state-of-the-art / matrix-midi-controller Goto Github PK

Make the device output to all MIDI channels at once OR add a way to choose which channels to output to.

• Realization proposal: "choosing channels" idea
  Make one of the boards in the "menu" mode into a small matrix where each button is an on/off channel output switch. Say, "off" state is red, "on" is green.
  1 - 2 - 3 - 4
  5 - 6 - 7 - 8
  9 -10-11-12
  13-14-15-16
  There should be a way to chose one or all and everything in-between.

If the menu is exited (by either of 2 currently existing ways) before you completely let go of a hint-triggering button, the hint will keep scrolling by itself forever in both "play" and "menu" modes (the area it takes over remains "playable" tho). Re-triggering any hint by pressing any button in the menu returns things to normal.

We can make a simple piano layout like this one:

|C#|Eb|  |F#|Ab|Bb|  |
|C |D |E |F |G |A |B |

So natural major will be on the first line with half-key move to the left and with skipping 2 keys. Second line is filled with natural minor keys.

Not perfect - but could be useful for the guys, who familiar with the piano layout.

We need a way to use palette to choose colors for the elements, this will allow to change the colors by user from menu.

• Realization: array with colors, use the array to set the colors and allow to switch between the colors from palette.

For now it doesn't matter which exact colors to use as long as there is a system that distinguishes notes from different channels: since I am the only one who can test it and see how everything looks, ultimately I think I could responsible for "coloring".
Additionally, making the brightness respond to MIDI velocity is definitely an interesting idea, but I think it could lead to high velocity notes accidentally blinding the user :) Maybe let's not worry about this system for now and just let the inputted notes' brightness be controlled by the master brightness setting, like everything else?

Pitch wheel keeps track of several buttons pressed at the same time. If you release the last button while still pressing the previous one, pitch goes to the value of the last still being pressed button (currently it just goes to the center).

Could be made pretty much the same way as the pitch wheel emulation.

|M-|m-|m+|M+|

"Geographically" could be put right under the pitch wheel. If pitch wheel is turned off — modulation wheel takes its place.

Unlike the pitch one, modulation wheel doesn't return to zero on letting go of the button. If you press another button on the wheel — it switches to its value. If you press the currently active button — modulation returns to zero.

Any layout could use pitch/modulation modifier as overlay - pitch/mod controllers are moving to the each pressed button and controls this key (only, use different midi channels for each key) modifiers:

      |M+|
      |m+|
|P-|p-|XX|p+|P+|
      |m-|
      |M-|

• XX - pressed key
• M/m - modulation
• P/p - pitch

Controller menu is not so intuitive to setup the controller options - so it's better to change the options using some simple android/desktop app.

We need a video to describe the functionality of the MMC device.

• Script ready
• Script reviewed
• Video ready
• Video reviewed
• Video published

Add two buttons to the "play" mode imitating a pitch wheel. Don't think about the smoothness of the wheel's movement for now: synths will figure it out themselves, it's gonna work fine.

• Realization proposal 1:
  • Make the upper left button a blue or green "pitch down" one, sending "pitch bend -64" (minimum) message on hold, and "pitch bend 0" on release.
  • To the right of the "pitch down" make a red "pitch up" button that sends "pitch bend 63" (maximum) message on hold, and "pitch bend 0" on release.
  • Add a switch button to the menu mode allowing to turn on/off the appearance of the "pitch wheel".
• Realization proposal 2:
  Alternatively, I think a 2-step pitch mode would also be very useful (that way in the menu you could switch between pitch mode 1, pitch mode 2, and the off mode.
  So, instead of just 2 buttons next to each other (up and down) there could be 4 buttons: 1234
  • red, pitch bend -64 (0 on release)
  • blue/green, pitch bend -32 (0 on release)
  • blue/green, pitch bend 32 (0 on release)
  • red, pitch bend 63 (0 on release)

It could be a good idea to combine different layouts, for example: 6 first rows - guitar layout and last 2 rows is piano layout. Or Right part of the controller is piano layout, left part is guitar layout...

Most probably will require application to setup complex combinations, but could be simple - like choose layout and pick top left point where to start the layout - and layout will be placed only in the box from the point and to the bottom right corner.

Requires #7

• Add icon
• Add documentation (menu and keys)
• Fix README.md issues