Datatbase driven controller&program selector.

Question

Hi there.

Well I been sitting here and try to control some "program change" on a hardware I've made a controlsurface to on the MD. And it'works fine in a sence, it takes some remebering since te page contains more than 127 buttons and some sliders.(Buttongroups) And it takes a little bit of time to load.(Which is not a big problem)

So here's a short explanation of the current layout:

I made 3 buttons(Just to test, I actually gonna need 8) to control the high bank selection(The cc used is 21) this like a buttongroup so theres a slider connected.

I also made 127 buttons(CC=53) control of the low bank selection also as a button group so once again a slider.

(I guess I could use the 14-bit feature here instead with only one slider for both)

Then due to lack of space I made a slider for program selection(In my case CC=86) 1-100 value.

And I put in a channelselect slider with 8 buttons to be able to send everyting to different midichannels. (And to the midi dude that tend to comment my questions, yes only 8ch this time.  =)  )

This is one solution to the problem that can be made with current tools in MD:

I can make one single page like the one above and make a buttongroup that correlates? to the hardware "bank and programs" for that specific bank. And instead of just numbering the buttons, put a label to each and every one so I know what it does. Then I do this 998 more times (If in fact I had programmed all the "Banks" in that specific harware. =/  ) Ok to be fare I just have to do it... let's see... 26 time then.

Yes and friend of order will say, dude what's the problem ju just have 26 banks make a button group... Yep, but I don't use the banks 1-26 I use 1-9, 30-35, 40-42, 50-56 & 99 and some 600-603.... Why? Well I have to have some kind of structure in programming the other device, and that's why. And I tend to reprogram and expand it as time expires. =)

Ok now the suggestion: To make a new controller much like the one we use in programming the others. The programming wheel? Since there already seem to be a connection to different values for the same controller depending on other selections, I guess the programming technology is already there.

How it should work? Well I guess there are a lot of people out there who would as I like to actually be able to name banks and programselections. So if the left wheel is the bankselektor(or any controller) with possibility to label each selection, and the right would be programchange(or any controller) also self labeled, and also in relation to the bank select.
  Explanation on the relationship: the list showing in the right wheel depends on what's selected in the left.
  How?: This would be possible if you can import/load and export/save a file with the proper database matrix.
And furtermore in how it should send the messages when selected is kind of a apply/send button. In this way you can prepare for the next program change without actually executing it on the fly if you are in a live situation, and the database would also contain the right controllervalues for that specific combination.

And here comes the benefits: This would open the possibility to write a file externally in any kind of program that can generate/save to a database files. Since there are no support for sysexdump(And I don't see how it ever would be, since you have to have a translator for every apparatus that has sysexdump I guess, or you can build one in in this kind of controller perhaps =).) This makes it possible to actually label your bank/program changes effectively without a sysex dump. And share with others with the same apparatus. And personally this is the one controller I could use in every apparatus I wan't to control myself, not only cause I'm getting old and have a bad memory...

//Sigge

Comments

Hi and thanks for the suggestion. To help me understand it, could you contrast it with the "dropdown" feature? The idea of the dropdown feature (not implemented yet) is that you can label "ticks" of a knob, like "15 - Favorite Program, 23 - Hot Metal" etc.

Of course I'm VERY interested in 1) reducing the amount of work my advanced users have to do, 2) reducing the complexity of layouts and 3) reducing the visual elements in layouts if possible.

Thanks!

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Hi.
Well I read about the dropdown and it is a good solution but a little bit, in my opinion, how should I say not taking it all the way. What I mean is as I understand the dropdown feature helps users to see what they are selecting, not only numbers? And that is fine as long as you don't have more than a couple of choices to select from. And as long as you can connect multiple controller to those choices it would work fine, like combinating a bank msb-lsb and a program change wich you can right? Like a supercontroller.
But as an example if I would like to create a dropdown selection set for my Roland XV-5080. It contains 1083 different patches(sounds) + expansion and sampler.. so round about 3100 possible selections all in all + Performance again a lot of banks and pathches. so it's going to be a lot of dropdows. And to consider here also is that the msb-lsb selection in not in sequence in named apparatus. So you cant have a single slider to get the values. It's not like msb=0, Lsb=1 is the first bank, well it might be actually =), but the expansions is like msb=89; LSB=18.
Of cause you could combine dropdows so that you have one that selects banks, and one other that selects programchange. But if there is no correlation between the bank select and the programchange select, you have to make as many programchange dropdowns as you have banks, and remember which is which. And even if you have a correlation such as a new list "loads" in the program change depending on which bank you select, you'r still depending on a subcontroller for values for both and they are linear right? like from 0-127 or 34-45 or inverted or 14-bits or sysex. So if you would make a selection bank that only shows pianos for example. where in my case I have a lot of pianosounds but in a lot of different banks and different programchanges. It wouldnt be possible. Because neither the bank select or programchange controllers is nonlinear.
And I guess it would be possible to make that kind of list if you could "record" the bank and programchange select to a dropdown feature, if that's the case my idea is the same but mine in a single controller.

I guess if you could "record" nonlinear and multiple selections to a dropdowncontroller you have to save it in a sort of setupfile for that particular dropdowncontroller? So heres the point of my controlleridea, if youre able to make a controller read from a file, why not make the controller versatile depending on the "head"content of the file it reads from? My example only contained Bankselect and programchange, i.e two selectors but it could actually be any number of selectors if you can make the "Design" yourself and save it to a file. I can't see any use for that but it would be possible i guess. =)

Still what I'm after is the possibility to connect two/(or more) selections, the bank and programchange. And I want the bank selector to load another programchange list when selected. I also want to be able to set the controllers needed for both in a nonliner fashion, more accurate, actually "text" the controllers values correlated to that specific selection, and then send it. And this is most important not sending it while setting it up, much like send on release, but not until I made all selections. And hence the send/apply button.

God damn... what a chunk of text. Please e-mail me with a valid return adress, and I'll come up with a more elaborate explanation, and even some pictures.. =)