Announcing MIRA, a new way to connect with your Max patches

Andrew Benson's icon

We're excited to present to you our first iOS app, Mira for iPad. Mira automatically connects to your patch and gives you immediate touch control of your user interface.

seejayjames's icon

Time to get an iPad.

Spip's icon

Nice !

Does it work in bpatchers ?

If I put the mira object in an abstraction, will it work ?

PS. I will without any doubt, buy it but... may I add I would have been very happy with a price a little bit lower.

Andrew Benson's icon

In this initial release, there isn't support for bpatchers with Mira. You can however use it inside of an abstraction. Anywhere you add a mira.frame object to your patch, you will create a UI page that shows up on Mira. This lets you add frames (views) from different subpatches or multiple frames in the same patch.

thopa's icon

Hi, this looks great!
Does it support max4live devices at the moment?
Thanks

stringtapper's icon

Damn university network must have access points disabled. :-(

Joshua Kit Clayton's icon

@stringtapper you can set up an ad hoc wifi network on your laptop, but that won't help with other wired school devices.

stringtapper's icon

That's what I had to do to run a quick test, but I need to be on the network. I'll have to play at home then.

I did notice that ezdac~ has an 'm' on it now but doesn't seem to show up in Mira. A future supported object?

Roald Baudoux's icon

This is quite a good work. Bought.

As I have been working quite a lot on angular velocity with L***r recently I really like the presence of the mira.mt.rotate object, however I'd like it even more if it was also able to track a single-finger rotation around the center of the mira.multitouch surface.

Christopher Dobrian's icon

Cool program. Congratulations! The self-connecting feature worked fine for me on a non-university network. Will test more when I'm on campus.

My first gripe: I find that the UI objects change their value by + or - 1 or 2 when I release touch of the iPad screen. I don't think that's an unavoidable fact of touchscreen life, since TouchOSC doesn't do that. But it happens consistently, no matter how carefully I try to remove my finger from the iPad screen. That's pretty darn problematic for serious use. Any advice?

Rodrigo's icon

Please please please add a "Mira Mode" to Max patches, so you can have a coding layout, a computer UI layout, and a Mira layout, all with the same objects, without having to make a miniature/duplicate UI to fit on an iPad.

Roald Baudoux's icon

Seems to be some issues. Mira quitted and Max crashed several times (not every time) upon mira helpfiles loading in Max. Crahlog attached to the message.

Is the Mira-Max duo supposed to work correctly whatever being the first one started ?

Mira-crashlog.pdf
pdf
Wetterberg's icon

Congratulations on the release, guys. Great stuff!

Any sort of roadmap for objects that you can share with us? I use Lemurs for grid-based music, but I can only really see individual buttons here? matrixctl, live.step, that sorta thing?

Doing hundreds of live.button thingies doesn't sound like fun, hehe.

Rodrigo's icon

This is so badass. Completely changing how I'm working with max/displays/controllers.

A little bug, the comment object in Mira doesn't display font descenders correctly (ie the dangling bit of "y" and "g" get cut off).

thopa's icon

Max for live devices with multisilders dont show up on Mira (ipad)
Some sequencer / slider examples would be great.

Matthew Davidson's icon
Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

here is a 'scrolling' multislider interface for mira

Matthew Davidson's icon

Here are a couple other things. A little autoharp and a quick mira adaption of the rgraino bpatcher,

mira-autoharp.zip
zip
mira-autoharp1.zip
zip
mira-rgraino.maxpat
Max Patch
thopa's icon

Thanks Matthew¡ any change your m4live suite will be Mira compatible?

Matthew Davidson's icon

Had not really thought about m4l suite. Mira opens up so many possibilities I'm a bit overwhelmed as to what to work on next. I think the most pressing need are some simple, fun, standalone mira examples to help people get started and illustrate what is possible. But I think mira is most compelling as a tool for people to build their own things.

metamax's icon

Took me all of 30 seconds to make the purchase. This is a huge plus for some of us. Thank you.

AaronMButler's icon

Amazing! I can't wait to spend some quality time with Mira.

I'll echo Chris Dobrian's gripe though. I was able to get the value of a slider to stay put a couple of times by VERY carefully removing my finger, but in a live performance I don't see being able to focus that intently on the task.

Maybe some type of sensitivity control could be added eventually?

Can't wait to see how this develops over the next year or so!

Thomas Sandberg's icon

Just got it from App Store. Fantastic invention. Congratulations to all Max users :-)

Lee's icon

is this Mac only? the download seems only to contain a max installer...

Stephane Morisse's icon

Huge and almost insane in a so good way ! Also had a crash on first launch after having the ipad2 reflecting mira's helpfile and it has crashed twice when I chose the 'supported ui objects tab'.
There seems to be no way to have the live.gain~ appear... and live.meter appears but doesn't update the level metering. And I second the point of having the walue changing too easily when you take off your finger from the screen.
Congrats to the cycling team and particularly Dude837,'if that's your real name'. :)) Was already a fan of your tutorials, now you are my morning hero !

Rodrigo's icon

Any plans for an iPhone version?

Lee's icon

can anyone confirm whether they've found a windows installer? thx

wurlt01's icon

please please does this work for windows. This is awesome. waiting for confirmation so i can buy app.

parafrezza's icon

Hi,
good work indeed!
The connection seems very stable and ultra fast. :)
+1 for a "Mira Mode" (it is a pain to rewrite all your UIs in 4:3 aspect ratio)
+1 for windows version
-Why not add some objects valuable for jitter users like -perhaps limited- pwindow version?
-Textedit! I do remember c74.app supported this object.
The issue:
Fpic is crashing max every time, dump report attached.
Cheers.

fpic-crash-report.pdf
pdf
seanzshow's icon

This might be an interesting watch for anyone who missed it :)

Bart's icon

Congrats ! Seems to work perfectly with my iPad...

However, I have a crash each time I go in the "mira.frame help" and launch the Supported Ui Objects tab with my iPad connected. If my iPad is not connected to Max, there is no crash at all...

Anyone experienced the same crash ?

brendan mccloskey's icon

Thanks for putting up Sam's presentation Sean - so disappointed not to have made it this year.

Brendan

Stephane Morisse's icon

@Bart : same bug with mira.frame help second tab.
+1 for a Mira mode.

wurlt01's icon

does this work for pc.

MrMaarten's icon

Question: is it possible to upload pictures to the iPad with Mira (just like the c74 external)?

Joseph Hyde's icon

For some reason, I can't connect using our (home) wifi network, saying the connection is refused. We've got a pretty standard setup I'd say, so I'm a bit puzzled by this - anyone else having problems?

It does work fine with an 'Ad Hoc' connection, which may be a better way to go anyway. And it looks great!

shreeswifty's icon

it's crashing immediately on 10.8 on my mac pro. It works [does not crash on my 10.6 laptop] who do i send the error codes to?

phlakung's icon

Great stuff. Connecting via network: "it just works"
“mira.frame help” almost always crashes MIRA on my iPad though.

Sam Tarakajian's icon

Thanks everyone for the crash reports. Fortunately, I've figured out the bug in mira.frame's helpfile (something to do with fpic) and I'm working on the solution now. Should have a fix out as soon as possible.

shreeswifty's icon

just let us know where we go for our bug finders discount.

Rodrigo's icon

I have the same exact problem. I got it to work one time, after setting up an ad hock network, and then deleting it, but my regular wifi says refused 99% of the times I've tried it.

"For some reason, I can’t connect using our (home) wifi network, saying the connection is refused. We’ve got a pretty standard setup I’d say, so I’m a bit puzzled by this – anyone else having problems?"

shreeswifty's icon

is anyone else on a mac pro with 10.8.4? I cannot get it to run at all :-(

Stephane Morisse's icon

I tried it yesterday on my 10.8.4 mbp Using the house network and it worked right away.

ArturMihel's icon

android plants?

metamax's icon

Is it possible to access data from the camera?

alfonso santimone's icon

aarghhh! i bought right away but relized after there is no win version of mira package. sadness.

moss's icon

I hope we will now also see native touch support on Windows! Why would I want to carry a second device?

Medd's icon

Yeah I'd suggest that at £35, a warning about Windows (non)compatibility might be something to have in big letters at the top!

I'll hold out for a few versions and see how it develops, it certainly looks like the Max integration is great, it just doesn't do anything too unique for me yet. Well done to the developers though!

Robert Baldock's icon

This looks like a great tool but it's a pity the Mac-only nature of the desktop part of Mira doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on the app's page in the App Store.

As a result I went ahead and bought Mira only to discover that I can't actually use it as I'm on a Windows 7 laptop.

When is a Windows version of mira.frame etc being released?

If it's not coming soon, can I please get a refund?

Can you also please update the description on the App Store because at the moment, the information is pretty misleading.

Robert Baldock

Cripto's icon

Hey guys this rocks.

I have to say, for 50 bucks I would have expected a little bit more care on the details, the design is merely at prototype level, but it's so convenient that I'll close an eye for a while... :)

A couple requests:
- mira.multitouch is able to detect swipe gestures, but you are limited to get only a unique fingers amount. Being able to detect more gestures at a time would really widen possibilities.
Also, would be helpful to have a "transparent mode", to have display-sized mira.multitouch that detects gestures, but leave the user the ability of controlling what's beneath.
- live.step, nothing to add

Thanks for listening

shreeswifty's icon

i assume there will be a very quick update to fix the non-functionality for what seems like ALOT of us. Besides Luminair and Lemur, this is the most expensive app i have purchased and i have to admit i am a little disappointed that it's basically unusable for me. I hope my problem is not unique and will be remedied quickly, but some statement from Cycling would be comforting.

Andrew Benson's icon

@shreeswifty As Sam mentioned above, we have identified the source of the crashing and will do our best to get a quick fix out there.

We've now updated our App Store description to be more clear about the lack of Windows support. We can't give any predictions at this time for Windows support, but it is on our list of things to look at. Thanks everyone for all the feature requests and early reports. We really appreciate the feedback and will consider everything as we plan our next steps with Mira.

AudioMatt's icon

Thank you so much for developing this sam and co. You've done an amazing job. I went and ought an ipad just for this purpose! It works great

Wishes :
* decent timing. (Can't do anything rhythmic)
* a more user controllable interface (jsui, LCD, pwindow)

Those are probably design limitations due to the ipad needing to function via network though so don't let those wishes detract from your accomplishments! Congrats

benj3737's icon
Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

I made a little xy box (one finger only and only works in presentation mode)

alfonso santimone's icon

kind of sadness :-).
i have to always notice that a lot of MaxMSP add-ons are still OSx-centric. i guess that is because the majority of developers work on apple platform. i can prove that i've used win based laptops ( quality stuff with quality audio cards ) in hundreds of live gigs in the last ten years without problems. and i use win based stuff in compositional and studio work as well. But still the majority of audio people is on OSx. Which is fine. Only i have to accept that many interesting stuff is OSx only. Sad truth, but truth. Thanks to all the developers for their work anyway! I'll wait patiently for Mira, Taptools 4, Plugtastic etc. for win systems.

Lee's icon

Quite shocked this is only Windows also - there seems no mention of it until you get the download ZIP and it's Mac only... unfortunately, I had already purchased from the app store....

alfonso santimone's icon

purchased too soon here too. i can only wait for win version to come sooner or later ( hope for "sooner" )

pdelges's icon

Max613 under OSX68.

Max crashes when I use my standard wifi network (I also had an error -61). I can get a working connection with an ad-hoc network.

Working? Well, only 1 out of the 6 projects in the "project" folder does work. And as stated earlier, cleaner patches wouldn't hurt!

mira.motion crashed Max the first time I opened its help file.

With mira.multitouch, I got "xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
" errors.

And now, Mira is freezed (even the menu icon doesn't react).

c74, if you need a beta tester next time you release a new product, don't hesitate to contact me. But please don't release 45€ alpha versions, first take some time to get something presentable.

pdelges's icon

Now that I killed Mira, I get this: xebra_global: XEBConnection_Read: Socket reached EOF 70014
in Max' window.

shreeswifty's icon

i booted into 10.6.8 i get this too:
“xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
” errors.

I echo Patrick Delges' sentiment, i would have loved to beta test this with Testflight or whatever, at 45 euros and 49$ people expect a bit more.

giovannidistefano's icon

;-)

www.giovannidistefano.ch

mira-rgraino_MODIFICATED.maxpat
Max Patch
Joshua Kit Clayton's icon

Hi All,

Thanks for all the excitement and great feedback. We're currently working on a Windows version of the Max package which will be available in the coming weeks. Apologies for the confusion there and for the issues many of you have been experiencing. As is typically the case with new software, there are a few kinks we're ironing out.

We'll be updating the product page, and also release a new Mac package of the Mira externals with some fixes in the next couple of days. The projects folder (which has several old and not working examples) shouldn't have been included. We'll take it out of coming releases.

Thanks again, and please continue to let us know how we can improve Mira for your needs.

Thanks,
Joshua

ro2's icon

I have download mira, great job
it run well on my macbook air 10.8.4, ipad mini

a Wishe : UMenu

Mathieu Chamagne's icon

I'm very exited by this new app :-)

but, unfortunately, I was unable to use it with my home WIFI network (I use a very standard Apple TimeCapsule, with basic settings)
Mira can see my mac during a couple of seconds when I create a Mira.frame in Max.. and then : Max crash. (Max 6.1.3 (13a2369))
(my macPro doesn't have a WIFI card.. so this is really a problem !!)
Is it supposed to work on a Wifi with Wep or WPA encryption ?

creating an ad-Hoc WIFI on my macBookPro :
Mira "kind of" work :
- Max crash when opening Mira.maxhelp patch ("supported ui objects" tab)
- I had a couple of Mira crash on the iPad as well..
(but is it the right place to send crash logs ?…)

This first version is very promising.. but yet very 'alpha'.
I think we are a couple of users here that would have been very happy to beta-test and help making Mira bullet-proofed before this first release...
Personally, I would *really* have loved to beta test this new product !

I was about to say : Mira is here, MMF RIP ! ( http://www.mathieuchamagne.com/category/code/mmf/ )
but… actually, MMF-Fantastick has a working waveform~ display.. and it's free :-)
(but I'm sure your TODO list is still very long.. and full of cool features, right ?)

Mathieu

kcoul's icon

Great! I've been waiting for something like this for who knows how long..! Here are my early-adopter requests so far.

I'd love to have support for mirroring graphical output as well as UI input.
That way there would be some form of visual feedback coming back into Mira aside from just the locally changing UI controls.

The top two of these would have to be MaxScore (http://www.computermusicnotation.com/) for being able to see notation on the iPad running Mira, and jit.window for seeing the effects of the UI changes in graphics output.

If the prospective upsides of developing Mira into a 2-way app aren't enough alone, I would also gladly pay extra (as in-app purchase?) for an output expansion pack.. BUT... at the price of $50 I would maybe sort of hope this could be included in the base price! :)

Rodrigo's icon

Towards a similar end would be the ideal to have fpic assets be kept locally (on the iPad) once added. That way you can at least use fpic as a sort of 'notation' object by pushing rendered images to it. Not as convenient as having something like bach/maxscore/external implementation, but would be very helpful.

At the moment, every time you change fpic it reuploads the picture again, adding a bit of lag.

metamax's icon

Accessing camera data would be huge.. even without a standard video feed, the raw data alone could be used for all sorts of stuff.. motion detection, etc. Would be cool. There are wifi camera apps available so apple makes the camera remotely accessible...

metamax's icon

One quick comment regarding the difficulty in making sliders stay put when releasing your finger.. Aside from the fact that the issue will likely get handled in subsequent updates, I think the multitouch surface is unique as an input device because of it's sensitivity and dynamics. It's probably similar to how signals require custom configuration to smooth them out and make them sound right.. it may be that similar patching is required to make the multitouch respond in particular ways.

bongo's icon

I have purchased and successfully installed Mira on my ipad, however I don't seem to have the mira.frame object available in Max. Just updated from 6.1.0 to 6.1.3 on OSX 10.8.4. When I try to create a mira.frame object in my own patch or open another's patch containing a mira.frame, I get a "mira.frame: no such object" message.

EDIT: DOH! Never mind, I just realized there is a separate Mira package to be downloaded/installed here: https://cycling74.com/downloads/mira/

giovannidistefano's icon

2 Version "mira-rgraino-MODIFIED.maxpat"
;-)
gds

mira-rgraino_MODIFIED.maxpat
Max Patch
giovannidistefano's icon

sorry I made ​​a mistake

:-(

giovannidistefano's icon

(2 Version “mira-rgraino-MODIFIED.maxpat”)
Now is okay, sorry
GDS

mira-rgraino_MODIFIED.zip
zip
johannes's icon

it would be great to have a waveform~ ui in mira.

Rodrigo's icon

I remember seeing a waveform~ to multislider thing a while back, though I think it was quite CPU heavy.

Stephane Morisse's icon

As Mathieu wrote, there is a waveform display in Fantastik.

Julien Bayle's icon

is there a particular place to make feedbacks & bug report?

shreeswifty's icon

how's that update coming?

Luke Woodbury's icon

This is really great and surprisingly works on our school network, but...

Things work perfectly on my 10.6.8 MBP, but for my 10.7.5 MP I just get 'Error 61, The operation could not be completed. Connection refused'

I'm sure it may work adhoc, but that's no good for me.

Parmerud's icon

Just to report that after reading all the the problems people seemed to have I was slightly reluctant to go for the software. However after a couple of glasses of wine (helps me making hard decisions) I decided to jump into the uncertain abyss of a new and possibly shaky first release. To my my big joy it worked straight out of the box. Sure I get some error messages in the Max window every now and then but the stuff was working (just clicked the Max window into oblivion) both on my stationary as well as my laptop like sliding on a banana. Cool! But, that said I am as everybody else (I guess) just feeling slightly "disappointed" of not having ALL the GUI available. C´mon all ya great 74 people, work until the code bleeds out of your eyes! I love what you are doing but that just wants me to have more. Fantastic work! Thanks! And to those of you complaining about having to hand out 45$ for this stuff... how about comparing bang for the bucks to for example Cubase IC pro, or even Lemur. Yes Lemur is very cool and can do many tricks but... how much time will you have to spend defining your MIDI or OSC addresses and then take care of it in the Max end? Considering how much time you will save using Mira I think the price is a bargain.

AudioMatt's icon

Looks like preset is included in the Mira objects group and appears with the little M icon even though it doesn't seem to work...

shrug.

Jdudeo's icon

Is there going to be an android version? If so, I propose it be named MIRO :P

By the way, MIRA means mummy or decaying corpse in Japanese.

kcoul's icon

It is close, but the Japanese for that is actually みいら ("miira") which has one of the extra vowels in the middle that routinely completely change the meaning of the word (which is always causing embarrassing mispronunciations for students like me!)

Actually if you stretched out the "a" sound it'd be exactly the word for mirror (they'd use when referring to their car mirrors, at least). It's also close to "mirai" which would be a way to say "distant future", or even more awesomely, "the world to come".

Jdudeo's icon

I know the I is stretched, I haven't heard how c74's app name is meant to be pronounced but I assume the emphasis is on the I not the A which would make it sonically identical to the Japanese pronunciation of ミイラ. My original point is that Japanese people probably instantly think of ミイラ when they see this, I've been living in Japan rarely speaking any english for just over a year and that's what instantly popped up in my head when I saw this news.

But I agree mirai would be a very cool name :P

metamax's icon

By the way, MIRA means mummy or decaying corpse in Japanese.

Which is exactly how I feel sometimes when I look in the mira in tha mornin.

sachamakesmusic's icon

Just wanted to say that this is possibly one of the best things that happened to music in 2013 (I might slightly overreact... but still). I've just spent an entire afternoon actually making music with Mira instead of spending hours trying to find ways and tricks to make a usable interface on Lemur or TouchOSC. Don't get me wrong, these apps are much powerful and open a whole world of possibilities, but is there anything more orgasmic than creating a toggle and being able to trigger it on your iPad in less than a minute ?
Seriously, I was really looking forward to that release, and I'm not disappointed at all. I'm really surprised at how stable it is (for a first release) and I'm really hoping for many updates to come. If you guys take good care of your new baby, you'll bring (electronic) music to a whole new level (yes, I love superlatives).
Anyway, congrats to all of you, I'm truly eager to make new music and write my next album using Mira and Max/MSP !!!

mheton's icon

@saschamakesmusic your post sounds promising. I wanted to wait a little while to check out what early adopters are saying, but reading this thread makes me think, if I should become an early adopter myself

shreeswifty's icon

seriously, can someone let us know when the update is coming?

paulapart's icon

This looks wonderful!
I'd like to double up on the android version request. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Mathieu Chamagne's icon

don't you think Mira would deserve its own forum category/tab ?
It would then be easier to share... report and request :-)

Northerner_V1's icon

+1 Yes please - a Mira subforum/category would be perfect. I love Mira - its got me all fired up again to pick up where I left off learning Max/Msp. Even in its current first release with occasional blips, stripped down objects and minor bugs (such as the live.gain object not appearing) the potential of this is huge. Congratulations!

Cripto's icon

+1 from me as well on Mira forum category.

Also, I'd throw a request for live.step. :)

Cycling '74's icon

Mira forum created. Go crazy!

Myr's icon

purchasing an ipad for this app, looks great!

could anyone comment on how much mira's performance is boosted or changed on newer ipads with better specs?

will getting an ipad 4 mean smoother and quicker responsiveness, or should i just get an ipad 2 for cheaper?

Rodrigo's icon

I noticed a difference on an iPad1 vs an iPad2. I would imagine there's a point of diminishing returns for speed for an app like this, but I could be wrong.

Julien Bayle's icon

I really need bpatcher :-/
Indeed, combining fpic as bpatcher with argument would give a powerful way to make small displayable units on the screen.

but I bet things will come soon (hope)

Myr's icon

thanks rodrigo. unless i hear different i'll try and find a cheap ipad 2.

a few other questions about mira:

can we script objects on and off of a mira.frame and have them appear on the ipad in real time?

can we script mira.frame objects into existance and have them appear as new tabs in real time?

@julian. agreed. bpatcher would be great to get. if we can script mira.frame's into being, or script objects on and off them, we may have to use that until we get bpatcher.

Joshua Kit Clayton's icon

@myr re: scripting. yes and yes.

@shreeswifty re: update for crashes. coming soon. In the meantime, avoiding fpic and a wired connection to router seems to resolve most people's issues.

Florent Ghys's icon

this is soooo amazing, I want to marry you

giovannidistefano's icon

+1 for waveform~  > > > http://samplr.net

thanks
Giovanni

Rodrigo's icon

Samplr definitely has some interesting control paradigms.

giovannidistefano's icon

Jitter initialized
Mira Initialized, version: 1.0.7
xebra_global: XEBConnection_Read: Socket reached EOF 70014
xebra_global: XEBConnection_Read: Socket reached EOF 70014
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_Read: Socket reached EOF 70014
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long
xebra_global: XEBConnection_WriteUDP Error 40 Message too long

commathe's icon

RE: Waveform.

I tried to make a waveform control with fantastick on the iphone before, but drawing the waveform was really tough. Not sure if it was a fantastick specific problem, but I found that values would go missing and I'd get a waveform with a few small chunks missing because the draw command had never arrived. It also took about a second and a half to draw a waveform that was the entire length of the screen. This is probably more fantastick specific though because I had to draw it as 480 lines and they were being banged out with an uzi one by one.

I'd be curious to see if a waveform control could be made, it would definitely be an amazing tool and something I'd end up using nearly every time. I'd imagine the actual waveform displayed would have to be quite simplified though.