MIDI Kinetics Forum

Hi there. I'm not sure I'm calling it the right thing, but I'd like to build some visual meter level into my template. Currently, I have a simple, straight forward mixer set up (using it with Ableton) and it's all working great. But I'd like to see in real time some lights bouncing up and down along side of those faders. How do I do that? I'm not seeing it in the manual, but I may not know exactly what it is called. Or better yet, a YouTube video would be awesome if you know of one.

Much thanks!

You are touching a subject already discussed extensively in the forums and with not one absolute generic answer...

Things to keep in mind:

1.Out of the box, and besides Traktor, I personally do NOT know any other music application that sends "level meter" (the phrase you were looking for) values out as midi data.

2.With 1 in mind, its a matter of you trying to make your software send that data, and then capturing and displaying that data in Lemur is the easy part - the HARD part though is to make your DAW-software transmit volume level as midi.

3. That said, there have been succesful experiments by using the MCU (Mackie Control Protocol) which sends pre-specified midi data to represent volume level values - of course in an accuracy just enough to just show signal presence and not an actual "level meter" display you could really count on.

Search on the forums for "level meter" and you will surely bump into a thread where a user has posted a "working" Mackie emulation with level meters for Ableton.

edit: here's the Mackie level Meter implementation for Ableton by user wul
http://liine.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... ters#p7436

edit no2: As a sidenote, the strength of Lemur (that has actually turned me into an evangelist of it lol) is the vast posibilities covered by scripting - as a result, the manual can only offer the basic "logic" of how things work and how objects can interact with incoming OSC-midi messages or with each other. As such, you will never find specific solutions to specific "functions" like the one you asked in the manual. It all boils down to understanding the scripting language and using your inagination. At first this may seem daunting, but the truth is, its actually liberating! Its been months since I bought it and Im still scratching the surface of it - check out some of the Antonio Blanca stuff and you will know what I mean!

Hi AdamD.

I take it you're not using M4L and /or Mu then?

I've made some that hook into Mu and seem bang-on accurate, but I think they require an OSC input to work. I can help you out in building the things visually if you like though.

I do have mfl, but am not sure what mu is. In any case, I'd love your help with this. I also use touch osc and have a template that does indeed get metering levels sent back to it. But I just like lemur better.

is that touch OSC template accompanied with a m4l device, a PY script or something?

Hi
Have a look through the User Library - There are a number of implementation available there in various projects . . .
Check out the Levels and Volume Meters - it uses MFL and a MultiSlider as a meter . . .
Could probably develop the idea in any number of ways . . .

Cheers
MM

AdamD wrote:I do have mfl, but am not sure what mu is. In any case, I'd love your help with this. I also use touch osc and have a template that does indeed get metering levels sent back to it. But I just like lemur better.

This is Mu:

http://liine.net/en/products/lemur/premium/mu/

I'm trying to figure out the best / easiest way to deliver a working level meter to ya here - Mu is tricky to work with, one has to be careful in making additions not to mess up the OSC addressing for the entire template.

Okay - here's a very simple summed-level (left & right channels combined) meter for Mu.

I've included the levelmeter module itself, a modified component of Mu (from the M4L code) and a Mu template with the levelmeter module dropped where it needs to be so as not to mess up Mu itself.

Keep in mind this isn't a turnkey solution - you still have quite some work to do in order to integrate these properly (with Mu). The other option is to follow the M4L code down the rabbit-hole and gank as much of it as you need to integrate to your own template.

[edit: instructions for use]

Copy the modified "Mu.volumesObserver.maxpat" to the Resources \ Abstractions directory (where you have Mu 1.2 installed) and overwrite the existing one, obviously back up the old.

Drop the modified Mu template onto the Mu device in Live.

To see the levelmeter in action, you will have to bring up the mixer in Mu, as the levelmeters et al are gated off 'til in use as a performance optimisation in Mu.
As Macciza mentioned there are several ways to implement metering - this is just a little bit beyond the most basic, visually . . . left as an exercise for anyone to take further - and it can be!

Wow, this is way cool. I had no idea!!! Not sure if I'll be able to do this, but I love knowing that it can be done. And maybe I'll jump in.

You got it to work okay then?

It's more of a proof-of-concept than production-ready in this state, but if you look at the Mu.volumesObserver.maxpat you can see where I hooked into the output . . . and see that it would be easy to implement stereo meters using this technique and that entrypoint.