Ableton Forum

Many thanks to Machinate (Andreas) for writing a Max Patch to allow me to use a gamepad as a midi control device. I will be using the gamepad and the patch next Wednesday on Isola Di La Maddalena (Sardinia) for a live interactive set. The audience will be using the gamepad to generate midi information and I will be playing along with them (?)... I will be using Ableton Live to pull the whole thing together. Got no idea if this is going to work and I am spending most of my time in the bathroom rather than putting a set together. Looking forward to producing solids again after next Wednesday night.

Anyone who is interested can find my very first experiment with the gamepad at http://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/d ... ntent=song

Recorded live using the Gamepad, Reaktor, Midi Yoke and Live.

Thanks once again for your help and patience Machinate.

Word

The Force runs strong within Machinete.

Sounds cool! I've always been interested in interactivity, ever since I saw someone ten years or so ago throwing a big inflatable ball into the crowd that triggered a MIDI event every time somebody hit it.

I'm working on doing the same with a wireless Playstation Dance Mat and a Playstation>USB adapter, which maps the Dance Mat pads to ASCII keystrokes without any additional programming. I'm planning on letting the crowd trigger lighting, video, and audio clips, even do their own on-the-fly mashups.

It's just a cheapy plastic dance mat, but if I decide to do more, I'm going to pick up one of the arcade-style metal ones: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... s_id=8082&

Have fun... and good luck with the solids!

hambone1 - how much do I love the idea of a midi-triggering dance mat!!! Please keep us posted on how this is going - I may well steal that idea!

(Hey - great idea for keep fit, too! Banging out drum patterns using the dance mat!)

How are you planning on converting the data from the dance mat into ascii?

Patch wrote:How are you planning on converting the data from the dance mat into ascii?

The Playstation>USB adapter driver does it for you. Works on both Mac and PC, and lets you assign any ASCII keystroke to the nine pads: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... s_id=3833&. Use MIDI OX, Plogue, etc if you want MIDI instead.

I'm using one of these: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... s_id=7406& to control my remote pan/tilt/zoom cameras for VJing through Live.

There are some really interesting (and some wild and wacky... like this one... tons of buttons, joysticks, etc: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... s_id=2519&) PS, Nintendo, XBox, etc controllers that would work great with Live, many of them wireless.

so wait... with that playstation usb thing we could plug any usb game controller into the computer and have it trigger events (I'm assuming that means letters and arrows and such) ??????

Johnisfaster wrote:so wait... with that playstation usb thing we could plug any usb game controller into the computer and have it trigger events (I'm assuming that means letters and arrows and such) ??????

Yep. No hardware adapter needed if your controller is USB.

Use http://carvware.com/gamepadcompanion.html, which now works with Bluetooth devices.

I've touted it previously, but still: I wrote a Synthedit VST that takes joystick/keypress input from a Playstation style USB controller and directly maps that to midi CCs and note on/offs. It even has Faderfox style logic to allow you to scroll tracks/rows and remap the joysticks to track local control, just like the Faderfox.

It actually wasn't that hard, since Dave Haupt has a joystick synthedit module available on his homepage.

I guess it only will work with that specific Logitech pad though. Functionality is very much hard coded.

So an ASCII input would map like a second keyboard? No change in Live settings necessary, just use the keyboard learn function and dance out a funky beat, lighting, robotics, sharks with laser beams on their foreheads?

<furiously whips out credit card>

YEE-HAW!!!

I'ma buy me a dancemat and one of those converters!!!

...Then watch me BURN Kid Beyond by beatbox layering and breakdancing (as well as the verse, the beat, and the bass) AT THE SAME TIME...

That's right, folks - the dancemat is a foot controller!

DeadlyKungFu wrote:So an ASCII input would map like a second keyboard? No change in Live settings necessary, just use the keyboard learn function and dance out a funky beat, lighting, robotics, sharks with laser beams on their foreheads?

<furiously whips out credit card>

Just like another ASCII keyboard, at least on a Mac. Plug in as many as you want, until you use up the whole ASCII keyset, function keys, numeric keypad characters, alt+, shift-alt+, etc... lots!

Not too sure about PC, though.

On my PC desktop I have a connected keyboard/mouse and a wireless keyboard/mouse (GREAT for 2 people using 1 DAW at the same time) and they live together just fine, this would be the same thing.

Not too sure about PC, though.

That was the sound of my heart breaking...

...Ah well - I'm sure it would've been too difficult scratchin' and doin' the runnin' man at the same time anyway.

...and they live together just fine, this would be the same thing.

...and his heart was mended. Now - where did I put that Adidas tracksuit?