touchosc
Latest
Mimbo the iPhone robot will smile for you, still doesn't get your 'Seinfeld' references
This here is Mimbo. He's the kindly sort. Smile and Mimbo smiles back. Sure, others in his place might let their cardboard bodies, iPhone faces and all of the male bimbo jokes stand in the way of having a good time. Not Mimbo. The happy little 'bot uses facial recognition to generation a corresponding emotion on that cardboard-wrapped iPhone head of his. His face is composed of four LEDs for eyes, an empty label eyelid and a mouth made from a multifader, all created using TouchOSC. And using facial tracking via a program like FaceOSC, little Mimbo can mimic your expressions. Check out the 'bot in a video after the break and find out how to manufacture your own Mimbo at home in the source link below.
Video: DJing on an iPad
In the video below, you'll find a pretty rocking DJ set thanks to an iPad and some other pretty gnarly hardware. This isn't exactly a DIY solution, since DJ Kutski is using Traktor Pro (that's the software on the screen above) and an X1 controller, both of which are pretty significant pieces of DJ gear. But the iPad is definitely a big part of the equation, and it's running TouchOSC, a neat app that allows you to hook up sound interfaces over Wi-Fi using some very configurable abstract graphics. There's not much in the way of explanation. You can definitely see him changing pitches and adjusting the volume in real-time (pretty impressive just running the controller over Wi-Fi), but non-DJs will probably have to look elsewhere to figure out exactly what's happening here. Then again, if nothing else, you can enjoy some nice iPad-driven beats on this Christmas Eve. Enjoy!
Found Footage: An iPad-controlled robot that attacks
Thanks to the iPad and TouchOSC, robot Hikari can now be controlled by our favorite tablet device. The system for control on the iPad is powered by TouchOSC, a remote control application that sends commands to an external device using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol. These commands are sent to a Max patch running on a Windows-based PC. Commands are then relayed directly to the PC-connected robot. In the YouTube video after the break, owner Darkback2 uses this system to make Hikari walk and stand up from both a face-up and a face-down position. You should watch out, though, as the iPad controller can also be used to make Hikari attack, an action that fits in nicely with the video's drum-heavy theme music. For those that are wondering, ... no, robot Hikari does not dance. Thanks Bob for sending this in!
Turn your iPad into a MIDI controller in 3,700 easy steps
It was only a matter of time before someone took a look at that 9.7-inch display and decided they wanted to do some serious dancefloor damage with it. Not to be outdone by the likes of Looptastic HD or iElectribe, our man Ryan Noise (dot com) has just posted a video detailing his experiments with the iPad as MIDI controller and, as long as you don't have your heart set on your instrument providing some sort of tactile response, it looks like things are working out pretty well. Using a combination of the TouchOSC open sound control app, Osculator, a Python script, and Ableton Live 8, we've seen this basic setup before: the iPad (or iPhone, or iPod touch) sends open sound commands to the Mac, which translates them into MIDI commands for your instrument / DAW of choice. But why read when you can watch? Peep the video after the break for the gist, and hit that source link for technical details.
Found Footage: MIDI wind instrument controlled with the iPod touch's accelerometer
Onyx Ashanti is an American musician living in Berlin. He specializes in "beatjazz," which he describes as being built on "live looping, sound design, and jazz improvisation." Using a Yamaha MIDI wind controller (that looks like an electronic clarinet) and an iPod touch running the TouchOSC app (US$4.99), Ashanti has been able to create some pretty incredible sounds. In the above video, Ashanti has the iPod touch strapped to his right hand, and he's able to use the accelerometer in the touch to translate his hand motions into control inputs for PureData audio processing. You may not necessarily like beatjazz, but you've got to admit it's cool that musicians like Ashanti are pushing the edge with Apple technology. [via Engadget]
One man band rocks the iPod touch, rescues the MIDI clarinet from obscurity
We've seen blow-hard electronic music makers in the past (one particular didgeridoo hack comes to mind) but still, when one makes us take note we feel like we just have to pass it along. Onyx Ashanti is an American living in Berlin and a one-man band to boot. His instrument of choice is a Yamaha MIDI wind controller for triggering audio and the TouchOSC app for iPod touch for controlling PureData audio processing. And the music he makes from the two is pretty, pretty wild... see for yourself after the break.
Found Footage: live rig with TouchOSC
I recently offered a little introduction to integrating TouchOSC with Logic. In response, TUAW reader Tom Phillipson sent us a link to a video of his own integration of TouchOSC into his live setup. He modded a Novation ReMOTE 25SL Compact, extending its functionality via TouchOSC on his iPod touch. Check out the video to see (and hear) it controlling Ableton Live and an Access TI Snow. Thanks for sharing, Tom!
TouchOSC and Logic: look mom, no cables!
The App Store is somewhat deluged with music-related applications. While I find many of the instruments to be novelties, the iPhone-based remote controls available for various Digital Audio Workstations have really caught my attention. I've been playing around with the various musical remote controllers available for a while now. When the various iTouchMidi controllers were released, I got pretty excited. Problematically, I'm a fan of Logic Pro, and these intriguing but mostly Logic-incompatible controllers weren't up to snuff for my personal needs. It was a few weeks before I discovered the available OpenSound Control (OSC) apps in the App Store. I've played with the lineup of controllers such as OSCemote and Mrmr (iTunes link), and both of those are a lot of fun with a good amount of potential. One stood out for me, though, and TouchOSC has officially become part of my home studio setup. TouchOSC provides an array of control screens consisting of faders, rotary controls, buttons, toggles, XY pads, multi-faders/toggles and LEDs in various configurations. It communicates wirelessly with software and hardware which can receive and send the OSC protocol. I thought I'd offer a quick rundown of the steps I used to get from TouchOSC to Logic. I'm sure the same methods can be applied to other software, with a little variation. An overview of the controller configurations in TouchOSC can be found in the gallery below. Read on for the lowdown. %Gallery-36766%
