An experiment in OSC control via android touch events. Sends events from the Android device to a host computer that listens & responds to OSC messages.
Inspired by the LinnStrument http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html and Madrona Labs SoundPlane http://madronalabs.com/soundplane.
Is it possible for an Android tablet App to give a similar experience? Let's see!
Tested to basically work with the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet + Reaper if you set it to use the control surface Default OSC config.
It is ready for others to try it out--provided you can build it and figure out how to integrate an OSC controller to your DAW.
Also working with Overtone. See an example here: https://github.com/rogerallen/explore_overtone/blob/master/src/explore_overtone/gridstrument.clj
Now looking for sounds & synths that especially benefit from the instrument interface.
Requires an device running Lollipop (5.0) Android or later. I've tested on the NVIDIA Shield Tablet.
Requires a host computer application that understands OSC input.
Update via the Settings menu with your local configuration information
- Server IP Address = something like 10.10.0.19
- Server PORT Number = some number like 8675
- Pitch Bend Range = bend across how many notes before saturating? Typically 2 or 12. This should match your synth.
- Starting Note = MIDI note value for the lower left corner grid cell. Default is 48 or C3.
Sends OSC messages with this format:
- note on/off =
/vkb_midi/<channel>/note/<note_number>and the parameter is 0-127 velocity. 0 indicates note off - pressure =
/vkb_midi/<channel>/channelpressureand the parameter is 0-127 pressure - y-axis modulation =
/vkb_midi/<channel>/pitchand the parameter is 0-0x3fff bend where 0x2000 is the center. - x-axis modulation =
/vkb_midi/<channel>/cc/1(mod-wheel) and the parameter is 0-127.
The y-axis modulation is controlled by the Pitch Bend Range.
The x-axis modulation saturates over a single cell size.
Originally written to use MIDI with Humatic nmj, mnet MIDI tools, but I found sending MIDI messages unreliable.
Looked at https://github.com/kshoji/USB-MIDI-Driver, but that is a Android<->USB MIDI device connector.
Could consider http://www.juce.com/ for their midi connectivity, but that seemed like a lot of extra work.
Switched to OSC based on this http://physcomp.org/tutorial-android-osc-communication/ and https://github.com/Gkxd/OSCTutorial/blob/master/app/src/main/java/com/dhua/osctutorial/MainActivity.java which uses http://www.illposed.com/software/javaosc.html
This seems to work, but network latency can sometimes be annoyingly high.
I believe "pressure" on an Android touchscreen is NOT directly related to how much pressure your finger is putting on the screen, but rather how large the area of contact your finger makes. When you lightly press on the screen, only a small area of your finger makes contact. When you press down hard, a larger area makes contact. If you try to press really hard on your screen and the area of finger contact does not change, there is no change in pressure reported to my app.
So, don't press so hard you break your screen!
The default OSC config works, but if you want to make your own simpler file to use, this should be all you need.
VKB_MIDI_NOTE i/vkb_midi/@/note/@
VKB_MIDI_CC i/vkb_midi/@/cc/@
VKB_MIDI_CHANNELPRESSURE i/vkb_midi/@/channelpressure
VKB_MIDI_PITCH i/vkb_midi/@/pitch
Wired tethering the Android device to the host PC should reduce latency, jitter, etc.
With the USB Cord plugged in, go to Settings -> More... -> Tethering & portable hotspot -> USB Tethering and enable tethering.
- On the Mac, this driver works for me http://joshuawise.com/horndis. See your server IP address in System Preferences -> Network.
- On the PC, it "just worked" to enable a Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing device in my Network and Internet -> Network Connections control panel.
- On Linux, TBD
Copyright (c) 2015, Roger Allen.
Distributed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE.txt file.
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