KVR Audio

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:47 pm

I've been pestering NI to add Lua scripting to Reaktor - now it looks like I can stop pestering and enjoy it from an external source, with the GUI and interconnection problems all taken care of already.

Yes, there's already scripting in Lemur but the app costs literally ten times the price of TouchOSC - I've worked in it a bit and it's slightly annoying that it's yet another non portable toy language (KSP anyone?). The nice thing about Lua is that it's an open standard and it's already in, for example, the Pure Data beta. I expect it to show up in more places soon too.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:14 pm

~Pd~ wrote:

I've been pestering NI to add Lua scripting to Reaktor - now it looks like I can stop pestering and enjoy it from an external source, with the GUI and interconnection problems all taken care of already.

Yes, there's already scripting in Lemur but the app costs literally ten times the price of TouchOSC - I've worked in it a bit and it's slightly annoying that it's yet another non portable toy language (KSP anyone?). The nice thing about Lua is that it's an open standard and it's already in, for example, the Pure Data beta. I expect it to show up in more places soon too.

Unfortunately, whilst Lua gets some usage in audio apps, and would be worth picking up more for that reason, so does python, and java and JavaScript and...

It's all getting a it unwieldy for me. Although nobodys using perl which is a missed opportunity. Honest.

conundrum · Post by **conundrum** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:08 pm

Now if only it would get the ability to use NRPN and sysex msgs...

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:42 pm

NRPN and sysex are coming.

https://plus.google.com/102287351664806 ... eun6S9FVSj

As long as MIDI out is scriptable the scripts will be able to send NRPN. There are ways to script it in Lemur though it's not included in the app's native functions. You just do a little math to calculate the MSB and LSB values.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:27 pm

whyterabbyt wrote:Unfortunately, whilst Lua gets some usage in audio apps, and would be worth picking up more for that reason, so does python, and java and JavaScript and...

It's all getting a it unwieldy for me. Although nobodys using perl which is a missed opportunity. Honest.

I thought about this and did some investigation - here's the thing, Lua is optimized as a small, light and efficient scripting engine for precisely this kind of embedded use. The license is permissive. The engine is written in ANSI C and compiles anywhere there's C. I'm not surprised it's seeing so much interest. About the only complaint I've seen is that it isn't ____ where ____ is something the complainer already knows.

I wouldn't mind seeing Python embedded in audio apps but I'm not sure how much it would add in overhead and integration complexity.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:28 pm

[oops, double]

Keebo · Post by **Keebo** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:20 am

This is great news for me as I have TouchOSC and just purchased Codea which uses Lua. Looking forward to learning how to make good use of it all.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:01 am

Ooh, I didn't realize that uses Lua. I have to get it now. I already installed the runtime on my computer and started messing around with it. The semicolons being optional feels weird, like walking around without pants.

Lua Scripting coming to TouchOSC!