SteamSHIFT

A while back, I was doing some work with Arduino, passing serial data to the mac to a small application written with Processing which converted the serial data into MIDI data and pushed it out into other apps. Now Processing is a Java thing; and the standalone applications it creates are Java applications.

All fine, but a mere few days before an assessment, I couldn’t get the Serial to Midi application to work; I recalled an article on createdigitalmotion.com which I admit, I didn’t read fully, which said the following:

On the music side, Apple dumped its com.apple.audio.midi java package with 10.4.8. Result: not only do you lose all the features that make the Mac great for MIDI, like the IAC bus for inter-application MIDI routing, but your external devices also spontaneously disappear. Nice.

Now at this point, I put 2 + 2 together and got 5 … Apple have broken my app… Ahh what to do - revert my entire computer to 10.4.7?

So, I sat down and over the next few days and with much help, I managed to build (read: hack together) a serial to midi converter in Objective-C and Cocoa. Works perfectly (now!).

So, no more problem. Indeed. And not 1 day later, I remembered that I had bought an Java extension from Mandolane, which was needed for my original app. I reinstalled that and bingo, that worked too. Doh. Doh. Doh.

Oh well; I wanted to start learning Cocoa etc!

SteamSHIFT out.

Technorati Tags:
midi, mac, osx, art, experiments, developing, cocoa

I recently wanted to create an application to allow uploads to a website, in the simplest possible way; so I made a little BASH script which used cURL to post the files to the server. Then with a little Platypus (mixed up with CocoaDialog) magic, I ended up with a droplet style application. If you’re a scripter, and want some application magic then do check it out.

SteamSHIFT out.

Technorati Tags:
mac, osx, developing

I have built a quicky site for my application(s). Loads more to be done on it, but wanted to get it up there. Check it out at: http://apps.steamshift.com.

Laters. SteamSHIFT out.

New version (BCF2000_1.1.dmg) available now. Download and enjoy!

What’s new?

• Auto update system.
• Code clean-up ready for new features!

Ever since I started using a BCF2000 midi controller for my visual experiments with Quartz Composer, I have been left with the problem of having to carry the controller around with me if I want to do any work with my patches; which makes it all rather less portable. The answer; a virtual BCF2000.

I put this to my friend Joe and we began work; here is the fruit of that labour:- I proudly present the Virtual BCF2000. It is built using Cocoa.

There are a few things you need to know:-

1. It requires MidiPipe or similar; this is because it doesn’t act as a midi endpoint in and of itself - it requires an application to do that for it.
2. Because of the origin of the application, it is designed to work in a very specific way; it is designed to mimic the way that the BCF2000 controller works once you have applied Steve Mokris’ Quartz Composer Sysex files. In short, this basically maps all of the buttons (barring the encoder group buttons) as midi controllers.

Usage

First launch MidiPipe and create a new pipe - with just a midi in element and a midi out element. Then launch the BCF2000 application; you can now select the MidiPipe midi input from the drop down list. For control of Garageband, for example, that’s all you have to do.

Enjoy (and if you use it let us know how we can make it better). SteamSHIFT out.

Technorati Tags:
VJ, quartz composer, midi, mac, osx, bcf2000, cocoa

Many thanks to my friend Joe, who has been helping with mess about with cocoa (fruits of the labours coming soon). Here are a few links to third party controls some of which may be useful (lifted from http://alastairs-place.net/cocoa/faq.txt).

• Stick Software’s Circular Slider
• ExitToShell() Collective: Products
• Omni Group’s OmniAppKit (which contains several additional controls, including some very cool sticky palettes)
• CHAppKit (two colour-related controls)
• AMShapedButton and AMToolTipTableView
• Calendar and URLTextView controls
• MiscKit (various additional controls)
• MOKit (various)
• UKDistributedView and UKPrefsPanel
• WBSearchTextField, WBTimeControl and WBCalendarControl
• Jiiva’s Application Builder Collection ($$$, several very nice controls)
• DisclosableView (including Interface Builder palette)

Technorati Tags:
mac, osx, developing, cocoa