Thomas Leisner

About Beauty and Bright Ideas
November 4th, 2012

TouchOSC Oxygen 8 Emulation

The attached file is for TouchOSC, the touchscreen control surface app for your mobile device. It emulates the functionality of the famous “Oxygen 8” keyboard when used together with Ableton Live.

The Oxygen 8 is a small Midi controller keyboard with a keyrange of two octaves and eight rotary knobs for controlling parameters in your audio software. It became popular as one of the first compact mobile studio solutions when everybody started to produce music on the go with a laptop. As one of the first devices of it’s kind, it offered power supply through the computer’s USB port.

oxygen8

This simple emulation has the Oxygen’s eight knobs. This fact in itself isn’t very impressive, but if you use it with Ableton Live and in Preferences/Midi you select “Oxygen 8” as a control unit, these eight knobs will be automatically mapped to the “Best Of Parameters” set of parameters predefined by Ableton for every device. So without any manual mapping you will have access to the most important functions of this software.

As a bonus the TouchOSC system is not only smaller and more light-weight than the original keyboard, but it has TouchOSC’s relative mode enabled, which means that you won’t have any parameter jumps when switching between devices and touching the knobs. And if you are missing the keys: Well, you may of course add them into some other tabs in the layout. Simply refer to my version of the “Keys” standard layout and copy and paste it to the Oxygen 8 layout.

Download Download TouchOSC Oxygen 8 for iPod

 

 

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Design, Music, Neutrum Design | No Comments »

October 3rd, 2012

TouchOSC Design Mod

TouchOSC comes with a selection of useful controller layouts to choose from. They are pre-installed and can be used immediately. After modding the two big controllers for Ableton Live and Apple Logic, I also changed the colours for the various other basic controller layouts.

In case you’re wondering what TouchOSC might be, have a look at my introduction to TouchOSC. In case you already own TouchOSC you may simply download the attached collection of layouts I have modified, open the included files one by one in your TouchOSC Editor application and upload them to your device from there in order to use them.

The “Beatmachine” layout.

 The “Keys” layout. I have added some octaves.

 The “Mix 2” layout.

 The “Mix 16” layout.

 The “Simple” layout.

Download Download Neutrum Design TouchOSC Mod for iPod

These colours are just my personal preferences, but in case you like them too, here they are. I only have the iPod versions here, as I only have an iPod. Please leave a comment in case you are interested in the iPad versions, they are easily and quickly done.

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Design, Music, Neutrum Design | 1 Comment »

September 20th, 2012

TouchOSC

TouchOSC is an app for mobile touchscreen devices that offers onscreen controller elements to interact with your computer via OSC and MIDI. You may build your own controller layouts or choose from a list of existing layouts.

TouchOSC is one of my favourite Apps. It’s cheap and efficient, it’s very well programmed and designed, and it offers a functionality many of us have dreamed of for a long time: To have a touch controller for our music software, and even to be able to very easily build personallized controllers ourselves. And to add one on top: It all works remotely and stably.

Above: TouchOSC showing my Neutrum Design Mod for LogicTouch

The software package comes in two parts. First of all the app for your mobile device that shows the controller elements on screen and establishes a wireless connection between your mobile device and your computer without the need to install any other sofware on your machine. This works flawlessly out of the box with some included layouts of control surfaces. Secondly an editor application running on your machine that allows you to edit layouts or to create your own from scratch.

The app for your mobile divice is available for iOS as well as for Android, and the editor application runs on MacOS as well as on Windows or Linux. Both pieces of software run very stably and I couldn’t discover any bugs so far. They are programmed to contain a stable basic functionality without many extras, yet offering a wide range of possibilities including all you usually need without getting confusing.

As the name suggests, TouchOSC uses the modern OSC protocol to communicate with your audio or video software. It can communicate directly with software having the OSC protocol implemented. But as the older MIDI protocol is more widely used it also may send MIDI messages over OSC, which makes your TouchOSC control surfaces appear as a normal MIDI device on your computer.

In case you are interested have a look at the  TouchOSC website for more details, pictures, explanations and a clear and very straight forward documentation. As I like this little piece of software so much, I have made a bunch of design modifications to the standard layouts, as well as some basics layouts for my projects, which you might try to get started.

 

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Discoveries, Music | No Comments »

August 7th, 2012

Random Reading 3/4 16 A

Random Rhythm Reading is a series of downloadable text documents containing rhythmical phrases that can be rearranged for creating infinite variations of the reading text. This is very handy for practising purposes.

The musical text consists of pictures which represent one bar each. Using a simple text editor like TextEdit on Mac or WordPad on Windows you can copy and paste, drag and drop, duplicate or delete bars to rearrange them. As one bar is the smallest unit in this system, I offer reading texts in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 metres, each in 8th and 16th notes. As each package for one metre and subdivision is presented in a new post as I gradually expand the system, please use the Random Rhythm Reading category to get all of them.

Random Reading Text in 3/4, 16th Notes, Part A1
Random Reading Text in 3/4, 16th Notes, Part A2

As Mac and Windows systems use different techniques to incorporate pictures into a text file, I had to create different versions for Mac and Windows. The one for Mac is a .rtfd file that opens in TextEdit. TextEdit offers very cool drag and drop support for the pictures, which is really fun. The one for Windows is a .doc file that should open in WordPad, and as far as I know you can’t drag and drop pictures there. But this file format offers wider compatibility, also suitable for mobile devices.

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 3/4 in 16th Notes, Part A for Mac

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 3/4 in 16th Notes, Part A for Win

I will add packages to the system from time to time, so stay tuned – don‘t forget to subscribe to the RSS-Feed at the bottom of this page so you will always get notified when something new is out – and don‘t forget to „dice“ your reading text from time to time: Remember that you can reorder the text by simply dragging bars around.

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Random Rhythm Reading | No Comments »

August 6th, 2012

Random Reading 4/4-16 A

Random Rhythm Reading is a series of downloadable text documents containing rhythmical phrases that can be rearranged for creating infinite variations of the reading text. This is very handy for practising purposes.

The musical text consists of pictures which represent one bar each. Using a simple text editor like TextEdit on Mac or WordPad on Windows you can copy and paste, drag and drop, duplicate or delete bars to rearrange them. As one bar is the smallest unit in this system, I offer reading texts in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 metres, each in 8th and 16th notes. As each package for one metre and subdivision is presented in a new post as I gradually expand the system, please use the Random Rhythm Reading category to get all of them.

Random Reading Text in 4/4, 16th Notes, Part A1
Random Reading Text in 4/4, 16th Notes, Part A2

As Mac and Windows systems use different techniques to incorporate pictures into a text file, I had to create different versions for Mac and Windows. The one for Mac is a .rtfd file that opens in TextEdit. TextEdit offers very cool drag and drop support for the pictures, which is really fun. The one for Windows is a .doc file that should open in WordPad, and as far as I know you can’t drag and drop pictures there. But this file format offers wider compatibility, also suitable for mobile devices.

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 4/4 in 16th Notes, Part A for Mac

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 4/4 in 16th Notes, Part A for Win

I will add packages to the system from time to time, so stay tuned – don‘t forget to subscribe to the RSS-Feed at the bottom of this page so you will always get notified when something new is out – and don‘t forget to „dice“ your reading text from time to time: Remember that you can reorder the text by simply dragging bars around.

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Random Rhythm Reading | No Comments »

July 12th, 2012

LogicTouch Design Mod

TouchOSC comes with two grown-up controller layouts, one for Ableton Live and the other for Apple Logic. These control surfaces interact with the application via MIDI remote scripts which allow for bidirectional communication and automapping of parameters to controller elements. The one for Logic is an officially supported control surface for Apple Logic and is called LogicTouch.

LogicTouch offers extensive control over many parameters of your Logic project, including functions for transport, automation, channel strip parameters, channel equalizer and effect parameters. The iPad version even allows for control over software instruments parameters on a separate page and for controlling sets of eight channels at once.

Given these facts it’s no surprise that it’s big fun and a great help to work with LogicTouch, and just as my Neutrum Design Mod for Logic makes Apple Logic look more elegant and clean, this Neutrum Design Mod for LogicTouch makes LogicTouch look like it was made for it.

The Neutrum Design Mod for Logic and how it relates to the modified design of LogicTouch.

Creating this design modification was relatively easy – and just so is installing it – because TouchOSC comes with an excellent editor for creating your personal controller layouts on your computer. TouchOSC Editor allows for changing the colours of interface elements and also for uploading your creations to your mobile device.

This means that after downloading Neutrum Design Mod for LogicTouch to your computer, you simply need to open the layout for your device in TouchOSC Editor and send it to your device in order to use it. You may overwrite the existing files and in case you want to return to the original layout you may get it back from the same place where you got TouchOSC Editor.

Download Download Neutrum Design LogicTouch Mod

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Design, Music, Neutrum Design | No Comments »

July 2nd, 2012

LiveControl Design Mod

LiveControl is a MIDI Remote script that allows you to control Ableton Live directly from your iPad or iPod using TouchOSC. It supports full automapping of parameters and bidirectional communication between Live and your touch device.

LiveControl is a sophisticated little piece of software, it’s fantastic and big fun to use. Best of all it’s free, and the wonderful TouchOSC is incredibly cheap. So if you use Ableton Live and have a touchscreen device, using TouchOSC together with LiveControl gives you a powerful wireless remote controller system for nearly nothing!

As you may know if you have heard about my Neutrum Design series of design modifications, I am a bit sensitive about colours. This is why I changed some colours in the layout of LiveControl to fit my preferred colour scheme for Ableton Live, a skin called “Klinikal Ninja”.

I found this skin on the web, and unfortunately I can’t give credit to the one who made it, because I could not find any link. But as this skin was free to download I guess he or she will be all right with sharing it. Look at the picture gallery below to get an idea of it. It’s great especially in dark rooms, such as a club or concert stage.

For LiveControl I changed some colours to make it fit the black and red colour scheme of the Klinikal Ninja skin. Also the clip launcher section was a little too nervous for my taste, so I stopped the “stop” buttons from blinking whenever a clip in this track is playing. I also made it possible to show grey clips, which is very important for Neutrum Design.

Above: The pages of the LiveControl Design Mod for iPod

Above: The pages of the LiveControl Design Mod for iPad

To install this design modification you need to upload the modified LiveControl layout to your device and to replace some script files inside the Ableton Live application folder with the modified ones provided by the download below. A readme file will give you all the information you need. If you also want to use the Klinikal Ninja skin, the installing instructions will show you the way to the skins folder, too.

Download Download Neutrum Design LiveControl Mod

The download contains all the files you need for the design modification on iPad or iPod, as well as detailed instructions on how to install them on Mac or PC. However I could only try and test it on a Mac with my iPod. I hope it will serve you on PC and iPad as well.

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Design, Music, Neutrum Design | No Comments »

November 25th, 2011

My Tiddly Wiki

I was curious about what a „Wiki“ might be, and I was surprised to learn and find much more than I had expected. Say hello to TiddlyWiki, your free personal advanced notepad!

A Wiki in general is a system to store and retrieve information, especially when working together in groups. Therefore Wikis are web based and they do not only show their contents but also allow you to edit them. If you think about Wikipedia for a moment, the special thing about it is the fact that you may not only read an article, but also may write one yourself, which makes this collection of information so big and still growing.

Tiddly Wiki is a small Wiki designed for personal use. It runs in your browser and stores information in one single file on your computer. Now the cool thing about Wikis is that they store information in a non-linear way, Which means that you don‘t have one page after another, but you write an entry and may hide it and forget about, but can easily retrieve it by searching for keywords or tags you have given it or looking in a timeline, where every entry is stored in chronological order.

There are many ways to customise Tiddly Wiki, as it is developed by a large community adding content and plugins to expand it‘s functionality. Just as a Wiki‘s content may be read and edited by everyone, the Wiki itself may be used and extended by everyone. This is perfect for me! As you might have noticed I like to edit the software I use to fit my personal expectations and needs, so of course I made some little tweaks, and of course I offer my personal edition for you to download.

So here we go, just download „My Tiddly Wiki“ and try it! A short introduction to basic functions is included. It‘s more or less original version of Tiddly Wiki with just a few tweaks in colour and one plugin which shows your entries in tabs (which is what I was looking for since a friend asked me for just that functionality which he missed in any other software he knew). If you want to learn more about Tiddly Wiki you might also want to look at Wikipedia or visit the original Tiddly Wiki Website.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Design, Discoveries | No Comments »

November 16th, 2011

Random Reading 3/4-08 A

Random Rhythm Reading is a series of downloadable text documents containing rhythmical phrases that can be rearranged for creating infinite variations of the reading text. This is very handy for practising purposes.

The musical text consists of pictures which represent one bar each. Using a simple text editor like TextEdit on Mac or WordPad on Windows you can copy and paste, drag and drop, duplicate or delete bars to rearrange them. As one bar is the smallest unit in this system, I offer reading texts in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 metres, each in 8th and 16th notes. As each package for one metre and subdivision is presented in a new post as I gradually expand the system, please use the Random Rhythm Reading category to get all of them.

Random Reading Text in 3/4, 8th Notes, Part A1
Random Reading Text in 3/4, 8th Notes, Part A2

 

As Mac and Windows systems use different techniques to incorporate pictures into a text file, I had to create different versions for Mac and Windows. The one for Mac is a .rtfd file that opens in TextEdit. TextEdit offers very cool drag and drop support for the pictures, which is really fun. The one for Windows is a .doc file that should open in WordPad, and as far as I know you can’t drag and drop pictures there. But this file format offers wider compatibility, also suitable for mobile devices.

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 3/4 in 8th Notes, Part A for Mac

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 3/4 in 8th Notes, Part A for Win

I will add packages to the system from time to time, so stay tuned – don‘t forget to subscribe to the RSS-Feed at the bottom of this page so you will always get notified when something new is out – and don‘t forget to „dice“ your reading text from time to time: Remember that you can reorder the text by simply dragging bars around.

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Random Rhythm Reading | No Comments »

November 3rd, 2011

Random Reading 4/4-08 A

Random Rhythm Reading is a series of downloadable text documents containing rhythmical phrases that can be rearranged for creating infinite variations of the reading text. This is very handy for practising purposes.

The musical text consists of pictures which represent one bar each. Using a simple text editor like TextEdit on Mac or WordPad on Windows you can copy and paste, drag and drop, duplicate or delete bars to rearrange them. As one bar is the smallest unit in this system, I offer reading texts in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 metres, each in 8th and 16th notes. As each package for one metre and subdivision is presented in a new post as I gradually expand the system, please use the Random Rhythm Reading category to get all of them.

Random Reading Text in 4/4, 8th Notes, Part A1
Random Reading Text in 4/4, 8th Notes, Part A2

As Mac and Windows systems use different techniques to incorporate pictures into a text file, I had to create different versions for Mac and Windows. The one for Mac is a .rtfd file that opens in TextEdit. TextEdit offers very cool drag and drop support for the pictures, which is really fun. The one for Windows is a .doc file that should open in WordPad, and as far as I know you can’t drag and drop pictures there. But this file format offers wider compatibility, also suitable for mobile devices.

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 4/4 in 8th Notes, Part A for Mac

Download Download Random Rhythm Reading 4/4 in 8th Notes, Part A for Win

I will add packages to the system from time to time, so stay tuned – don‘t forget to subscribe to the RSS-Feed at the bottom of this page so you will always get notified when something new is out – and don‘t forget to „dice“ your reading text from time to time: Remember that you can reorder the text by simply dragging bars around.

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Random Rhythm Reading | No Comments »