Timecode display on iPad (possibly Mira)
Hi there,
I've written a new track for flute and electronics, using Ableton. The flautist is going to follow the timecode on an ipad - at the moment my low tech solution is simply to start a stopwatch on the ipad at the same time as stating the electronics, but it would be useful to be able to show the time in minutes and seconds as full screen on the ipad.
I had a look at how to do this, possibly using mira and the Live API, but it got beyond my skill level pretty quickly.
I'd be really grateful for suggestions. All I want to do is show the elapsed time in minutes and seconds on the ipad.
Thanks!
First you need to know if you want to send your time code over WiFi or over MIDI.
WiFi is not very reliable, especially in concert halls. And it's not very precise, the latency can sometimes be over 300ms, even with an ad hoc network.
But it's quite simple to setup, and probably OK in most contexts.
MIDI is much more reliable and its latency is short and stable. But then you need a MIDI connection between your laptop and your tablet. Which is not trivial in a concert context. You need a MIDI interface for the tablet (and find a way to keep the tablet charging) and you need to send MIDI over long distances (ethernet or over audio lines).
In case of a MIDI connection, you could use an apps like myMTC, but unfortunately Live doesn't send MTC. I think there are some plug-ins available or you could build one by yourself in M4L (if you search for 'MTC' in the forum, you'll find some examples).
In case of a Wifi connection, you could use touchOSC (or Lemur, but it's a bit more expensive) and simply use [udpsend] so send messages to the tablet. Here is a small example code for a Live Device :
Oooppps, just noticed 'Mira' in your subject.
I never tried mira.frame in Live , but if it does work then my little patch is all what you need!
Patrick hi,
That works absolutely perfectly! Thanks. I didn't know about the 'transport' object (or indeed the 'observe transport' M4L object - I was reading the help file.
In the Mira frame I've just duplicated the message output from the p h:m:s object.
This works perfectly - final thing (and really only aesthetic) is there a more attractive object than a message box to display my numbers?
It's completely non-essential, this will work fine, I'm just wondering.
Thanks so much for your help!
Mike
you can use comment instead of message:
Both comment and message have many options to get a more attractive display : color, font size, style, etc.
Thanks both - really helpful stuff - I think comment looks better, but that's just my personal taste.
Thanks very much for your help!
One final thing, if you have the time. In the message box, connected to the p h:m:s display, if I wanted to add milliseconds to the outputted message, could I just add 'ms' after the colon, and would the resultant message box re-format itself accordingly.
I don't actually think I want to use milliseconds for this specific project, but it could come in handy in the future, and it's good to know these things.
Thanks!
Mike
Here is a way (note it's not as simple as you hoped :-)
In my experience, fast changing values on the screen often distracts the musician…
Thanks Patrick, works perfectly - it's clear what you've done within the sub-patcher, thanks very much - I'll just copy and paste for now, and work out the subpatch later.
'It's not as simple as you hoped :-)'
Pretty much sums up my entire experience with MAX/M4L. Slowly, very slowly, getting there.
Thanks for all your help :-)
Mike