GR-55 - Marc Benigni's GR-55 TouchOSC Navigator for iPad

Started by MCK, February 17, 2011, 03:05:24 AM

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MCK

I've been thinking about putting together a simple iPhone / iPad solution to drive the GR-55. Not like an editor but like a Navigator and short-cut pad etc. I think this can be achieved by the following combination :

The MIDI codes Gumtown is discovering through sheer hardwork.

Arduino + MIDI patch
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9219
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9598

TouchOSC running on iPhone/iPad

or custom developed app.

This is not actually a novel idea as it has been done before :

See the following video for a prototype



which has since become a full-blown package now marketed as the The Missing Link OSC/MIDI Translator

I just want to do it for the GR-55... More to come.

vanceg

There really should be "nothing to this" (will take some time and effort, of course).  I totally agree that the pieces are there: Just run TouchOSC, communicate with the Missing Link, program some buttons or faders to send the appropriate MIDI commands to the GR-55 and you should be good to go.

Same is/should be true for the VG-99 or... gosh, any of your gear!  For my VG-99 I'm skipping the Missing Link because I have Touch OSC connected to OSCulator running on the Mac and then MIDI out of the Mac (via USB) into the VG-99.  Blam-blam: Pretty straight ahead.

MCK

Yup. Only piece is I don't want to buy the missing link. I want to go with the open source hardware mentioned above and shown doing pretty much the same thing in the video above. Will report back soon.

Elantric

#3
Time is money.

I fully intend to use the missing link to control my GR-55 and VG-99 when it arrives later this month.

All the tools are described here
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=2966.msg17935#msg17935

MCK

#4
Indeed. I will course-correct. Will order the Missing Link since I value the time & effort put in by its developer and truly wish to support its development while walking on a parallel path with my open source stuff for my personal learning & development. I think best of both worlds for me. And indeed time is a lot of money! I hear you.

Order placed. Anyone know when these things will ship?

Elantric

#5
MCK,
Not trying to tell you what to do, I think everyone needs to follow the path that works best for them. It would be nice to have a VGuitar focused version of what the Missing link does, there are so few folks in our VGuitar world that we may be waiting for flying cars before an "off the shelf wireless control VGuitar product" arrives that meets our needs.
I say go for the home brew arduino solution.


MCK

#6
Your post was the voice of common sense for me. I will still work on the open-source solution but the MissingLink will allow me to play sooner. You know me, lots of projects in the making all the time and not enough time. So taking the parallel path is the best compromise for me.

EDIT : Flying Cars... Yumm. You're giving me ideas again... D'oh. More projects!

stueym

As an affirmed i-phone/i-pad user, I would love even the most basic of control of my VG/GR available wirelessly.  I already have a microphone stand mount for my i-pad and the prospect of being able to manage the GR in particular with hands is useful.  I love having the ability to manipulate the VG on its stand despite the overhead.  I will post pictures of my set-up (in the appropriate place) as I use it at church and you will see its designed for me to interact with my hands between songs (typically not during those it has happened!)

All power to your elbows lads.  Looking forward to you leveraging the power of these add-on's as they develop.

macjones

I have quite a few midi programs on my iPad and iPhone that use freeware wireless server apps to send midi wirelessly (any midi)

Granted, this necessitates a computer stage in the link, but i would have one hooked up anyway. The Missing link would be great if you wanted to eliminate this stage, but otherwise I would think it would be redundant.

MCK

Quote from: macjones on February 17, 2011, 09:42:51 AM
The Missing link would be great if you wanted to eliminate this stage, but otherwise I would think it would be redundant.

The idea is for those times you are out there with your guitar and the GR=55 and want some more navigational control than what is offered through the pedals. That's all.

armatronix

#10
MCK: Elantric invited me here a little while ago, I'm the inventor and maker of the Missing Link. (Elantric and I shared an office together in past lives).

The prototype is, if you look closely, Arduino + 2 shields.  The cost for the components is ~$100.  That's if you can even buy the wifi shield, they are always in short supply.  That may be the biggest hurdle.

So I guess you have to ask yourself if it's worth $50 to have to figure out the rest of it (which is non-trivial IMO).

The Mising Link does have thru holes for programming headers on the PCB, so if you're comfortable with AVR programming you'll have the full hardware set, in an attractive enclosure, and be able to customize it as you see fit.  With USB MIDI to boot, if you can figure out how to interface it.  Note that re-programming the ML will void any warranties ;)

All of what I just said is rhetorical, of course.  We really do think we've created something that lots of different people will be able to use in lots of different ways, we've made it as versatile and capable as possible, and we think it's a great value for all the stuff it does.  We're really looking forward to seeing how it gets used.

As vanceg and macjones have said, it is redundant if you have a computer on stage (but it may be the good kind of redundancy if your experience with computers on stage is anything like mine has been).

The Missing Link is capable of outputting any MIDI code, including SYSEX and RPN/NRPN, so doing a full implementation for the GR-55 (or any other MIDI device, for that matter) with TouchOSC shouldn't be too difficult at all.  I'll even help you get started.  I just finished a full iPad SYSEX editor for the Yamaha DX7 (which is sweet), it took me an evening.

Let me know if you have any more questions or concerns, I'm happy to answer them.

-Hans

MCK

Hi Hans,

This is wonderful! Thanks for doing this for our community. Please don't read any of my blabber above as a sign of agression. I just love tinkering myself and that's why I was thinking I would try and put together a solution myself following your lead.

For all the reasons you mentioned in your post and more (supporting innovation) I already placed an order for the Missing Link. Can't wait to receive it. This is all very exciting!

In the meanwhile I do have the wifi enabled Arduino setup with the midi shield at home so I will see how far I can get walking in your footsteps. Having a copy of your proto-type sketch would be wonderful but I full well understand if you don't wish to share it. No hard feelings.

The main issue we have now for the GR-55 is the lack of MIDI documentation from Roland. In the meanwhile a member of our community, Gumtown is doing a great job of reverse engineering the codes but as you can imagine it is a very slow & tiring process. Hopefully Roland will release the codes sooner than later.

Thanks for your offer to help with the GR-55 configuration for the Missing Link. It will be very very helpful.

All the best to you and your business. You've got a great solution with an even greater name! Kudos.


gumtown

Here is midi structure *.xml document with everything that has been manually mapped out to date (65% complete), the file is best viewed in 'grid view' from an xml document reader (like Altova XMLSpy).

http://grfloorboard.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/grfloorboard/midi.xml?view=log
all the editor code is there, as it is opensource too.
http://grfloorboard.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/grfloorboard/

The GR-55 program changes are just standard Bank number, Bank change, patch change commands with patch range from 0 to 127 before incrementing the bank change number.
The editor under construction will show you the bank, bank change and patch midi data on the botton status bar,  as well as any sysex parameter change data, if the editor is set to deBug mode from the preferences menu.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

MCK

Gumtown, this is amazing. Thank you very much for sharing all this with us. Most appreciated.

MCK

This is my understanding based on the video and the material on the missing link website.

Elantric


ddlooping

Gumtown, could you let me know if the "Images" folder in the SCM Repositories is the one containing the images used in the editor?
They do seem like old versions.
I'd like to make some modifications and submit them to you. :)
i.e, cleaning up some of the buttons edges...
Diaz Guitars (work in progress)

gumtown

Quote from: ddlooping on February 25, 2011, 08:06:05 PM
Gumtown, could you let me know if the "Images" folder in the SCM Repositories is the one containing the images used in the editor?
They do seem like old versions.
I'd like to make some modifications and submit them to you. :)
i.e, cleaning up some of the buttons edges...
I have just updated the SCM repository and added the *.psd main layout file, and deleted some other crap. What is there is what has been used in the editor.
I know the buttons are a bit rough, they were quickly box cropped from a previous image you posted on this site.

I must have a look at some of the other language variants the Qt framework used in the GR-55 FloorBoard editor, they have Meego, Symbian, and Windows CE/Mobile, and Embedded Linux.
The source code should build on these systems without much modification, except for the midi sub system.
I have also been reading up on some successfully porting/building Qt applications on what ever that iPad apple mac thingy applications are too.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

MCK

Gumtown, I use an IOS development tool called Corona which uses Lua as its core language. There is a QT to Lua translator I came across on the web but don't know how much use this path would be since as you mention midi piece is totally different. For now going wireless via Missing Link seems to be the fastest option as you simply use existing TouchOSC and get going. Order placed for the Missing Link and will report results once I receive the unit. With your MIDI codes the setup should be quick.

ddlooping

gumtown, I'm adding some cleaned-up buttons to the original editor thread. ;)
Diaz Guitars (work in progress)

MCK

Quick update on this topic. Waiting for MissingLink shipment and I didn't have any time to put into my homebrew Arduino wireless solution so going down the easier path...

iPad camera connection kit delivered today. Edirol UM-1 plugged in to the iPad camera connection kit I ran the free Midi Monitor app from IOSMIDI and made sure the UM-1 is recognized. Check! We're in business.

Then I bought the Midi Touch app from the same company. This app can send CC , PC, Notes, RPN & NRPN & SYSEX via wireless or USB and allows you to setup your screen with controllers. Will start experimenting now. This will be a wired solution but a solution nevertheless.

Updates to follow.

MCK

Quote from: gumtown on February 17, 2011, 10:02:30 PM
The GR-55 program changes are just standard Bank number, Bank change, patch change commands with patch range from 0 to 127 before incrementing the bank change number.
The editor under construction will show you the bank, bank change and patch midi data on the botton status bar,  as well as any sysex parameter change data, if the editor is set to deBug mode from the preferences menu.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

Gumtown, this is great help! Thanks to your lead, I was able to verify that the setup I now have works. I was able to create a button on Midi Touch that sends a Sysex string to the GR-55 which changes GR-55 to a patch that I hardcode the button for. Its alive! Now the trick for me is to determine what makes sense to cram into an iPad screen... Thanks once again for your willingness to share.

Elantric

Quote
Gumtown, this is great help! Thanks to your lead, I was able to verify that the setup I now have works. I was able to create a button on Midi Touch that sends a Sysex string to the GR-55 which changes GR-55 to a patch that I hardcode the button for. Its alive! Now the trick for me is to determine what makes sense to cram into an iPad screen... Thanks once again for your willingness to share.


Sign me up as a Beta Tester!

MCK

You bet! Did you get your iPad2 yet? Oh wait, its not March 11th yet where you live... Not much more to wait...

Meanwhile lets talk about what you all think would make sense to have on an iPad interface. Obviously space & capability will be limited compared to a full blown editor tool that Gumtown is coding. I'm envisaging this to be more of a quick navigation aid for the live situations. Thoughts?

xile

MCK - Can Midi Touch send Roland Sysex with the checksum calculated?  I think that is required.

xile