Lua’s a great place to start for that type of application. It has shortcomings, but it’s nothing that will stick out for you if you’re new to coding.
don´t go for processing any more. if you are absolutely new to the game check out p5.js …it is almost the same but in javascript. If you want more speed and like it a little more complex go for openFrameworks. You are writing C++ code but it´s kinda lika processing in a way 
just a little bit more complex. lots of add ons and a nice community.
for p5.js check out daniel shiffman on youtube. he is great on get newbies going.
if you are on a pc and just want to make visuals check out vvvv beta or the new vvvv stuff. It´s a visual programming language like max but more focused on creating visual stuff. It´s pretty powerful and not hard to learn.
2 Likes
Curious, why do you say that? I haven’t touched it or done any creative programming in a few years probably, but at the time I was doing generative digital paintings and didn’t need anything particularly complex.
You can of course, it is no less good than it ever was. I come from a creative coding background professionelly and its just the community is shrinking. If you want to go visual art and get your stuff out to the public p5.js is web native and far better for that case. You can build simple interactive stuff in a second and have it online even as fast.
For advanced stuff processing in most cases is not the right choice because its just not fast enough, so if you really want to do something maybe with shaders you go openFrameworks or elsewhere. Shure you can build Stuff also in Processing but it‘s not ment to be that complex and pretty fast you are in native Java.
2 Likes
Cool, totally makes sense. I was making interactive CSS ‘paintings’ a few years back too, even more arcane! 
1 Like
Haven’t decided yet 
I’m still doing research and trying to understand how many options I may have available and also how much they can cover… In any case, generative 2d, 3d animation, and also using existing images, sounds possible options.
So far, I have narrowed it down and looking into maxMsp, pureData, Processing, and even touchDesigner… Still deciding…
1 Like
I’ve been learning Lua and using it to make a little game on the playdate system… I was thinking it might be neat to put together a music app of some sort on it also. Never realized Audulus was Lua. It does feel a bit like jumping into the deep end in some ways but people describe it as a beginner language when compared to like C++.
1 Like
Sold - any good beginner’s resources you’d recommend?
1 Like
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBtYA4pHjBEXYvNgL2RDNf5J_IWItWbpR this play list looks like a pretty good starting point to me… everything I used was a bit more focused on lua + an SDK and compiling it as a standalone game which probably wouldn’t be super useful for what is going on in Audulus. I think Audulus is using Lua as implemented code or a scripting language as opposed to compiling and mostly would be for building out custom interfaces, sequencers and logic type operations but not sure if you can like code an oscillator from scratch or something in it though.
makes sense - appreciate it!
anyone have any good documentation reference for Ableton Live control scripts? I cannot find anything…
I’ve received my Faderfox EC4 and I want to try improve the provided python script that supports only 8 macros while Live 11 have 16 available, or maybe create additional setup dedicated to some VST control, but I can’t find any documentation for these scripts…
I had a Daisy Seed and Patch-SM lying around, but no time to dive into because of other projects. But today i started to dive in. Took some time to set things up properly within VSCode (which i use on my daily developing job). And off i go!
Made some small protoyping board, with two pots, a button, a LED, and mono in & output. And managed to develop a simple looper: Press the button = record loop. Release button and the loop plays. Pot 1 is speed and also negative speed which means reverse direction. And other pot to set the loop length (full length is determined when the button is released).
I used this PCB as an easy starter: Simple Fix synth DIY PCB Board
1 Like
The MIDI Melody Maker from adafruit.
This is a kit that uses the Cortex M4 and gives you an inexpensive versatile base of hardware to code your own powerful custom MIDI processor. ( Can be USB or UART, AKA DIN MIDI based. ) It has a nice small 128x64 OLED screen, and a range of controls and UI that would be easy to modify. There is an open source basic system, but it just calls out for customization. The base code is in easy to program CircuitPython.
You like the idea of the SOMA Metaconformer ( thread ), you can write your own version.
Or you have an idea inspired by your use of the Blokas Midihub ( thread ), that’s almost exactly what you want except for the last few things, then here you go.
Your own arpeggiator, chord generator, MIDI LFO machine, whatever !
Or you are exploring another idea that you think might make an awesome product, and you want to do a prototype to prove things out.
You can see more detail and order from this site :
I am not thrilled about the enclosure, but it would be easy enough to do a much more compact and rugged box for this.
1 Like
I normally go to the Lua programming in the Electra One for those ideas.
1 Like
Ooh, there’s a MIDI processor you program in Lua?! 
I’ve been toying with the idea of building something on top of teensy-lua, but not enough time in this world.
Thanks for the tip! Although the Electra is pricey for my modest needs, maybe I’ll just cling to the DIY dream for a little longer 
1 Like
Yeah I talked about it a bit in this thread:
It’s got callback oriented processing for midi events:
https://docs.electra.one/developers/luaext.html#midi-callbacks
I haven’t gotten too much into the display logic stuff but I believe you can also trigger Lua from display actions.
2 Likes
Oh my, it’s even open source now!
Looking at it a bit more made me realize I’ve seen this baby before: @thetechnobear mentioned it to me on the Squarp forum. But, that was before Lua support and open-sourcing, two game changers…
1 Like
The Lua interfaces mean I don’t have to build all the MIDI I/O infrastructure as that plumbing is a fair bit of effort and given I do low level C/C++ for work, I don’t really want to deal with firmware too much.
This eliminated the possibility of me getting a Raspberry Pi to do some MIDI tinkering projects.
I’ve got 2 other devices that are open source:
- The Synthstrom Deluge which I like mostly because the community will crowdsource and implement ideas.
- The Berglund NuRAD which is my main MIDI controller at the moment and I may decide to try to tinker with it as some point.
But I think the Lua stuff in the Electra One will be my main tinkering for the foreseeable future.
Similar story here, low level C as dayjob. And while I’d love to hack on this and that in the freetime as well, my back doesn’t approve and it’d be nice to make some music too
I just broke the back on a Deluge and been reloading the shipment tracking info page … a lot 
. Open-source being a big but certainly not the only reason. Not really planning to hack on it (see above), but just the guarantee that if you need to, you can. Like, the ability fix that one thing that annoys the living daylights out of you that nobody else cares about, even if the company went under. Got my share of long out of support hardware that a tiny fix or two would elevate another level.
But yeah, Lua is a pretty fun language for stuff like this. I have a MidiHub which is mostly good at driving me crazy with the graphical pipe “programming” and still failing to do like two of the four things I need from it.
I have dumped maxMsp and pureData for now and started learning Processing, Touchdesigner, and also VVVV. Will see how far this takes me