MIDI CC monitoring - VU style level meters?

[Andy2No]

Is there a way to see multiple CC values in real time in Reaper, e.g. by a plugin?

I've owned an Akai EWI4000s for some time and I'm still not clear what it's putting out when I turn on things like Expression, Aftertouch, Volume and of course Breath - okay, I'm fairly clear on Breath, but I'd like to see how the other values change as I play it.

A bank of VU meters showing chosen CC values would be ideal.

I've had a look in the Stash and done a quick forum search, but I haven't found anything relevant, so far. I've only had a brief play with Reaper, but it looks promising. I'm just interested in playing the EWI and plugging it into things like a MIDI synth (e.g. my Roland JV-1010).

[DarkStar]

Hello Andy2No and welcome to these forums. You'll find many helpful people here and a lot of useful information.

Well, it could be done using JS FX (a scripting language used for many of the FX supplied with Reaper and many other FX developed by Reaper users).

Meanwhile, you could record all the MIDI then look at the controller lanes in the MIDI clip. Not real-time, though.

But ... in both cases, the scale would be linear only, not logarithmic (unless that were coded into the JS FX). And the relationship between a CC message's value and its effect in an instrument or effect may not be linear (or logarithmic) either.

EWI -> Reaper - > MIDI Synth would be good.

[Andy2No]

Hi, Darkstar,

I'm not against learning the scripting language, but I'm wondering if anyone has done this already. It seems like a fairly common thing to want to do. Being able to watch in real time would give much better feedback than looking through a playback.

EWI blowing is a bit of a minority sport, but the same thing would be useful for any MIDI controller, I would have thought.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by Andy2No

Hi, Darkstar,

I'm not against learning the scripting language, but I'm wondering if anyone has done this already. It seems like a fairly common thing to want to do. Being able to watch in real time would give much better feedback than looking through a playback.

EWI blowing is a bit of a minority sport, but the same thing would be useful for any MIDI controller, I would have thought.

Hi Andy, I'm not exactly sure what your looking for here. A metering system or guage of some kind isn't realy going to tell you much as far as Midi Controller messages are concerned. Much more depends on how the VSTi and/or sound modules reacts to it.

I think a better test would be to see how the various VSTis/Sound Modules actually perform under certain CC input situations by recording their audio and checking their wav forms. I do this all the time with Kontakt and have learned a lot by doing so.

One of the best way to test them is if you can load sine waves into the instrument, that can give some very exact and conclusive information.

Heh heh, sorry if I'm totally misunderstanding your question.

[RJHollins]

check around for something called 'Midi Monitor'.

Unsure if app or plugin ... but it will display an event list [realtime]
of transmitted midi data.

[lowellben]

Originally Posted by RJHollins

check around for something called 'Midi Monitor'.

Unsure if app or plugin ... but it will display an event list [realtime]
of transmitted midi data.

This?
http://obds.free.fr/midimon/

[DarkStar]

... very, very early days:

[Andy2No]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

That looks interesting, DarkStar. Are you writing it with the JS FX scripting language?

Thanks for the MIDI Monitor suggestion, RJHollins, and the link to download the demo version, lowellben. Unless I'm missing something, it seems to do roughly the same thing as the monitor in MIDI-OX; i.e. just a scolling list of events.

The problem is, the EWI4000s doesn't just send a few events, like a keyboard MIDI controller does, it sends a whole stream of them between NOTE ON and NOTE OFF, way to fast to read. It makes more sense to look at it as though it's multi channel audio, at a low resolution / bit rate - 7 bit values for a few different CC numbers and other stuff (Velocity isn't a CC, right?) sent dog knows how many times a second.

I was thinking just 0-127 range VU meters, assignable to a few different CC numbers and other values (Expression, Breath, Channel Volume, Velocity, Aftertouch, Pitch Bend... I think that covers it). A scrolling graph like DarkStar's would be even better, but the main point is to show as many of those at once as possible, in real time.

I'm not sure what you meant about the sine waves, Tod. Although I want the sort of display you'd see from an audio VU meter (or the scrolling graph kind), I'm not actually plugging the audio output from the internal analog synth into the PC, just the MIDI output.

I sometimes use the internal synth with headphones, or plugged into my Hi Fi, but at the moment, I'm just interested in the output as a MIDI controller. I'm not really concerned with how different virtual instruments respond to it, at the moment, I'm just trying to understand what it's putting out a bit better.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by Andy2No

I'm not sure what you meant about the sine waves, Tod. Although I want the sort of display you'd see from an audio VU meter (or the scrolling graph kind), I'm not actually plugging the audio output from the internal analog synth into the PC, just the MIDI output.

Sorry Andy, yeah I was talking about seeing the results of various VSTis.

However, like DarkStar mentioned, I don't know what better picture you can get of the CC controllers than the CC lanes in the Midi Editor. Even if you want to just test your keyboard controller, the CC lanes give you a pretty good Idea of whats going on.

Heh heh, I'm sorry if I'm missing the point.

[Andy2No]

Isn't that just for looking at things you've recorded, Tod? I only have a very vague grasp of what Reaper can do, so far.

Looking at a recording would let me see some things, but it would be hard to work out what I did to make that happen. I'm looking for instant feedback, really.

Imagine if you were trying to play a horn but you couldn't hear it at all, only when you played back the recording. It would be very hard to get the kind of sound you wanted.

It's kind of the same thing with the MIDI output of the EWI. Sure, I can hear what a particular instrument does as I'm playing it, but I'd have a much better idea of how to set things up to get it how I wanted it to sound, if I could see the MIDI data and see how it changes if I blow or bite harder or softer, or twiddle the little knobs, or alter the settings in the menu.

[DarkStar]

Yes , it is a JS FX, including a lot of graphics commands.

And it does scroll and zoom a real-time display (or, at least, it will):

[Andy2No]

Excellent. It looks good. I'll look forward to trying it, when you're ready to show it to the world. Thanks, DarkStar.

Out of interest, what sort of instrument did you use to feed it the data, or are you just twiddling some knobs?

I've been trying some things out with Virtual MIDI Keyboard v1.0, which lets you click on a key and drag the mouse around in 2D to control two parameters. It's awkward, but it can give me some idea of what a virtual instrument can do, without plugging in the EWI, or an actual keyboard (with knobs on, of course ).

I use Loopbe to wire it up to different things, by setting Loopbe as the output from the virtual keyboard, and the input to the virtual instrument. I haven't tried involving Reaper in that yet, but I expect it works.

[DarkStar]

I just created some MIDI clips with CC data in them and sent them to the FX (so that I have a constant data set for testing).

[Andy2No]

Good idea. Repeatability it useful for testing.

[DarkStar]

Alpha version released;
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=107630