Jump to content

LPC 17xx based USB MIDI Interface for Android, iOS


bassmosphere
 Share

Recommended Posts

My company develops mobile accessories. Having built an early MIDIBox back in 2001, I've watched the project evolve over the years. We have been considering doing an open source MIDI project targeting mobile for some time. Working with the MB community on a future endeavor makes a lot of sense. Below I have outlined a very rough concept of an open-source MIDI interface. It comes in two flavors with iOS support and without iOS support. They are both identical except the latter would support the Apple iDevices.

The controller would be sold as a completely assembled product that is ready to use.

A MIDI swiss-army knife

  • MIDI I/O (# TBD)
  • MIDI Over USB (PC, Android, iOS)
  • DIN Sync
  • CV/Trigger I/O (# TBD)
  • USB Input Device In - Map a USB device to MIDI, and use it as a controller, w/out being connected to a computer
  • MIDI transformation and filtering - Generate chords, octaves, arpeggios

Concept

There is much to be explored on the software side of MIDI controllers. We would like to provide users an intuitive way to build up midi controllers from off the shelf USB components like computer keyboards, touch pads, and joysticks. Adding filtering and transformation allows for some very cool possibilities.

Benefit to the community

[*] It isn't possible for individuals to develop iOS accessories and it can take months for a company to become MFiapproved. A MBHP based interface would provide a path for hobbyists to build upon.

[*] A way to build your own controller without needing to program or solder

[*] Open source Apps for android, iOS, PC - We will be open sourcing all software

*Apple Licensing

In order for a device to work with iPhone, iPad or iPod, it requires an Authentication Coprocessor supplied by Apple. This is under NDA and the source can not be supplied. It is however, possible to provide the bits licensed from Apple in a static library without violating the terms of the agreement. This code is completely separate from the implementation and business logic of a MIDI interface. The firmware for the non-iOS version would be completely open-source as there are no such restrictions on PCs or Android devices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Especially the USB Host functionality will result into a lot of work, since this isn't supported by MIOS32 itself.

Adding such a function and making it robust enough for various USB device will be a big benefit for the platform -> therefore ACCEPTED

Best Regards, Thorsten.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In this day and age I would also like to see OSC capability on the list of desired features ;-) - could make for a nice hardware OSC<->midi translator/router/mapper.

a OSC<->MIDI translator router/mapper is already available btw.

E.g. in MBSEQ V4, but also in MIDIO128, upcoming MBCV, MBNG, etc...

Best Regards, Thorsten.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In this day and age I would also like to see OSC capability on the list of desired features ;-) - could make for a nice hardware OSC<->midi translator/router/mapper.

Will you also open source the schems/pcb designs?

A few questions:

I am not that familiar with OSC, though I know there are a bunch of programs that use it. Could you name a feature you would use OSC for that you *couldn't* use MIDI for?

So are you saying you'd like to be able to map the USB device to the OSC protocol as well?

It doesn't seem like mapping MIDI to Osc would be that useful since most everything supports MIDI already, I may be wrong about this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Basically, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Sound_Control - especially the Motivation and Features section. Implementations if you want to know what you could interface it with.

I like human-readable addresses, "native" transfer of strings (yeah i now that's probably possible with sysex or nrpn or something in midi), transmission over wireless (potentially to another continent if i wish), control of a variety of devices with your mobile phone/tablet (touchOSC)...

What I meant is mapping certain midi messages to OSC messages to allow interaction between osc-enabled and midi-enabled devices/software. like osculator does, for example, just in hardware (therefore, no cpu load on your pc). the missing link also goes in that direction: http://wifimidi.com/. it's also nice to look at libmapper and see what those guys have done: http://www.idmil.org/software/libmapper

Mapping Midi/OSC would be useful because most everything understands midi already, but the world is moving forward and more and more devices support OSC (and its innovative use) nowadays - a mapping/translation will enable midi-only devices to still be used in an OSC-centric context.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...