GUI example with synth and soundfx selection ?

[johncohn]

Steven,
This is not so much an issue as a request.… I am really enjoying node-red-contribute-music… I'm using it to (re)build a 30 foot keyboard for a popular band. I'm wondering if you happen to have a simple example of a node red dashboard fragment that prompts the user to try different sense and effects… I was about to write one but I figured at some point someone may have already created one but I haven't seen it. Do you have such a thing?

Again very nice job on this… Have a great holiday
-John Cohn

[johncohn]

Steven,
I have several usage questions now that I'm digging in deeper. Where would you prefer those questions?… Here in this issues I get? Or another public forum? I'm specifically trying to figure out a way of passing in the name of a tuned synthesizer. E.g. "piano" versus "ambi_choir", etc . What I'm trying to do is randomly assign an instrument to various phases of an interactive performance.… I'd like to do it programmatically rather than through user selection.… So I need to be able to switch which key on this 30 foot keyboard plays what instrument when struck. .. Please let me know where the best place to ask questions like this.. I really appreciate all the work you've put into this!…
-jc

[stevenaeola]

Hi John,
thanks for your interest and your question. It's fine to ask questions on here - you could put them on the node red forum at https://discourse.nodered.org/ in the General category but it's possible I might miss them there.

[stevenaeola]

I've certainly used the dashboard for controlling volume, tempo etc, generating random sounds etc and it works fine in a public setting, as long as you have a publically accessible IP address. Do you mean a dashboard as in https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-dashboard or something else?

[stevenaeola]

The project sounds great! How are the keys being played (as a matter of interest)? For programmatically selecting which instrument gets played, probably the easiest way is to use a standard switch node with outputs leading to synths for each of the types you want to use. If each note played is to be randomised you could use a JSonata expression and use the $random function. If you want to stick with the same synth being used for a while you could use a sequencer node (from n-r-c-music) with the order being randomised. Then you can either use the same instrument for a given number of bars, or have it wired up to a dashboard component which triggers the next action. If you let me know which of these you would prefer then I could quickly knock up an example for you.

[johncohn]

Steven, Here's the back story. I built the EEL in 2014 for Mike Gordon, the bass player of the US Band Phish. It's made of 5 (formerly 6) 11 key units each 1.6m long. The keys are triggered by a capacitive sensor which detects the players touch through a sheet of thin polycarbonate.. the device is designed to be played by the audience in mid-sized venues so it has to be beer (and worse) proof. I originally designed it to talk via OSC to a Macbook running Max-MSP and Abelton and it toured around with Mike's band for several years (see here) . Friends and I built a smaller round version that was designed to 'crowd surf' (see here). Now Mike wants to reprise the EEL for use by kids.. The main idea is to take the complicated Mac interface out of the equation. ..I'm now replacing the sound interface with a raspi 4. I'm hoping to make it as simple to use as possible.. no UI if possible. I've decided to do the control in node-red because I want to turn around a prototype quickly . I've used node-red for years (and its authors Nick O'Leary and Dave Conway-Jones are good fiends of mine :-) SO.. that's the back story.. I think I'll take your advice of using a 'switch' block to assign sounds based on a sequence I'll generate programmatically. I don't think i can easily use a N-R-C-M sequencer because there are many non-musical control things I need to do to control the keyboard.. eg lights, touch enable, touch responses, back lights, etc.. ) .. That said.. if you can knock together the way you suggest I really would like to see it. it seems quite powerful and flexible.. I don't want to trouble you though if it's a ton of work One thing that would be helpful is finding a list of 'tonal' synths that ship with N-R-C-M .. I found this https://github.com/stevenaeola/node-red-contrib-music/blob/master/synthtypes.json and think i think the keyword 'tuned' means it will take a midi note.. true ? .. It also seems that if the synth has a tag 'sonic-pi' it's a sample.. Also true ? thanks again for the help ! -jc John Cohn Ph.D, IBM Fellow , MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab phone 802-578-0985 From: Steven Bradley <notifications@github.com> To: stevenaeola/node-red-contrib-music <node-red-contrib-music@noreply.github.com> Cc: john cohn <johncohn@us.ibm.com>, Author <author@noreply.github.com> Date: 12/26/2020 06:43 PM Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [stevenaeola/node-red-contrib-music] GUI example with synth and soundfx selection ? (#100) The project sounds great! How are the keys being played (as a matter of interest)? For programmatically selecting which instrument gets played, probably the easiest way is to use a standard switch node with outputs leading to synths for each of the types you want to use. If each note played is to be randomised you could use a JSonata expression and use the $random function. If you want to stick with the same synth being used for a while you could use a sequencer node (from n-r-c-music) with the order being randomised. Then you can either use the same instrument for a given number of bars, or have it wired up to a dashboard component which triggers the next action. If you let me know which of these you would prefer then I could quickly knock up an example for you. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[stevenaeola]

OK so are the play messages from different notes on the keyboard arriving as messages from different nodes, or as messages from the same node with a certain property (e.g. payload) set to something?

[stevenaeola]

One thing that would be helpful is finding a list of 'tonal' synths that
ship with N-R-C-M .. I found this
https://github.com/stevenaeola/node-red-contrib-music/blob/master/synthtypes.json
and think i think the keyword 'tuned' means it will take a midi note..
true ? ..

In the synth node properties on the right hand side there are a bunch of tag filters. If you select 'tuned' then you will see the ones that have a specific pitch. Set the 'note' property on the the incoming message to select the note in the scale (1 is the first note, 8 is an octave higher). The synth node turns this into midi according to the current scale. Alternatively you can set the 'midi' property on the incoming message if you already know the midi value you want.

[stevenaeola]

It also seems that if the synth has a tag 'sonic-pi' it's a
sample.. Also true ?

In the synthtypes files the ones tagged with 'tuned' are indeed tuned, with a given midi pitch for the basic sample. It is speeded up/slowed down appropriately, nothing fancy. In that file most of the synths are referring to samples from somewhere in the the samples/ directory. The ones that aren't samples are labelled with "synth": true and use a SuperCollider synth in the synthdefs/ directory. Some of the synths come from https://sonic-pi.net/ and some of the samples do to: the "sonic-pi" tag is independent of the others.