Show midi target status in main window

[dalgaard]

Hello,

Is there a way to monitor the Midi target status in the main window of Lemur?

On rare occasions, Lemur looses the connection with my interface, I believe due to vibrations on stage. Anyway, it's usually quickly fixed, but if the connection drops during a show, it will be too late by the time I find out, since there is no error message displayed. When I go into settings, the midi target has turned red, but there doesn't seem to be a way of being informed of the status of connections in the main window, or getting an error message when the connection drops.

Can anyone help me with this?

[Macciza]

Hi
No direct way of monitoring that status afaik but . . .

What I have done before to show that midi comms are going or not is to set an extra track in Live or similar that simply sends a 1/2 note MIDI note/CC pulse.
Then in Lemur set up an Led or something to show that it is receiving that pulse so you at least know stuff is coming back in to Lemur
Taking this a step further you could set up a similar thing out of Lemur - send a similar pulse from Lemur then use feedback from Live to return it

If you are using other software then you have to work out a similar scheme that will work with what you are using . . .
This is the basic principal used for things like Ping on computer networks . .

Hope that helps

[Softcore]

Macciza, this was genious!!!!

[Macciza]

Thank you ,
But I guess the real credit should go via Mike Muus, to the US Navy Submarine division, and ultimately to Bats and/Dolphins . . .
I just kinda borrowed the idea . . .
Cheers
PS I guess one could also make a M4L device that 'listens' for a 'ping' and responds appropriately . ..
Also can be used via OSCto monitor that connection too . . .

[dalgaard]

Thanks for the suggestion and the help. The ping-like scenario would do exactly what I need.

However, I have this far been using Lemur in a pretty basic way, generating Midi messages to control Ableon by using pads, sliders and so forth. Nothing comes out of Lemur this far, unless I press the screen.. Automatically generated messages, and Midi going back into Lemur and have it change the state of a LED or some other object, isn't something I have any experience in. What would be the most efficient way to generate a Ping message of some sort, and have an
Object respond to it once it comes back into Lemur? Maybe a green light that turns red if there is no Ping message coming in for a few seconds.

I would love to dive deeper in the app sometime and work it out myself, but I need to solve this problem a little urgently...

Any ideas, or suggestions for modules to use would be an enouous help!

Thanks!

[Macciza]

Hi
Had a little hack at something new on this last night and heres two general use case solutions . . .

^^SyncEcho.jzlib

^^MacPing??

(3.08 KiB) Downloaded 95 times

Its a small module that gives feedback on incoming Sync,
and also sends out a midi note (0/Ch16) and shows an Echo (just set a delay at 500ms on track)

Sync light glows Orange'ish (Red & Green) depending on stability of incoming Sync (more or less) . . .
Echo light glows Green as it sends 500ms pulse then Orange'ish as it receives feedback . ..

Bit of hack but it kind of works - it does give some feedback of current state
Not sure if it will always show fail-state properly would need to do more testing

MM

[dalgaard]

Extraordinary! Hats off.

I'll add it to my setup and give some feedback in a few days on how it performs!

[dalgaard]

Hi Macciza,

I've been using the Ping system for a few days now, and it really works well. It's very reassuring to have a visual indication that the connection between Lemur and Live is working properly.

I tweaked a few little things; there wasn't any use of the feedback when Lemur sends out the signal. That all goes on within the app, so there no reason to believe that won't work. Instead, the Led object now only flashes when Lemur receives the signal coming back from Ableton Live. The expression generating the outgoing Ping Midi note is on Project level, so the signal is sent constantly, and each Page has a Led object showing the incoming note.

The computer and audio interface is off stage, and another advantage of this system is that it's very convenient for the backline guy next to the computer rig to see the incoming signal from the iPad on the computer screen, and on the computer's Midi interface. Like you say, the concept is very basic dolphin/bat-like, but it creates an easy way to verify that all is working well on several levels.

Thanks for all the help, it really solved my problem.

[dalgaard]

Hi Macciza,

I've made a little update to the Ping system.

It's still sending out a Midi note on channel 16 on Target 0, and expects the same note to come back in on Target 0.

A red Led that turns green upon receiving the incoming Ping signal, and stays green for a few seconds. If there is no incoming signal it turns red again, signalling a faulty connection.

There is also a button to turn the outgoing Ping signal on and off (it's important to have no outgoing signal from time to time, especially when doing Midi mapping assignments in Live).

I have Aliases for the button and the led on all my interface pages, it's does a good job of reassuring me that the connection between Lemur and Live is working.

It could probably be a little more streamlined, but I'm a complete beginner as far as scripting goes... it's exciting to discover all the things that can be done with variables and multiline scripting!