The one thing I have not been able to really understand is how to make the connection between midi information coming from my hardware and how to get Pd to interpret it.

I have been able to connect my electribe to Pd and have Pd control it (i.e. trigger the samples) but any time I have tried to take midi out from the electribe I get lost. I can get Pd to react to knob movements but it seems to just be really random. I'm sure I'm missing something.

What's a good way to get started on setting up connections between knob movements to specific things in a Pd patch? I came across a max patch that supposedly connects an electribe as a controller (see address below) and I kinda tried to recreate it in Pd but I didn't really get anywhere.....

http://digitaltools.node3000.com/download/33-korg-electribe-es-1-to-maxmsp-patch

Hello Adam,

You have to first identify your input device for Pd via Media>Midi Settings

Then go to Media>Test Audio and Midi

Look at the [notein] object for information from keys/switches/buttons

Look at the [cltin] object for what's coming in from knobs and sliders.

As you probably already know, you can also right-click any object for very helpful help on it.

Enjoy!

... and then,, try [key]

~:o)

Good luck, and keep well ~ Shankar

Ok. I've already established the midi connection (I have an m-audio usb to midi cable). I believe I had tried most of what you suggested a while back but some things didn't seem to make sense.

For example, when I turn one knob I can see that Pd is receiving something, but it's like it is freaking out. I see number messages coming in but they are very erratic and inconsistent.

Like, if I turn the knob (or hit a button) one time I would expect to see the same result each time I do it, but it is a different result each time.

Not sure if that makes any sense, but that is where I am getting confused. I'll keep trying though. Thanks.

I think another thing that confused me was what object to put in for the midi input. I think I was using [midiin] and getting the "not supported" error message.... but I think I read something about how it says it isn't supported but it does work anyway.

Any chance that somebody could put up a basic patch that might help me out?

i think i read somewhere that the electribes use sysex messages. that'd make them a bit harder to use than 'normal' midi gear. you'd have to verify that though. i'm not really sure.

I have tried this with the electribes before. The problem is the electribes use the midi control change messages a little funky. From what I remember (I got busy and never actually finished the patch) they send 2 messages for each knob move, one to identify the knob and one to identify the value of the knob. This makes the whole thing a little more complicated then it would be otherwise, but on a good note it looks like it differentiates what it sends based on which sound is actively selected (Example. Synth 1 Low Boost sends a different control then Hi-Hat low boost). This means that if you get it working properly you could potentially have 78 different knobs or so to play with.

Here is a link to the midi implementation.
http://www.korg-datastorage.jp/Software/MIDIImp/ER1.pdf

I will be working on this again but I don't think it will be anytime soon as I have too many projects at the moment.

Did anybody take a look at the link I posted in my original question? There is a picture of the max patch. I would have imagined that if you can use an electribe to control max/msp you should be able to do roughly the same thing with Pd. Am I wrong?

Ok. I read that apparently the max patch I referred to is set up for using NRPN, but I don't know much about how to do that. I also just started reading up on OSC which is another thing I have no experience with. I guess I have a lot of homework to do.

I just want to turn a knob instead of clicking and dragging. Is that so wrong?

hmm,

maybe you should persevere a bit more in recreating that max patch.

there are 2 objects there which are not part of pd. [thresh] and [split] . i think the [split] could maybe be replaced with [moses 100]. not sure about [thresh], but you could try just leaving it out altogether and seeing what happens.

then you'd have just:

[midiin]
|
[unpack 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]

and it looks like it's the 6th and 9th ouput of that unpack that need to be repacked to get their data? experiment with number boxes on the unpack ouputs to find out which ones u need.

[thresh] collects incoming data into a list if the data is received within a certain amount of time (no argument=10ms), and its clock is reset each time it receives data. After that time the list is released. It should be fairly easy to build with

and [delay] I imagine.

However, someone left a comment further down on that page that the cyclone library contains those objects, so if you just duplicate it exactly in Pd-extended (or vanilla+cyclone) it theoretically should work.