New Script for Launchkey Mini (but not free for the moment) [Request for free]

[Pantamis]

Hi !

I tested Bitwig (demo version) because I use Linux and it's great !
I own a Launchkey 61 and for a long time I have searched for an API script for Launchkey with the Clip Launcher functionnality. I planned to buy Bitwig once there is a way to implement the Launcher with the pads of the Launchkey.

Today I found this video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QCygMhagwU

The use of the pads is absolutely perfect ! (I have already writen a script with the same idea to control clip's grid of Luppp but it's clearly not the same thing and the edit mode in this video is great).

But as you read in the title the creator want you to pay to obtain the script (50$ seriously ...).

So I wonder if someone buy the script and can share it for the other (yeah sometimes I'm selfish but at least it must be legal no ) or if someone has the time to write the same code . Then I'll try to use the script on Bitwigs repo after to add the faders on the bigger Launchkey (I know nothing in java but at least I can copy-paste at the good place ).

I hope there is a way to obtain this script for free at least ! It would be soooooo great....

Thanks a lot for reading !

[hihu]

50€ for the script. I asked Novation to do it.
My point of view is that it's their task to make a script when they want to sell more controllers in the future.

Sorry I'm no coder so I cannot help with it. Sorry.

[Pantamis]

Hi hihu !

Thanks a lot for your answer !

I think you did right, I completely agree with your mind.
I will do the same as you maybe. At least Novation can buy the script to code and publish one directly in a repo of Bitwig, it would be great already.
It seems like this script come from the one for Ableton Push, maybe there are some simple templates of code to do a such script.

If you have an answer from Novation I would like to know what they said
Thank you

[hihu]

I already asked them. But they said the guys at Bitwig should do it but they have no time.

So I argued that all the scripts are open source and availed on github.
So they passed my email to the developers but they refused to do it.
Don't know why but I said that they will eventually sell more keyboards when it works flawlessly and the can modify the code as it's open source.

That's all I know.

[BiggerWig]

Hi Guys

There obviously has been a lot of effort put into programming the script (it's more than 2500 lines of JS code and has some functions, not seen in many of the other scripts) so, asking a price is fair enough - moreover, the reason that the other scripts are open-source is either, that they are mostly pretty sparse (like templates for further coding) or the works of the manufacturer of some particular controller, getting the benefits of enhanced sales, or by Bitwig themselves, getting the benefits of selling more DAWs to the users of some popular controller

Buying the script and releasing it without an agreement, would violate copyright laws, as this particular script is not open source.

A better way would be to convince Novation (who are the ones with the really big advantage of a good script for their controller) to buy the legal rights for the script and then releasing it.

[dom@bitwig]

Wow, 50$ for a 2500 lines script for a 90$ controller! I guess we should charge something like 5000$ for Bitwig according to that logic.

The rules of supply and demand, i guess...

Sorry, could not resist,
Dom

BTW: The main reason for most of the scripts being open source (which was our goal) is missing in your post - they're from the community for the community. On the other hand there's obviously nothing wrong with selling them, as long as they don't contain the work of others. If people are willing to pay for it, absolutely fine.

[BiggerWig]

@Dom:

The line-counting was obviously not ment as an attempt to postulate some price/linecount equivalense, but simply to clear out how (in a more quantitative way) the script is not comparable with the community scripts. They are typicaly less than 200-300 lines and many even less which actually do say something about the depth of integration and functionality. Just not as an objective price-measure, of course.

BTW: 25 out of the 51 "communitycscripts" are "commercial" in the sense that they are either made by Bitwig or the respective controllers' manufacturer in an attempt to enhance sales.

Most (not all but most) of the rest are very limited in functionality, and the number of scripts (mentioned 51) is largely caused by the same script copied in more versions with very few changes.

So I think you are a bit biased here, as a representative of Bitwig. Of course you wuld like the script free and open source, as it enhaces your sale of Bitwig. But the fact is that you actually did manage to write scripts for the controllers that you see as the most supportive for the sales of your DAW. So the "... from the community for the community .." is maybe a bit saturated.

I think it would suit your company better to release a free and equally adept script for the Novation Mini, than it suits you to try to ridicule the author of a script, that offers a nice endorsement to your DAWs workflow and whole idea.

[dom@bitwig]

Oh, i'm more than just sorry if you feel ridiculed, exactly the opposite is true - i always like to see what others create using the scripting API.
I just wanted to express in a humorous way that i think the price is exaggerated in comparison to the price of the controller and the software. But as i already wrote: the rules of supply and demand, everyone in the market can write his own price tags and the market can decide it reacts to it.

Cheers,
Dom

[billcarroll]

Oh, i'm more than just sorry if you feel ridiculed, exactly the opposite is true - i always like to see what others create using the scripting API.
I just wanted to express in a humorous way that i think the price is exaggerated in comparison to the price of the controller and the software. But as i already wrote: the rules of supply and demand, everyone in the market can write his own price tags and the market can decide it reacts to it.

Cheers,
Dom

Novation released a new version of the Launchkey series, so you can buy the Launchkey 49 at Guitar Center in the USA for $99, and the 61 key for $139. A true steal for a decent keyboard with a few knobs and sliders.

If this Launchkey script was $5 or even $10, the author would probably get some traction with sales. Maybe.

[BiggerWig]

i always like to see what others create using the scripting API.

... what do you think about the script, then?

[BiggerWig]

[Novation released a new version of the Launchkey series, so you can buy the Launchkey 49 at Guitar Center in the USA for $99, and the 61 key for $139. A true steal for a decent keyboard with a few knobs and sliders.

... agreed, but still: the 61 or 49 are not "mini" (many of us prefer 25 keys, as they are portable) and the 49-script does not work properly with the Mini.

BTW: the 49 script is "commercial" as it is done by Bitwig themselves.

[BiggerWig]

One thing I don't understand, is the idea that the scripts price should somehow reflect the controllers price.

I don't say that 50 or 5 or 10 or 100 is a fair price, but I just don't see what the price of the controller has to do with it.

You might as well compare it to the pricetag of the thing "to be controlled" (the DAW), or the price of the computer and DAW for that matter. It's all a question of workflow and productivity: you got rid of your huge-console recording studio and scaled down to a laptop (which paradoxically skyrocketed you possibilities at a fraction of the price), you got rid of your 10 outboard synths and samplers and put them into the computer, and now you can't take the last but, workflow-wise, perhaps most important step to make everything controllable from the miniature controller right in front of you, because the controller was cheap?????.

And you may say that you don't see this final step as being worth the 50 bucks - but saying that its to much, the price for that controller taken into consideration just does not make sense to me. Understandable. perhaps if we were talking thousands of dollars or anything else that could ruin a budget - but 50 bucks ??

[billcarroll]

One thing I don't understand, is the idea that the scripts price should somehow reflect the controllers price.

I don't say that 50 or 5 or 10 or 100 is a fair price, but I just don't see what the price of the controller has to do with it.

You might as well compare it to the pricetag of the thing "to be controlled" (the DAW), or the price of the computer and DAW for that matter. It's all a question of workflow and productivity: you got rid of your huge-console recording studio and scaled down to a laptop (which paradoxically skyrocketed you possibilities at a fraction of the price), you got rid of your 10 outboard synths and samplers and put them into the computer, and now you can't take the last but, workflow-wise, perhaps most important step to make everything controllable from the miniature controller right in front of you, because the controller was cheap?????.

And you may say that you don't see this final step as being worth the 50 bucks - but saying that its to much, the price for that controller taken into consideration just does not make sense to me. Understandable. perhaps if we were talking thousands of dollars or anything else that could ruin a budget - but 50 bucks ??

The existing Novation Launchkey script works reasonably well for me, and I don't have a $50 need for another script. Maybe the script is worth $50 to someone else?

[goatgirl]

Do you get any support with the script?

Will it work with Bitwig 1.2?

Is that $49 including taxes or $49 plus taxes... or aren't you bothering with that sort of thing?

If I buy the script and i don't like it can I have a refund?

[TeotiGraphix]

IMHO javascript is really hard to make money from if you don't run it through a minimizer/obfusticator.

I worked on the scripts with Push and Maschine for good karma as I know it would be virtually impossible to make any money off them if I didn't have another 50 scripts to sell.

I have had my software components stolen and pirated since 2004, I just gave up on trying to sell things that contained readable code.

Mike