farmpad v.1.3 - os x hack for padKontrol

flycycle · Post by **flycycle** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:59 pm

Thought I'd start a new thread for this version.

http://farmaudio.com/farmpad

New features:

- 128 scenes.
- Incoming program change messages select scenes.
- Better configuration format - making custom patches is easier.
- Fixed controls - controls can be part of different scenes. (See the 'fixed' config command)
- Controls can select specific scenes. (See the 'selectscene' config command)
- XY pad can act as a switch.
- Rotary encoder can select scenes and send MIDI program change messages.

The new configuration format is much better than before - you can do things like:

Code: Select all

scene:1-5
pad:all
mode:trigger

which puts all pads in scenes 1 to 5 into trigger mode. The old way would have taken up a few pages.

Fixed controls is a big one - you can do things like have a row of pads that are present in all of your scenes, keeping their on/off states while you switch to different scenes. It might still have a few bugs - let me know if you spot any problems.

The XY Switch is handy - you can put the switch in trigger mode and assign it to dry/wet on an effect so pressing it turns the effect on, moving about the x-y tweaks the effect, then letting go turns the effect off.

Apologies to those of you waiting for a Windows port, will get it done over the summer!

monstrejumo · Post by **monstrejumo** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:53 am

great to see that you kept on working on this amazing soft...

- 128 scenes. (yoooo, 64 were huge, but 128...

)
- Incoming program change messages select scenes. (REALLY GOOD)
- Better configuration format - making custom patches is easier. (YEPEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I was waiting for this !)
- Fixed controls - controls can be part of different scenes. (See the 'fixed' config command) (GREAT)
- Controls can select specific scenes. (See the 'selectscene' config command) (ALSO GREAT to have, ie, a FX scene right under one button !!) (but does it return to former scene when we stop pressing the control ??)
- XY pad can act as a switch.
- Rotary encoder can select scenes and send MIDI program change messages.

I just wonder if this will work with my "old" config.txt, or will I have to re-write it newerly ???

THANKS A LOT FLYCYCLE
we love you

flycycle · Post by **flycycle** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:51 am

Glad you like the new stuff monstrejumo

monstrejumo wrote: - Controls can select specific scenes. (See the 'selectscene' config command) (ALSO GREAT to have, ie, a FX scene right under one button !!) (but does it return to former scene when we stop pressing the control ??)

It doesn't return you to the former scene when you let go, but that might be a useful new feature for the next version.

monstrejumo wrote: I just wonder if this will work with my "old" config.txt, or will I have to re-write it newerly ???

Your old config file should work fine. There were a couple of compatibility bugs in 1.3, but 1.3.1 fixed those.

S4racen · Post by **S4racen** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:25 pm

Thanks so much for sending me the link! I've been fiddling ever since and now my whole usage of ableton has totally improved, i had been using the padkontrol to launch clips b ut when changing scene had lost the control, i know with a lot of work my config file could have been improved but i'd settled how it was, trouble was i kept forgetting where i was in the middle of the mix and press the wrong pad!

So i've switched the clip launch buttons to my xone 1d controller which makes sense as they line up with the faders and then the Padkontrol has come into it's own as a flashing throbbing disco machine!

I've set my padkontrol up now as a giant vst bank controller, pads one to eight turn the effect on per channel and then i have the other eight pads as controlling different variables per effect e.g. the grid length in beat repeat...

This gives me visual feedback on the Pk of whats on and on what setting....

Then with the encoder programmed to select each scene by turning it, each scene controls a seperate VST which is identified by the lcd text....

Farmpad rocks!!

Cheers
D

monstrejumo · Post by **monstrejumo** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:07 pm

thanks to you flycycle...

s4racen, what about making videos of our different farmpad live usages? that would be cool to see vids of people using theirs farmed padkontrols in several different ways,

and so inspiring !!!

I think I'll quickly make mine this weekend... and post it on youtube or else

cheeeeeeeeeeeeers

S4racen · Post by **S4racen** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:49 pm

I'd film mine but i'm off to Paphos for a fortnight so i'll be making films of a different kind!!

Cheers
D

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:42 pm

Hello everybody,
first I would like to thank you flycycle for farmpad,
really great what you can do with this little app.

I'm a long time Live user and bought a Pk a few weeks ago,
but with farmpad it gets it's real potential.

I'm really interested in the control mode,
I've running it and get correct midi feedback for active clips back into Pk,
that's what I was searching for for a long time,
but sometimes it's buggy.
Especially when you trigger clips on different tracks together, or hit more than one pad at a time, something gets confused,
all lights stay lit or are all off.
Perhaps somebody can confirm this behaviour?

Another question is,
should the other controls as track mute, record or the loop status in clip view already work with feedback to the Pk,
or is that still in development?
Until now I could only get the clip feedback working,
perhaps I'm doing something wrong?

Under Midi preferences I've set control surface to none, in and out to farmpad.

My config file reads like this:

led:Ola

pad:5,9,13

channel:1
//group:
//control:
//mode:trigger

pad:6,10,14

channel:1
//control:
// mode:trigger

Pads 5,9,13 control 3 clips in track one
Pads 6,10,14 control 3 clips in track two

but no sign from any other element on the PK.

Any help or discussion would be cool.

Steve

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:41 pm

Ok,
I've got the midifeedback working for track status on/off,
but solo/cue doesn't work like it should.

There is also a bug when you set the midi range in Live from 0-127,
then the switch doesn't reflect properly,
every value above 0 as 1-127 works.
For solo/cue there is no midi range in Live,
so perhaps they have a default off 0-127 an therefore don' work?

Here is how my config looks:

switch:4-9
//channel:1
//mode:trigger

Should the solo/cue work or am I doing something wrong here.

I'm on Live 6.0.10

Any help would be cool.

Steve

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:37 am

I think I've found another bug,
I've assigned the encoder to the start marker in clip view,
and it sometimes makes jumps,
as bars. 1,2,3,-,5,6,7,-,9,10,-,12,.....
some bars are overjumped.

when turning the encoder while the clip is running.

With my faderfox encoders this doesn't happen.

flycycle · Post by **flycycle** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:09 pm

Hi Steve,

I designed farmpad mainly for general live/performance use (rather than 'Live' use) so I haven't put any work in to it acting as a control surface for studio work, or for controlling Ableton-specific behaviour. I might try to improve Ableton control in the future, but it's not my focus at the moment.

The problem you might be having while using the encoder to control the start marker on a clip is due to the velocity sensitivity of the encoder - as you turn the encoder faster it makes bigger jumps in its value. I can add in an option to stop the velocity scaling on the encoder, I'll add it to the to-do list.

For clip launching, I've had the best results by using the 'retrigger' mode on pads, putting the pads that control clips on the same channel in to a group, and then using a groupmaster pad to turn off pads in that group.

Hope this helps, let me know how you get on.

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:39 pm

Hi flycycle,
thanks for jumping in,

for the encoder it might be possible that velocity causes this,
but it also happens when turning it really slow, one click by one.
Perhaps the clicks on the encoder are not precisely matched to the midi range,
but it could also be a bug in Live?

For the clips I don't use any groups for the moment,
just set the pads to trigger,
as I get feedback from Live back into Pk,
and this happens correctly quantized,
while using groups would imediately switch a pad off,
that would destroy the quantized behaviour wich is really cool.

Clip juggling works ok as long I don't go too mad on different clips in different tracks,
but hitting a few clips together or in a short time in a row makes the pads go off even while the clip is still playing,
or they light up in groups of 2 or 3 pads until you retrigger a clip.
Do you think this could be a bug in farmpad due to to much midi coming in in a short time?

I don't know if solo/cue feedback status is supported in Live 6.0.10,
so it would be cool if somebody could confirm?

Anyway,
great app.

Steve

Myzrael · Post by **Myzrael** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:46 pm

Only recently tried this (haven't really done much except tested if it works) but I have a few questions.
2. Does anyone have a Traktor .tks and farmpad config file?
3. I want to use Traktor with the padkontrol. Now Traktor can also send output messages. It sends 127 for ON and 0 for OFF or any value you want. How to use this with farmpad?

Been trying some more.....Nevermind the scrolling text! This program is awesome

Just want to get the LED support in Traktor working that's all. This is gonna make my sets so much more fun for sure!

flycycle · Post by **flycycle** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:24 pm

@ Steve

The encoder goes from 0-127 unless you change it in your configuration. Not really sure what problems you're having as it seems to work fine for me.

What launch mode are you using for your clips? I've found it works best using Gate mode on the clips and then 'retrigger' mode on the pads. I haven't noticed any problems with wrong pads turning on, or pads switching off while the clip's still playing... If you like you can email me your config file and a Live project that has the problem and I can take a look.

I took a look and it doesn't look like cue or solo send any midi feedback.

@ Myzrael

farmpad seems to work fine with Traktor - set one of the deck's mode to 'hold' and the other to 'output', both learned to a pad on the padKontrol, and it seems to do the trick

glad you're rating the scrolling text!

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:55 am

Hi flycycle,
I've checked your suggestion and set the pads to retrigger and clips to gate, but there is no difference, no problem to light up 2 or 3 pads per track when hitting them together.
My pads and clips are setup as triggers as default.

For the encoder, it works ok as long as no clip is running,
when it's running I can't reach several bars, as ex. bar 49 or 65, impossible as it jumps from 48 to 50 or 64 to 66.
Even afterwards when all clips are stopped it stays like this.

The startmarker also jumps a few bars forw. or backw. the first time you turn the encoder when a new clip gets focus,
like it was sending a wrong value the first time turned.

I can email you a a set without samples and my config file to demonstrate,
just pm me your email adress and I'll send it.

Hope you can fix this,

Greetz

Steve

flycycle · Post by **flycycle** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:26 pm

ahh.. the reason that you're getting more than one pad per track lighting up is that farmpad only gets feedback for clips that have started playing. If you hit two pads at once, only one clip starts playing and the other clip doesn't send any feedback, so the pad stays lit up. The only way around this (unless there's an option in Live that I don't know about) is to group your pads together in your config file, or avoid hitting more than one pad at once

Your encoder / start position problem is fixed by setting your clip to exactly 128 bars in length. Live divides your clip by 128 then the encoder jumps by that amount through the clip for each step - so if your clip is 192 bars long, then each step will jump 1.5 bars. Nothing I can do about that in farmpad, but there might be an option somewhere in Live to change it.

Hope that helps! If you have any more problems you're welcome to email me at farmpad [a.t.] farmaudio.com