Forum

Hi John,

This is a bit of a direct plea to you.

I'm making the case for a new mode called "User" mode. This is certainly down the road but I could see it taking off with Open Sourcing the software, although if it existed, it would not require having access to any code since the interface would be via a simple public OSC protocol over UDP connections to eigenD.

You enter user mode just like entering for example your sequencer. The canvas size available depends on the keyboard splits just like for any other mode.

The idea is to have a very basic decoupled open protocol for

#1 receiving raw keypresses and continuous key and controller data from the device
#2 Ability to light leds on the device.

#1 and #2 are completely decoupled. All data is comletely transparent to eigenD and the eigenharp, meaning that eigenD/eigenharp make no attempt to interpret or act on the data beyond reporting key/controller interactions and allowing leds to be lit.

This is the concept behind the monome and it would allow this "User" mode to be a blank slate for an infinite number of applications. These applications could allow for many creative uses that your company would never care to explore on their own.

The Novation Launchpad did just this. They of course have nice default functionality out of the box, but they also have "User" modes where a user can decide what the mode does. It uses midi which is not as elegant but of course it only took a few days before monome apps were ported to the launchpad and that was a big factor in it's success.

The other benefit of an OSC protocol is that user code does not run inside the process of eigenD, thus shielding you from crashes or other errors that might happen. eigenD simply is a broker for this data which passes transparenty through.

The monome protocol is documented here:
http://docs.monome.org/doku.php?id=tech:protocol:osc

I realize that the pico has no leds. In this case, applications would be simply limited to take advantage of #1. The lack of real estate would make it hard to use the same apps on pico as alpha anyway.

So there is my plea.

Thanks for you consideration,
Chris Lloyd

Thanks for your response.

That of course sounds wonderful. I did notice that the browser and commander windows were there own process but wasn't unsure if communication was something that a developer could eventually tap into.

Waiting is no problem. Knowing that you've thought of these scenarios and are supportive of such ideas is enough.

Cheers,
Chris

@tenebrous, the major difference is that the leds on the Alpha are controlled by the on-board chip, while on the Pico they have to be controlled through EigenD. This makes it much more difficult to light them up rapidly.

You can tell I've never seen a pico up close before.

Down the road for the 4th model. I'd love to see a eigen button box ala monome style but with all the expressiveness of these instruments.

Not everyone wants an instrument around their neck on stage, especially when you need to control more than one device. Would also appeal to producers and studio users who want a keyboard-like device at their desk. Would be great for beats with the velocity, sample slicing all that as well.

So I only need 4 picos to get my 8x8. or technically 8 x 9

8 x 8 and 8 x 16 are the magic grid sizes I guess add a column for the control buttons.

I was just kidding.

Just saying that eventually this technology could do grids as well for monome type keyboard. Seems that eigenD is designed to not care about the dimensions of the buttons and the technology could be designed or licensed into all sorts of interesting footprints in the future.