Help! Triggering many slots using computer keystrokes

albotnz · Post by **albotnz** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:40 pm

Hi guys, merry holidays and what not!

So I have a puzzle for you all: My band uses Live for beats, usually triggered live by our singer using a midi keyboard. I have a huge set with beats and other goodies for all of our songs in it. Each song's scenes and slots are triggered by midi notes on different channels, so switching songs is done by changing midi send channels on the keyboard. easy!

We're playing at a festival on new years, but our singer can't make it so our bassist's singing and I'm (guitarist) triggering beats - but my hands are too busy to use the midi keyboard! So I've made a foot controller from an old USB keyboard by taking off all of the keys except 8 or so, and glued big bits of cardboard to those to stomp on (I think I got the idea off another thread here, thanks mystery person!).

Here's the problem: the 8 buttons are enough for each song, but not for the whole set. And since they're not midi, I can't do my previous trick of changing MIDI channels to trigger different songs. Can anyone think of a way of quickly switching what events are triggered by the 8 buttons? My poor ibook can't handle playing all the tracks at once and just muting the ones I'm not using, and I don't want to have to load between each song. A program that could change the keystrokes into midi signals would be ideal, I think Midiox can do it but it's not available for OS X!

Sorry for the big post, but any help at all would be amazing, if only to put me on a new line of thought.

Thanks! -Alex

albotnz · Post by **albotnz** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:07 pm

In other words, does anyone know of a keystroke -> MIDI converter for OS X?

Help!!

chapelier fou · Post by **chapelier fou** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:44 am

I am sure it exists. Sorry , I am a pc user.
What I think is : you should have taken the number keys (but not a keypad) so you would have been able to use shift and alt.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:50 am

http://www.manyetas.com/creed/midikeys.html

This should do the job.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:36 am

You can plug multiple QWERTY keyboards into a Mac, and they're recognized as separate keyboards. Keymap Shift, Alt, and Alt-Shift separately in Live.

I use three keyboards when AV sequencing. One triggers audio, one triggers lighting clips and scenes and has Caps Lock pressed, and the third triggers video clips and scenes, and has the Alt key taped down. Use a fourth with Caps Locks and Alt if you want.

Note: Some Alt keystrokes won't work properly, such as those that are used for foreign characters (Alt-E, for example). There are still hundreds of keymappable keys that can be used on multiple keyboards.

Alternatively, there are tons of creative options available using dummy clips and virtual MIDI buses.

albotnz · Post by **albotnz** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:04 pm

AAaaaallllright!

Thanks Hoffman, I'd looked at that program but for some reason had missed that it was totally what I needed, what a spoon.

So for the record, I'm now using Midikeys as a keystroke ->MIDI converter. My next puzzle was to be able to use any of the keyboard's keys, not just the ones in the default layout. I did this by changing the KeyMaps.plist file in the midikeys package. By changing the numbers in that file to the key codes of the buttons I wanted to use (which I found using this program: http://www.manytricks.com/keycodes/ ) then midikeys accepted strokes from any key on the keyboard. Sweet success!!!

Thanks again, this is Seriously appreciated. Now to focus on the music side of things for monday night. All the best!

albotnz · Post by **albotnz** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:17 pm

Hey hambone, just saw your reply then. Sounds like a decent setup you're running! I think I'll stick with the midikeys solution though and switch songs using the midi program up/down buttons, as I only have one usb keyboard. And I've already painted it with tacky reflective paint! Oh yeah.

mucho thanks for your time anywho!