GuruBlog

I made a first quick test with sonic pi's upcoming midi functionality and created a short launchpad lightshow using my launchpad mini

This is a recording of a jam session - using my moog mother, 0-Coast, volca bass, volca beats and Bitwig studio

... or how i made my launchpad pro talk to my 0-coast via a trs-midi cable.

Recently some instruments and controllers started to use trs-jacks for midi instead of the traditional 5-pin Din jacks - which I really like - unfortunately there is no standard wiring for these midi-trs-jacks (yet?) so some vendors map the tip to pin 5 and the ring to pin 4 of the Din cable - some vendors do it the other way round :-/

I have a novation launchpad pro and a 0-coast sitting on my desk next to each other (see photo) and unfortunately novation and makeNoise used different mapping methods

So to make sure the two devices will be able to talk to each other I took a trs-cable and swapped the wires for tip and ring on one side now I have a special midi cable that allows the Launchpad to send midi data to the 0-coast and everybody is happy :-)

I recorded a jam session using a Volca Bass, a Volca Keys, a Streichfett, 2 Launchpads, u-he ACE and Bitwig Studio. I learned that I need to place my camera very carefully when recording these sessions to prevent my neon-lights or the launchpad led repeat frequency to interact with my camera. And I learned that a DSLR is very unforgiving to dust on a synth :-)

I recorded a new jam session using my volcas, my kaospad mini, bitwig-studio and my launchpad.

The bass sequence was created using the stepsequencer in bitwig and is played on the volca keys. (dont let your self fool by the name, the keys can make really awesome basslines)

The arpegios are created using the volca bass and the kaospad mini. I used the bitwig arpeggio note effect and enter the notes using the launchpad.

For this session I used the novation launchpad step sequencer for bitwig to create sequences for my volca synths (hence the name)

also on soundcloud

I created a small chuck script that makes ardour jump to a marker using osc messages. These messages get triggered by the midi signals created by my launchpad mini. I also synced my volca bass to the track using midi-clock. Unfortunately ardour doesn´t send midi sync signals when playing in loop mode. So I created a midi track and sent the same note that my chuck script uses to trigger the "jump-to-marker-1" signal to create the loop.

The lower 5 glowing buttons control the mute state of the first 5 tracks.

you can download my chuck code after this video.

All the sounds except the drum loop have been created using a volca bass or a volca keys. The bass sequence is the same I used in my last blogpost only played slower.

Most launchpad videos feature cool effects running on a launchpad. There are several tutorials on how to make such effects using ableton live. But since my launchpad is connected to a linux box this doesn´t help me much. So I wrote a short chuck script that reacts to the midi events sent by the launchpad and creates an arpeggiator effect to light up the leds. The color can be influenced by changing the velocity.

This script works with a launchpad S or a launchpad mini.

here is a short video that shows my script in action

I wrote a pure-data patch that allows me to use my launchpad mini to play my synthesizers. The scales use a similar layout to ableton push (hence the name pushy). To translate between the default midi mapping and the push layout I first used a div and a mod operation to find out what row and column a pressed button was in. Then I calculate the offset for each row to implement the quater shift everytime you go up one row. Then I use a puredata table that holds the scale to be played (currently major and minor) to create the midi-number. The base tone can be shifted up and down by 12 semitones using the E and F button or by 1 semitone using the C and D buttons.

To connect it to my midi equipment I use jack on my linux box and wire it to my synths using qjackctl.

you can download my puredata file here

I also recorded a short loop using the launchpad and my mininova