Musicians et al, Hyper Instrument Keyboard Link, WOW!

TY, agreed, the credit for this goes to Foolish and Botany of course.


Ahh, at this point we hit a slight snag, the system of playing back a sequence of notes stored in a notecard works really well for sustaining, slow attack / non-percussive insruments. If the Hyper-engine were applied to a piano, A) any lag and timing slips would be much more noticeable / annoying, and B) people would definately expect higher polyphony as this is a characteristic of the piano. (thanks for the suggestion tho Troy!)

Foolish requested 'Hyper-Panpipes', and to repay him for this great new interface, that will be the next Hyper-Instrument choice. And now we have a more intuitive method of playing them in real-time I have a few additional ideas I would like to try to implement.

Excellent! This why I joined SL (yes recently), Im a musician and all but the creative output from SL is quite frankly stunning as most of us know. The innovation is coming off the hook and obviously well noticed. Despite griefers, grid crashes and verification worries, SL is cutting edge and also worn in enough to be comfortable for musicians (and creative types in general) to come and try and make something happen.

I own several instruments in world now including a didgeridoo (duh!), flute, bass, guitar, violins (with two slaves!) and elven horn. I will buy more as time goes on because there is nothing cooler than being able to play an instrument in SL that I havent a hope of playing in RL. I really want to thank all the people who have made SL such an amazing place to become something you always wanted to be and oh so very much more.

SL itself is an inspiration, and thats a hard constant to pull off in any universe.. met or otherwise.

I've really been enjoying working with the cello composer edition (rushed out to get it after reading this thread lol).. Reminds me of my old Orchesta 90 days on the TRS-80, plugging in notes from sheet music in little coded files

hehe, now I can relate, I have similar 'fond' memories of ZX and VIC20's, hours of typing line after line of numbers, then sitting back to hear the 10 second masterpiece in glorious mono buzz.

Still Jaycatt, please consider sharing any songs with other owners, the flute and 'cello notecard-scores are interchangeable and a lot of people have dropped their scores on my sharing vendor for everyone to play, so there are loads there already also (Scafell/30/149/49).

Also, does anyone have any feedback on the Keyboard-Link software? We would be keen to get some feedback.

Cheers

Also, does anyone have any feedback on the Keyboard-Link software? We would be keen to get some feedback.

Foolish Frost and Botany Black

Foolish Frost and Botany Black did an outstanding job. Not being a "keyboard person", it will take a little while for me to get used to the keybaord map (There's something to be said for letter names on the keys).

I really like the way the "finger" moves over the keys that are pressed. And, if I get "off the keys" you can hear the tappy-tappy of the typing in the chat window so I can look down and re-orient my fingers. And it works equally well with the flute or the cello.

As many have said in this thread, the innovation and creativity here is SL is just amazing. Keep up the great work!

P.S. Sorry for the previous non-post. Need to make sure the keyboard mapper is OFF in the other window BEFORE typing in the forums.

So far, I have been able to load up java and have learned the following:

RealBasic is a bust for cross platform control of the mouse, so scratch that.
Java CAN do what I need, so I may not need help with this (in terms of money for software).

So far, I have tested the idea in general, and it seems to work. With a java program, I can make a version that will work on windows, mac, and even linux if we are lucky.

I just ask for patience, since before today, I never programmed in java.

Like I said though, it's already showing high hopes of working.

Pity I have to work for the next 4 days. So it's going to be a bit before I have further progress...

Hullo all! I've been researching this for probably over 100 hours, and searching just about every cross platform language I can think of for a solution for redesigning this windows key to SL interface to work in OSX (mac)...

<takes a deep breath>

I keep getting that it can't be done.

Let me explain:

Java, while it CAN control the mouse and keyboard, cannot hook into the API to read keypresses unless the active window. While I could work around this somewhat, I cannot make the java program become active again after it make SL active. Annoyingly, this cripples any attempt to work from here.

Python has similar hook problems.

RealBasic may be cross platform, but I keep getting statements that it needs outside help to control a mouse, and I'm equally not sure about hooking into the system to detect keystrokes.

Applescript seems to have a sad little issue with being able to move the mouse and click on a point on the screen. I'm not sure WHY this is missing, but it kind of kills it's use as well.

As you can see, I'm running into brick walls here, and am starting to get to the point of deciding that mac users will have to find thier own way to do this. I can only put in so much time researching before I toss in the towl...

Why am I mentioning this? because if any mac gurus are out there, I would like to hear your thoughts. I would LOVE to have a language that allows cross platform development with minimal rebuilding, and can deal with hooking into the APIs of both OSes. It's not a hard thing. Java does HALF of it. I just need the whole thing for it to work.

- Detect keypresses/mouse when not the active application.
- Click on the screen with the mouse.

Not hard. Not complex. Just these two simple things would allow it to happen.

Thoughts?

Is this a planned feature for the Hyper-Cello? I'm sitting here debating buying the Hyper-Cello right now but really like this feature. If this feature is added shortly, will I need to purchase an all new one to access the feature or is updating available?

These look excellent and really excited to get one!

Wish I knew!

-Ghoti

First off, awesome to see more artistic projects coupling with Second Life! I'm actually playing with an Max/MSP+Jitter patch for SL in my off time, as SL is a great tool for digital installation works.

As for your issues with picking up keystrokes, might I suggest checking out the codebase to Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net)? They have to do pretty much exactly what you're looking for across multiple platforms, and it's where I got a lot of my ideas in terms of input capture and rerouting.

This IS interesting to me Cube, very. Is there anywhere I could find out more information about your work and findings in this area, do you blog it for example? I know Max/MSP very well and to be able to feed a data stream to it from SL (and visa versa) would add a whole new angle for me.

Also, to answer a few questions from earlier in this thread:


Hi Intolerable, I would not normally charge for an update. However, I do not currently have any plans to add a 2nd HUD to the cello ATM. Having said this, if you do buy a hyper cello, please IM me, I may have the answer you are looking for that will allow you to do just this. Afterall, a real cello can double stop (ie. play more than one not at a time accross its strings).


Since making this statement, the Hyper-Panpipes have been completed. They have the same functionality as the other Hyper-Instruments plus, they include an additional 'Over-Blow' articulation. ie. - Volume settings from 0.01 to 1.0 go from quiet to loud as usual, but unique to this instrument, a setting between 1.01 and 2.0 will also change volume from quiet to loud with the addition of a more breathy attack sound.

Foolish, if you're having difficulties with setting up QWERTY keyboards to work with the hyper instruments, why not drop that approach and go purely with the MIDI keyboard approach? Whoever cracks that would have a script module that would prolly sell like hot cakes to every instrument maker in SL. FWIW, there's plenty of dirt-cheap 2, 3 & 4 - octave controller keyboards aimed specificially at 'non-musicians creating music' such as the Korg K25, M-Audio Keystation 49E, M-Audio 02, Edirol PC160A, EMU Xboard 25, Alesis Photon 25, Novation Remote 25 LE, etc. Seeing how most of them use a USB connector there would be no need for the end user to buy a separate MIDI interface.

I got so excited whenI saw this thread - I adore my hyper-flute! Unfortunately, the link says it has expired. Could anyone point me in the direction of this download, please?

Sorry. Current version is here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/2822998/50253f7c/hyperflute_keyboard_control_program.html

Download button is at the bottom...

As to the library, will have to see what can be done with it. I've got so much on my plate it kind of sad. Especially considering the number of hours I put into try to make a cross platform version. It's really rather tiring.

The closest I came was Java. It had a Robot function that can take over the mouse and such, but it had in inherant problem with capturing keystrokes when not the focused program. I even toyed with having the program place itself back into focus each time after it clicked in the HUD, but this became erratic in practice.

Like I said, when I have freetime again, I'll look into mac/Linux solutions, but I have yet to find one that works properly.

Thank you for your continued effort FF.

Great, will IM you next chance, as I bought one the other night. Haven't had a chance to play with it beyond checking out the notecards that came with it but sounds and looks excellent! Very impressive!

It should be relatively easy to convert MIDI into keypressed via the interface, but that would sorta spoil the whole idea of playing live.

If you wanted to play a MIDI song, just "render" it with your soundcard and upload it as an MP3 or WAV file.

I'm cool with it, but she never got in touch with me. I WILL wish her luck on cross platforming it. I ran into trouble like you would never believe.

It's also for download at http://www.sldrama.com/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item4

Enjoy!