DrivenByMoss: Bitwig extension for many hardware controllers (version 26.6.1)

[leighhunt]

Hi Jurgen,
I thought it is well past time I should reach out and say a massive thank you for your extensive work, both with Bitwig and Reaper. Your video series is seriously amazing, and got me up and running building a Bitwig extension in Java using Eclipse in no time at all (having never programmed in Java and never having used Eclipse). You are truly one of the great 'people' persons of the world!
I'm excited to read that you are learning some information about how project and track remotes might be implemented. These new Bitwig additions look set to facilitate modulation in a way I have been half-working on for Reaper for quite a few years on and off, in between working as a live sound engineer.
I already have a Push1, Komplete S61mk2 and an Icon platform-m integrated with Bitwig using your extension, and am putting together an extension to implement 3 x midi fighter twisters with a touch display positioned behind them. The track and project remotes will really become the icing on the cake for me.
At the moment I am utilising a parameter page workaround with specifically named tags to make use of the 48 encoders I have per 'MFT page', with good success as far as I have got (still a way to go though).
Anyway, as I said, I just wanted to reach out and say 'Hi' for now. You might see my presence a little on this forum moving forward, in between touring.
Kind regards,
Leigh Hunt

[moss]

Hi,

Concerning my "bidirectional" Midi-Problem: Sorry for describing my problem not precisely.
Coming from Ableton i would expect the following way of midi-mapping to work bi-directionally:
- Strg+M = Midi Map mode active.
- Pressing "midi" on the NI KK S49mk2 Keyboard to have some custom-assignable encoders
- assigning the first encoder(cc14) to a Volume Fader in Ableton
-> Result: The Fader is controlled by the encoder. And moving the Fader in Ableton changes the value shown in the KK Keyboard Display.

Now, trying to do the same in Bitwig:
- pressing on the 'Hand' symbol in the bottom right, to open up the mappings panel, then clicking on a Volume Fader in a Bitwig Track (alternatively: rightclick on the fader, clicking on assign midi)
- Pressing "midi" on the Keyboard
- assigning the first encoder (cc14) to the Fader
- closing the mapping mode
-> Result: The Fader is controlled by the encoder. But moving the Fader in Bitwig does not change the value shown in the KK Keyboard Display. [same thing for all take-over-modes]
To troubleshoot this behavior in Ableton, i would check, if the "Remote" row of the KK keyboard is deactivated in the midi-preferences. But i don't know how to do that in bitwig.

Bitwig Beta 5 v6 here, using Komplete Kontrol S49mk2 with your 20.1 drivenbymoss script

Sorry for yet another question, about the Keyboard script:
How to adjust the KK controller settings to do the following within the Clip-View with vertical Scenes:
1) Lets assume our current clip-selection-focus lies on Track 2, Clip 5 (so within Scene 5). Moving the navigation-knob upwards should not switch focus to the track above, but rather the clip above, in exactly the same Scene! So: no horizontal change of selection-focus, when moving "up". "Up" should mean up, and not also moving to the total left, then forcing the user to press right however times necessary to get back to the Scene where the "up" was intitially pressed. Same for down-movement.
I would suggest an assignable toggle button for fast track- and scene-selection. When this toggle button is held down, it will switch the navigation-knob to the "meta-ebene" , which means tracks (up/down) and scenes (left/right). When this magical meta-ebene toggle-button would not be pressed down/or toggled, the navigation-knob would again function as described above, navigating the clip-grid.
This would combine the best of both worlds: a) clip-grid and b) track/scene navigation, in an extremely fast way, because the focus-switch is midi-assignable (which is far superior to any non-midi-assignable implementation of this switch in the controller-script-preferences for example).

To not anger people who like things as they are, this "up means up, down means down" style of navigation could be switched on/off in the preferences. Also for the preferences i would suggest an additional "stay within clip-grid (exclude tracks/scenes)" on/off so the user can choose if moving to the far left selects the track, moving to the top selects the scene - or not.


2) not so important, but would be nice: "CLEAR" button on KKS49 should clear (delete) the selected clip. "Mode select" could then be on some other button, like the usually un-used first button above the display. I tried to assign one of the top-row buttons to Bitwigs "delete" function, but no luck - this is no good workflow compared to a scripted Button like Clear, since, one has to change the keyboards mode to Midi, each and everytime one wants to delete a clip with a custom button.

Thank you alot!

The Komplete keyboards are a bit difficult to understand. The important fact to know is that the Ableton mode (which I use as well for the implementation) does not send or use any kind of MIDI data, instead it uses a protocol which you feed some data and receive some commands. This means I have not much choice how to implement things. E.g. the CLEAR button is the only button which I can use for the modes.
To have a bi-directional MIDI mapping a specific USER mode woud be required which is not implemented. Also if you map a knob this way, it will be fully blocked for DrivenByMoss.
Regarding your selection issue: there is a Bitwig setting to select the same slot when changing tracks.

Sorry, to say but if you want more flexibility you need to choose a different device (e.g. a Novation SLMkIII).

[nowiamone]

Wow, it's fascinating to see the difficulties behind implementing all this.
Also a bit sad, that Bitwig isn't recognized by Native Instruments. (I mean, you have to do workarounds based upon an Ableton script, that doesnt sound like native instruments is very active in helping a Bitwig specific usage)

You said: "Regarding your selection issue: there is a Bitwig setting to select the same slot when changing tracks."
I m searching, but i can't find it, but maybe i steh aufm Schlauch, not seeing it in the manual. Would the "up means up" within clip grid be possible with this Bitwigsetting? Sounds good!

Sadly, i still don't understand how to use bi-directional Midi cc, in general, in Bitwig. According to a Midi Monitor program, Bitwig doesn't even give out any Midi CC when moving an assigned Fader via mouse-click, which greatly differs from the standard behavior of Ableton, where moving the Fader via Mouseclick is exactly mirrored in the Controller-LED / touchinterface/etc.. I guess i will write to the support.

[pc999]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your work it is really appreciated.

May I ask you to clarify how does the release and the alternative launch options work on launchpad pro (original) and Akai Force?

On Akai Force long press an clip or shift+clip does not seem to do anything

On launchpad pro (original) when I long press a clip selects him and when I press shift it goes to/toggle directly to the shift mode so I can not use the shit+press for the alternate mode

Probably I am missing something.

I am using B v5b6 and Moss 20.1.0.

BTW if there was a way to preserve the select clip feature (available by long pressing a clip till now) it would be really cool as it seems the fastest way to select a clip for edit in the step sequencer.

Many thanks!

[moss]

Wow, it's fascinating to see the difficulties behind implementing all this.
Also a bit sad, that Bitwig isn't recognized by Native Instruments. (I mean, you have to do workarounds based upon an Ableton script, that doesnt sound like native instruments is very active in helping a Bitwig specific usage)

You said: "Regarding your selection issue: there is a Bitwig setting to select the same slot when changing tracks."
I m searching, but i can't find it, but maybe i steh aufm Schlauch, not seeing it in the manual. Would the "up means up" within clip grid be possible with this Bitwigsetting? Sounds good!

Uh, seems I confused something. There is only a setting to do the opposite (select the track when when a slot is selected).

The slot selection you asked about is actually an open issue (which I forgot about) but I tried now to implement a workaround for this which seems to work quite stable. Will be in the next update.

[moss]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your work it is really appreciated.

May I ask you to clarify how does the release and the alternative launch options work on launchpad pro (original) and Akai Force?

On Akai Force long press an clip or shift+clip does not seem to do anything

On launchpad pro (original) when I long press a clip selects him and when I press shift it goes to/toggle directly to the shift mode so I can not use the shit+press for the alternate mode

Probably I am missing something.

I am using B v5b6 and Moss 20.1.0.

BTW if there was a way to preserve the select clip feature (available by long pressing a clip till now) it would be really cool as it seems the fastest way to select a clip for edit in the step sequencer.

Many thanks!

Are you sure you are running the latest DrivenByMoss version? Sounds like it is the old one. You can check in Bitwig by clicking on "Add controller" in the control settings and then click one of my extensions in the list.

[mevla]

[ Removed questions : found an answer ]

[nowiamone]

The slot selection you asked about is actually an open issue (which I forgot about) but I tried now to implement a workaround for this which seems to work quite stable. Will be in the next update.

This is great news!

After asking in the KVR bitwig forum, i realized other users also have the "bidirectional midi cc not working" issue. Someone even showed a link to a script specifically for bidirectional midi:
https://github.com/Knochenschall/Toms_B ... omsGeneric
It is called "TomsMultiBiController.control.js"
After testing it with the Volume Faders, it works! Finally, when moving the Bitwig Fader, my Visual-Touch-Control Fader also gets moved, because Bitwig sends out the Midi CC info!
BUT: Buttons are non-assignable with this script, for whatever reason.
I hereby beg you to make a bi-directional "generic" script, maybe include it in the flexi script.

[pc999]

Are you sure you are running the latest DrivenByMoss version? Sounds like it is the old one. You can check in Bitwig by clicking on "Add controller" in the control settings and then click one of my extensions in the list.

Yup that was it, sorry my mistake.

Thank you!

[moss]

DrivenByMoss 20.2 is online!

Get it from https://mossgrabers.de

• Requires Bitwig 5.0+
• Added support for the ESI Xjam controller
• Komplete Kontrol MkII
  • New: Make sure that the same slot is selected when switching tracks.
• MCU
  • Fixed: Added missing EQ and INST buttons to simulator.

Enjoy!

[ansolas]

Hello,
the FLIP mode of Device parameters doen't work as expected. (INST)
The Faders always jump back to its previous position, but the values stay see:



Moving the Knob with the mouse do not move the fader either.

The FLIP mode of PLUG-IN dC works ! There I can control the parameter mapping stored preset wise and Device Parameters. Mouse Movements move the Fader as well.
Anything woks as expected. <3

---
So shall we use just the PLUG-IN mode for all and don't use the INST mode?
As far as I saw Instruments and FDX can be controled in the PLUG-IN.

Maybe the INST button can bve used for somthing else?

---
Another thing I noticed is that the scribble scrips do not display any text.
---
using DrivenByMoss-20.2.0-Bitwig.zip and BitWigBeta 6
--
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[moss]

Hello,
the FLIP mode of Device parameters doen't work as expected. (INST)
The Faders always jump back to its previous position, but the values stay see:



Moving the Knob with the mouse do not move the fader either.

The FLIP mode of PLUG-IN dC works ! There I can control the parameter mapping stored preset wise and Device Parameters. Mouse Movements move the Fader as well.
Anything woks as expected. <3

---
So shall we use just the PLUG-IN mode for all and don't use the INST mode?
As far as I saw Instruments and FDX can be controled in the PLUG-IN.

Maybe the INST button can bve used for somthing else?

---
Another thing I noticed is that the scribble scrips do not display any text.
---
using DrivenByMoss-20.2.0-Bitwig.zip and BitWigBeta 6
--
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Congratulations, you found a bug! Will be fixed in the next update!

[Mantras]

I have a question regarding the "last touched parameter" control with the push2 touchstrip. Will it work as 7-bit 128step midi or 14-bit high resolution midi? I do not have a push2 to try it out with.

[ansolas]

Congratulations, you found a bug! Will be fixed in the next update!

thank you very much!

[moss]

I have a question regarding the "last touched parameter" control with the push2 touchstrip. Will it work as 7-bit 128step midi or 14-bit high resolution midi? I do not have a push2 to try it out with.

From memory: yes it should be hi-res since it uses pitchbend data.