Can someone explain assigning MIDI controls for SimpLoop in AUM using my LaunchKey Mk3?

wim

@Rob_Jackson_Music said:
That's not how it is. There's a plugin parameter named Loop. I think you assumed that was a command assignment. It's not.

What I meant is I think anyone would assume that. I can't think of any plugin ever that does that.

The looper commands themselves can't be plugin parameters.

I don't see why not. The controls do what one would expect in all your other apps. There are also many apps that offer both direct CC mapping and AUv3 parameter control. But ok, if you say so.

Perhaps I should have called it Loop CC Assignment. But that makes the UI a bit busy.

Well, given that it's totally different than any other plugin, I would think something to differentiate it is needed. Nobody would get that off the bat. Though I guess the few that take the time to read the help will get it if you spell it out.

And... as soon as I hide any plugin parameter, someone will complain it's not exposed. You just can't win I can almost guarantee, someone will want it.

If you find someone that expects a plugin parameter to assign a midi CC to something, I'll eat my hat ... even the gross sweaty one I wear backpacking. Just kidding, I'm fabric intolerant, but I still don't think you're going to have anything other than confusion from those parameters.

I suggest you ignore them in the meantime, or I can consider a feature request to (optionally) hide them.

I'm already ignoring it. It's not important to me at all. I'm just offering the suggestion because I think it's bound to confuse people and cause you support issues. If you don't think that's going to be a problem then that's cool.

Alternatively, is there something you'd like to control via MIDI CC that you can't currently do with SimpLoop that I've missed? In which case, again, my bad.

Nope. tbh, for this app direct midi CC control makes sense, especially if it retains the CC assignments between hosts. That way you can drop it into any host and be up and running with minimum fuss. I haven't tested whether it does that or not. No biggie either way.

AU parameter control is generally only preferable over direct CC control to me because in Loopy Pro you can set up widgets and have the state of the parameters reflected in the widget. Also, there are a few cases where modulating a parameter is smoother than using a 128 step CC.

Neither of those are relevant to this plugin. I can completely ignore the AU parameters.

FizzyLizzy27

I think one solution to at least reduce confusion and poking around would be a native MIDI learn button.

Rob_Jackson_Music

@wim - always appreciate folks taking the time to share thoughts and suggestions here, so thank you. It's especially helpful for me as I work alone and don't do external beta testing, so something that makes total sense to me, could well be nonsense to someone else.

@FizzyLizzy27 - yep, agreed 100%. Part of the reason I didn't do that is the whole generic UI thing (*), which I know is a problem of my own making. That said, MIDI learn is definitely on the list of possible improvements to SimpLoop.

(*) discussed at length in other threads, so let's not go there again

FizzyLizzy27

Coming back to this, I guess I still need to iron out kinks for this setup. Here’s my scenario and what I want to do:

I have my Launchkey with 9 “on/off” buttons. When pressed and active, they light up. I want one of these to be my “LOOP” control. So,

1. Press the button, it lights up, and it’s ready for audio
2. Start recording a part (likely guitar chords or a drumbeat)
3. Hit the button again to stop recording and the light goes off
4. Have it playing back until I hit a button assigned to stop

I tried setting up something like this over the weekend that worked pretty well but the light for the buttons got a little weird with the stop/clear functionality. I’ll look at the setup I had when I can get everything set up but figured I’d post this if anyone has ideas off the top of their head.

wim

@FizzyLizzy27 said:
Coming back to this, I guess I still need to iron out kinks for this setup. Here’s my scenario and what I want to do:

I have my Launchkey with 9 “on/off” buttons. When pressed and active, they light up. I want one of these to be my “LOOP” control. So,

1. Press the button, it lights up, and it’s ready for audio
2. Start recording a part (likely guitar chords or a drumbeat)
3. Hit the button again to stop recording and the light goes off
4. Have it playing back until I hit a button assigned to stop

I tried setting up something like this over the weekend that worked pretty well but the light for the buttons got a little weird with the stop/clear functionality. I’ll look at the setup I had when I can get everything set up but figured I’d post this if anyone has ideas off the top of their head.

Are you using the standalone version or are you using SimpLoop in a host? If so, which host? SimpLoop doesn't supply midi feedback, so there's nothing from the app that's going to control the lights in the Launchkey. Nothing happening in the app is going to be reflected in the Launchkey. The only lighting changes you'll see in the Launchkey is in response to the touches.

If you start looping then the pad is going to light up. If you stop looping by tapping the loop pad, the light will go off, but not because looping has stopped. It'll go off because you tapped the pad.

If you start looping the pad will light up. If you stop looping by tapping a different pad, again, the Lanuchkey has no way of knowing what state SimpLoop is in.

A Mozaic script could be written to provide the feedback needed to the LaunchKey, but it'd be somewhat involved to write, and it would get out of sync if you did anything in the app itself. Everything would have to come from the LaunchKey through to Simploop.

If you want this kind of feedback, SimpLoop isn't a real good choice.

FizzyLizzy27

@wim yeah the light feedback being one way I understand. I guess I’m trying to figure out some tricky logic and I’m not opposed to a Mozaic script so maybe that’ll be a project to learn with. (New to Mozaic, been scripting/programming for a decade). But you’re saying that could send feedback to the Launchkey for activating lights?

I’M in AUM and the pads are under the Launchkey faders which automatically turn on/off the light. It’s not one of the drum pads. And you’re right that this might not be the right tool for the job. I’ve had a very fussy baby today and everything is packed up from a music festival this past weekend, but I’ll get a screenshot or two when I can.

wim

@FizzyLizzy27 said:
@wim yeah the light feedback being one way I understand. I guess I’m trying to figure out some tricky logic and I’m not opposed to a Mozaic script so maybe that’ll be a project to learn with. (New to Mozaic, been scripting/programming for a decade). But you’re saying that could send feedback to the Launchkey for activating lights?

I’M in AUM and the pads are under the Launchkey faders which automatically turn on/off the light. It’s not one of the drum pads. And you’re right that this might not be the right tool for the job. I’ve had a very fussy baby today and everything is packed up from a music festival this past weekend, but I’ll get a screenshot or two when I can.

I may have a script that will work for you - at least if you only control SimpLoop from the controller, not from the app. Controller Tracker and Snapshots keeps track of the last CC values sent through it, can feed those back to the controller, and can save the state between host sessions.

You have to pass the controller input through it, and you have to avoid making changes directly in SimpLoop.

Oh wait - I thought you were talking about the SMC Pads controller. That one responds to direct midi feedback. Launchkey is different I think. The Mozaic script I mentioned won't help if that's the case.

wim

@FizzyLizzy27 said:
@wim yeah the light feedback being one way I understand. I guess I’m trying to figure out some tricky logic and I’m not opposed to a Mozaic script so maybe that’ll be a project to learn with. (New to Mozaic, been scripting/programming for a decade). But you’re saying that could send feedback to the Launchkey for activating lights?

Yes, but to be clear, the feedback would be coming from the Mozaic script, not from SimpLoop. The script would have no idea what's happening in SimpLoop.

I’ve had a very fussy baby today and everything is packed up from a music festival this past weekend, but I’ll get a screenshot or two when I can.

I can relate! 😂
It's almost impossible to keep ordered thoughts with a baby around, even when they're not fussy. Add to that the sleep deprivation, and it's like slogging through mud. I don't even try anymore.