Sophia

This is pretty open ended, but does anyone care to share interesting methods they've found to map MIDI values to RGB color and/or XYZ coordinates?

The problem I'm facing with both is how to translate three parameter systems into a linear scale. For instance, I can't just scale the MIDI to 0.-1. for each color value, as I'll just get shades of gray. Similarly, if I break the MIDI scale into three segments, map the matching value to 0.-1., and leave the other two at 0., I'll just get hues of red, green, and blue, with no colors in between. What I'd like is to arrange them into a linear scale of color that slowly shifts as the user runs her finger down the keyboard- more along the lines of how colors are arranged in the spectrum than in their additive or subtractive combinations.

I think this is the crux of most work done in Max (and most interactive work in general)- creative mapping techniques, so I thought it would be enlightening if folks could share.

This is pretty open ended, but does anyone care to share interesting methods they've found to map MIDI values to RGB color and/or XYZ coordinates?  

The problem I'm facing with both is how to translate three parameter systems into a linear scale.  For instance, I can't just scale the MIDI to 0.-1. for each color value, as I'll just get shades of gray.  Similarly, if I break the MIDI scale into three segments, map the matching value to 0.-1., and leave the other two at 0., I'll just get hues of red, green, and blue, with no colors in between.  What I'd like is to arrange them into a linear scale of color that slowly shifts as the user runs her finger down the keyboard- more along the lines of how colors are arranged in the spectrum than in their additive or subtractive combinations.  

I think this is the crux of most work done in Max (and most interactive work in general)- creative mapping techniques, so I thought it would be enlightening if folks could share. 

interesting-ways-to-map-midi-to-color-and-3d-coordinates

Instead of using RGB color space, use HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) colorspace, and map MIDI 0..127 into the hue, and maybe velocity to the saturation.

that was my thought as well. look to [swatch] which will do the hsl-rgb conversion for you---running your finger down the keys now can do a rainbow if you use hue, maybe map saturation and lightness to other params like velocity or mod wheel...

exactly what i was looking for.  thanks!


interesting ways to map MIDI to color and 3d coordinates