Guide: How to Use a Gamepad/Joystick as a Foot Pedal.

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ultramexican
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Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:48 pm

Guide: How to Use a Gamepad/Joystick as a Foot Pedal.

Post by ultramexican » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:56 pm

Here's a simple guide from a very poor college student who currently cannot afford a fancy MIDI foot pedal controller. If you guys want screenshots I can certainly update this. Feedback is welcome.

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Okay, after jumping through several hoops and endless searching on various forums, I got it to work.

I am using a simple 8-button gamepad that uses one of the communication ports in my computer (not USB) and it shows up in my device manager as a Genius G08 Device. It's just a gamepad that looks like a PS2 controller.

Here's what I had to do:

1. Download a program called Rejoice which can translate joystick/gamepad buttons into MIDI commands.

http://www.fireballtrailers.com/rejoice/

Help documentation/setup for Rejoice: http://www.fireballtrailers.com/rejoice/help.html

2. Download a program called Midi Yoke which emulates MIDI ports on your computer so that the data from Rejoice has somewhere to go through.

http://www.midiox.com/

- Go to midiox.com
- from the menu on the left click Midi Yoke
- click download
- select appropriate OS
- install (requires restart)

3. Download a program called Bome's MIDI Translator which receives the MIDI commands and translates them into keystrokes on your keyboard.

http://www.bome.com/midi/translator/[/b]

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Okay, once you have those programs installed, here is the setup.

1. Run Rejoice. Your joystick should use the Microsoft PC-joystick driver. If not, select appropriate driver. Now we have to chose a MIDI out, so we need to route the inputs from the gamepad into a virtual MIDI port that we created with Midi Yoke. So at the bottom of Rejoice click "Route MIDI" and select one of the Midi Yoke ports. (I chose MIDI Yoke NT: 1)

2. Run Bome's Midi Translator. In the top menu click on Midi In and select the MIDI Yoke port you chose for Rejoice's output. You don't need a MIDI out (the "out" will be virtual keystrokes).

Bome uses "translators" which are behaviors you want Bome to perform after hitting a button the gamepad. You're gonna want to map one translator per button, max. So click add translator, name it, press enter.

Double-click the new translator and set up Incoming. The incoming signal will be the button press, but thanks to Rejoice it will get to Bome's as a MIDI signal. Click Capture MIDI and hold one of the buttons down on the gamepad. A value should appear in the field. Without letting go of the button, uncheck Capture MIDI.

Now to set up the Outgoing. Click the outgoing tab and then the Key Stroke tab. In this field you can tell Bome what keyboard presses you want to happen when the appropriate gamepad button is pressed. When you're done click Apply and Close.

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Phew. Now you have a
Gamepad --> into MIDI signal --> into MIDI translator--> into keystrokes

You can map pretty much any function in Live using the Key Mapper.

With this setup I was able to finally have a "Kid Beyond" setup. I simply arm all my tracks for record, and designate the gamepad's buttons as:

Button 1: Launch track 1
Button 2: Launch track 2
...etc...

I play guitar, and therefore have my hands full. This allows me to hit Button 1 with my toe to start recording AND stop recording when I'm done, leaving the clip looping. When I'm ready to add another loop on top of that I hit button 2.

I hope this will help at least one other person get a live looping setup for very very cheap.

Thanks for reading!

Sonarcade
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Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 10:09 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA USA

Post by Sonarcade » Sun Feb 04, 2007 3:39 am

this is a great idea as I had just gotten a gamepad, but apparently that link is dead. Is there any way that you could attach the file that was once up? Thanks.
http://www.myspace.com/anschauung

Dell Inspiron 7520, Ipad 2

dex.pdx
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:59 pm

Funny...

Post by dex.pdx » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:01 pm

Funny finding this thread, I just put an ad on craigslist looking for someone to donate to me a free gamepad.
My plan is took take the guts of device and stick it in a hammond project box then rewrite the buttons to momentary SPTD switches so it works like a real foot controller.

It does suck that I can't download rejoice though...

zven
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Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 11:04 am
Location: Hamburg
Contact:

Post by zven » Wed May 30, 2007 11:09 am

this is awesome! works realy great with a ps2 gamepad!
Thanx for the howto!

zven
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Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 11:04 am
Location: Hamburg
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Post by zven » Wed May 30, 2007 11:44 am

Im using the axis Keys of the gamepad with the Keymapper for left, right, up, down and the x button for Enter, so i can navigate through my clips and start and stop the clips individually just using 5 buttons.

Patch
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Location: Bristol, UK

Post by Patch » Wed May 30, 2007 3:43 pm

ReJoice

No need to thank me.

zven
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Contact:

Post by zven » Thu May 31, 2007 8:59 pm

Patch wrote:ReJoice

No need to thank me.
course! But the tutorial helped me :-D

Is anyone using LiveSticks from:
http://trip.m78.com/livesticks-e.html

friend_kami
Posts: 2255
Joined: Mon May 29, 2006 10:10 pm

Post by friend_kami » Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:24 am

ohyeah. finally got my old sidewinder microcrap controller up and running.
now, if only i could get tablet 2 midi to work properly with my trust tablet.

damn, no sleep for me.

lauschepper
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:03 pm
Location: Germany

Post by lauschepper » Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:58 pm

*edit*[i cant open rejoice, im getting a "runtime error "6" : overflow" message, has anyone got the same problems?!] solved this problem

got the next one :)

everythins runnin now, rejoice exactly displays the buttons i push (im using a xbox 360 controller) every single button tap is shown correctly.

but in "bome" trying when i mark the "capture midi" button and push a button on the xbox controller nothing happens!

please someone help!

logic_user99
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Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:58 pm
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by logic_user99 » Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:42 pm

Does anyone know how to get a USB gamepad working as a MIDI controller on a Mac? I really fancy the idea of having something that 'hands on' to mash up breaks an' junk.

All of these little MIDI apps just seem to be for PC... *sulk*
Macbook | Live 7.0.18 |

forge
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Location: Queensland, AU
Contact:

Post by forge » Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:47 pm

Glove PIE is very powerful for this type of thing

click the link in my sig to check it out

VampireTNA
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Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:26 pm

Post by VampireTNA » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:34 am

lauschepper wrote:*edit*[i cant open rejoice, im getting a "runtime error "6" : overflow" message, has anyone got the same problems?!] solved this problem
I dug up this thread as i am encountering the same problem. Does any one know the way to solve it???

friend_kami
Posts: 2255
Joined: Mon May 29, 2006 10:10 pm

Post by friend_kami » Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:37 pm

i had the same problem and after some googling i found what i thought was a solution but didnt work.
however i managed to make it work anyways using the same solution, but the ddl from another program, in this case glovepie.

what you do is that you download and isntall glovepie, then you have a dll file called p5.dll (or something similar to that), copy the one from glovepie, and paste it in the rejoice folder, overwriting the one that shipped with rejoice. worked for me anyways ;)
VampireTNA wrote:
lauschepper wrote:*edit*[i cant open rejoice, im getting a "runtime error "6" : overflow" message, has anyone got the same problems?!] solved this problem
I dug up this thread as i am encountering the same problem. Does any one know the way to solve it???

obeyendevor
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Post by obeyendevor » Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:38 pm

hey logic_user99 and other mac users:

DOwnload USB Overdrive X. It converts any gamepad input to keyboard buttons. the free trial version works 100% you just need to wait 10 seconds to begin using it. Very reliable program and works with individual programs.
iBook G4 1.5GB RAM, Live 8 APC Edition, Reason 4.0, APC-40, UC-33, Trigger Finger
www.e1beats.com

VampireTNA
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:26 pm

Post by VampireTNA » Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:03 pm

friend_kami wrote:copy the one from glovepie, and paste it in the rejoice folder, overwriting the one that shipped with rejoice. worked for me anyways ;)
:? Unfortunatelly it does not work for me... After an hour or so the "overflow" message apears and rejoice crashes.

I also tried to delete or rename it (i always rebboted) but still the same (also the dll from glovepie causes rejoice to exit! without a warning when the export or import buttons are pressed). I run rejoice exe in win98 mode but still it crashes.

I guess that i will write my own code in glovepie after all. I already uploaded a simple file in the !yahoo group: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/wIsuSYUesT ... Simple.PIE

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