s being called out.
Example: 1-5-6m-4
I tried using several midi monitors to just display what I’m hitting like (cc-6 for the 6 minor chord)
But the type is super small.
I am using an iPad not a computer as well so I couldn’t use something like Bome translator for that.
Midi Messenger can do this. You can set it to send the notes of chords in response to your foot switch commands.
However I think a more flexible approach would be to get an app that sends chords in response to midi notes and use Midi Messenger to convert your various CC's etc to notes. There are several available. One of the more simple ones is ChordBud. ChordPolyPad is excellent as well.
The advantage of using a chord app is you can set up your cc to note conversions once, then switch between presets of chords for different songs.
There is also a Mozaic script called The Chordulator that can play diatonic chords from a single note. All you need to do is set the scale and root note and a single note generates the diatonic chords in that scale.
But for all these solutions, something like Midi Messenger to convert your foot switch presses messages to one or more notes is needed.
I have chord poly pad and I like the thinking in this process but how would that type out a chord progression sequence.
From what I understand all it would do is trigger a chord.
I don’t need it to play the chord, I want to type the sequence of the chords in text in front of me.
I could have an AirPod in one ear and use speech to text but I don’t know how that would work in a noisy environment.
That helps:
“Type Out” = display Chords on a screen
Questions remain:
Are the chords invoked by specific foot gestures? Or are they already preset in some sequencing app?
In other words: do you trigger chords or just want to see what chord is happening in an accompaniment?
Capturing requirements by t xy exchange is tricky if you just slip clues and don’t disclose all the context.
Oh. I see now. That's a very, very different thing.
I don't think there's anything on iOS that can accomplish that.
There were some threads brought up by @rs2000 earlier about using accessibility shortcuts to control things in iOS using midi. It's a long-shot, but there might be something that could be rigged in that way.
“ But the type is super small.”
Large text display on an iPad usually requires a custom app.
@_ki created some Mozaic scripts that display larger “text” images using optional character sets. He’s a magician at such creative user interfaces. All the usual IOS tools display text like this forum response.
If @_ki can map CC input to larger text that supports A-G (optional case) and M, m, d, and 7, 6, 9, 11, 13 maybe this could get hacked.
Maybe a Swift coder could make a Chord Display Scrolling Sign App.
Swift PlayGrounds is free and does not require all the App Store overhead to share an app. Anyone know how to display graphical text and scroll it horizontally?
We need to agree on a protocol with an encoding
Ascending Hex/Decimal values
O
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
Major
minor
Diminished
7th
9th or just th
Sus
/ (to show inversions like C7/E)
Anything else needed to map CC values to chord text?
This sounds like the best solution to me, easy enough to do, assuming size of the pads on largest Mozaic window is big enough.
Doesn't Audulus 4 have a drawing canvas and scripting with Lua that could write large text fairly easily? At least for someone who's up to speed on it.
Also, the newish PD-clone for iOS, that should be considered beta, I think, may have a text widget object with variable font size.
As I understand the goal, though, this is really a trivial project with the right tools. Avoid overcomplication. _ki's method (or similar for producing large text on pads) for Mozaic seems like easiest and probably best solution.
TouchOSC also may be good choice. Text object has variable font size:
https://hexler.net/touchosc/manual/controls#text
All that I would need is:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Just to outline the chords in the key that’s being played
Ex:
Cc 1 : 1
Cc 2 : 2
Cc 3 : 3
So… you want to use your feet to update a display of the current Chord using one of the common
chord notations?
I-ii-iii-IV-V-VI-vii
I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII
1-2-3-4-5-6-7
Since conventionally all songs tend to start on I, then an “increment” and “decrement” pedals might be
a workable solution for input and a Swift App for Chord display for output with some “black box” logic between the pedals events and the output display.
Again… I will ask. What MIDI pedal do you want to use as the standard for the input functions?
(Hardly anyone owns them but bass keyboard pedals like the organs used to have are
ideal for single foot movement to displayed chord).
I'm also trying to understand what exactly is asked for here but if I'm not totally wrong then Mozaic with large text on pads (using any kind of large font) could be the thing?
Like this?
Does this chord display have to be an AUv3 window?
TouchOSC could display the chords in a large text. A very small script would be needed to set the position of the label displays as you add chords, but that would be a lot easier script than using Mozaic.
Unfortunately, TouchOSC is a standalone app, not AUv3. It can display in a "popover" window though, if that's acceptable.
Are you using a host? If so which one?
This is it!!
Almost like some of the patches that take in midi events as there being received and displaying it in the sequence they come.
I’m using loopy pro.
But I’m open to not using an auv3 as well.
Mozaic doesn't have any font sizing. That screenshot is from an sophisticated script by @_ki where the numbers are constructed dot-matrix stiyle. It could get very complicated to accomplish what the OP is asking for using those methods.
Isn't there a better way to show larger letters in Mozaic @brambos?
Even the old trick using larger text in Accessibility settings doesn't seem to be respected by Mozaic.
This thread is so inspiring. Here I was, all this time, with my feet… idle