sordina / ScriptMidi

Run Scripts from a Midi Device

ScriptMidi

Run scripts from your Midi device.

Video

A somewhat outdated video of me using a previous version is available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g356ANC2zp4&list=UUiGSEVP_W5pJXMymVzG09zA

Why?

I use this for all kinds of reasons.

• A convenient way to trigger system functions during a music performance.
• A test-case launcher during software development so that you don't need to change windows to trigger a curl script, or something along those lines.
• A ghetto sampler - triggering sounds with afplay or "vocals" with the say command.

More to the point, if you already have a Midi device sitting on your desk unused, why not use it for something?

How?

You can start ScriptMidi with the scriptmidi command.

This will expect

1. A number indicating which midi-device you wish to use
2. Pairs of input, indicating which note, and what command
3. Lines starting with a # are ignored

The note can be indicated with either the note-number on STDIN, or by playing the note itself on the MIDI device.

All input can optionally be written to a log-file simply by redirecting STDOUT. This allows you to play back a session in case you wish to reuse the bindings you created.

In order to replay a session you just redirect STDIN into scriptmidi.

If you wish to be able to play-back a session, but also keep using the device after the commands are read, you will need to enlist the help of your shell.

For example:

	(cat history.txt ; cat) | scriptmidi

Instructions in information is sent through the user to STDERR. These instructional lines are always prefixed with #, so that if you wish to capture this in a log you can simply redirect STDERR to STDOUT like so:

	scriptmidi 2>&1 | tee log.txt

Source

The source is available on github and can be built with Cabal.

Binaries

Here are some pre-build binaries available for various systems below:

• http://sordina.binaries.s3.amazonaws.com/scriptmidi-0.1.0.0-MacOSX-10.9.5-13F34.zip
• http://sordina.binaries.s3.amazonaws.com/scriptmidi-0.1.0.1-MacOSX-10.9.5-13F34.zip
• http://sordina.binaries.s3.amazonaws.com/scriptmidi-0.1.0.2-MacOSX-10.9.5-13F34.zip

Known Bugs

Have to enter "exit" twice if you begin by reading a log, and then STDIN and wish to exit immediately.