So I’m working my way through various options for controlling some of my Max patches and whilst looking through Monome’s stuff I’ve stumbled across OSC.
Looks like it might be the solution I’m looking for, as MIDI is too low resolution and NRPN, though still an option, is quite faffy and OSC looks like it might be a bit simpler in terms of setting up and integrating into patches.
Problem is, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of physical controllers out there that support OSC.
Two questions.
Are there any (non-eye wateringly expensive) physical controllers out there with a decent amount of encoders that support OSC?
What are the problems with setting up and using OSC that I’m not taking account of?
Not sure of any controllers that support it out of the box tbh, but OSC is a network based protocol, so controllers would have to come with an Ethernet (or WiFi) port. That’s why it’s mostly used with tablets and smartphones I guess.
That being said, I think there are solutions that use a server application which talks USB-MIDI to the controller and OSC to the rest of the world. I’ll look into it.
I’ve used OSC quite a bit in art and experimental projects to connect different devices, using Max. Even to make different exported Max applications running on the same computer talk to each other.
I’m sure I’ve come across some USB controllers of which the bundled software has the option to output OSC over network. It s been a while though. Will try to dig up some.
Arduino, raspberri PI, etc can all network so controllers built around them can be made to output OSC.
Tbf, it’s not rocket science to program a Python script, or a PureData patch to take care of it. I’ve done so multiple times, learning by doing.
It gets slightly more involved if you want feedback on buttons, LED rings etc.
You’ll have to define OSC messages (paths / name spaces / whatchamacallit) you want to use, anyway, might just bite the bullet and learn a bit of Python.
Perhaps have a look at PureData first.
It’s the open source variant of Max sorta, same paradigm and even created by the same guy.
Oh and if you want higher resolution, then the MIDI controller needs to support that too, obviously. So you’re back to using NRPN, sysex or other ways to use more than 7 bit resolution.
Some (most?) controllers with endless encoders provide incremental values, which can be extremely helpful for this. So depending on how fast you turn, it will just spit out how far to go in which direction. I think most Novations do this (anybody use Nocturn? ), BCR2000, Akai APC/MPD I believe.
If you don’t want to wade into NRPNs, you could get a controller that allows sending MIDI pitch bend from the controls on which you want higher resolution. By setting each control to an individual channel you can then have up to 16 hi-res, and as many more lo-res as the controller allows. Would give you 16384 values to work with.
OSC is a nice idea woefully under-supported. The best option out there is TouchOSC, but it’s a bit touch-screeny.
So after a good days research it looks like OSC is one of those great ideas that nobody seems to have noticed.
Only decent options I can see are wildly expensive/unobtainable (like the Monome arc or that Reliq thing that’s still a prototype) or build my own with a Raspberry pi or Arduino, but even if I did that it’s still a challenge to get the resolution I want without a lot of faffing.
It’s a shame, but I think NRPN is probably the way to go for now.
I don’t really get it why OSC isn’t more widely supported. It seems to be fairly well supported in other medias, but almost non-exisitent in the music world.
), BCR2000, Akai APC/MPD I believe.