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Midi loopback AU

Hi!
Working on some enhancing of APC40 controller to work nicely with Drambo and since now I was using Audioveek’s MIDI Tools MIDI Route to create a MIDI loopback to be able to process (in Mozaic) MIDI coming from APC40 and then use the processed messages for MIDI mapping of Drambo.
This would work fine except one catch: MIDI Route AU seems to be unable to send “omni” channels, only specific channels. E.g. if I select all channels, it sends the same message 16 times, i.e. on each channel. I would like to preserve originally sent channels.
I could theoretically do it by first filtering each channel using Drambo MIDI filter module and then send to 16 instances of MIDI Route, each set to single channel, but that seems quite an overkill.
The question is: is there an AU that could do such loopback while maintaining channels as they were sent.
I can achieve something similar by sending MIDI to virtual MIDI output, receiving it in Audiobus and passing on to Drambo. But that involves opening another project in another app, it would be nice to have it all “encapsulated” in a Drambo project.
Any ideas and help is very welcome :smile: Thanks!

Comments

  • wimwim
    edited September 2022

    The most straightforward answer I can think of is to use Streambyter running standalone. You don't have to open any project. In fact, you don't want any code loaded in Streambyter. Just have it running, then send out to Streambyter and receive back in from it.

    This isn't directed specifically at what you want to do, but may help with the setup.
    https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=auv3_midi_recording_workarounds#drambo

  • edited September 2022

    @skrat

    Little confused from what you wrote, and I’m by no means anywhere close to a Drambo expert…..
    In a nutshell, are you routing the midi from Drambo back into the APC, and then back into Drambo?
    I’m working on a controller script for Drambo to see if it’s worth the transition to Drambo as my main sequencer, and I used to use @wim ‘s suggestion of streambyter to get midi from the controller, into Drambo, into mozaic, and then back into the controller, but I’ve found just the midioutput module did exactly what I needed.

    My apologies if I totally missed your point.

  • @wim said:
    The most straightforward answer I can think of is to use Streambyter running standalone. You don't have to open any project. In fact, you don't want any code loaded in Streambyter. Just have it running, then send out to Streambyter and receive back in from it.

    This isn't directed specifically at what you want to do, but may help with the setup.
    https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=auv3_midi_recording_workarounds#drambo

    Thanks for quick response! Just tried Streambyter and seems it’s doing the job, definitely better than the need of routing in Audiobus. Still would love some AU-only solution, still naively hoping there’s some hidden hack :smile:

  • @AlmostAnonymous said:
    @skrat

    Little confused from what you wrote, and I’m by no means anywhere close to a Drambo expert…..
    In a nutshell, are you routing the midi from Drambo back into the APC, and then back into Drambo?
    I’m working on a controller script for Drambo to see if it’s worth the transition to Drambo as my main sequencer, and I used to use @wim’s suggestion of streambyter to get midi from the controller, into Drambo, into mozaic, and then back into the controller, but I’ve found just the midioutput module did exactly what I needed.

    My routing is
    APC40 -> Drambo (via track) -> Mozaic -> Drambo (for mapping)
    In the last connection, you need some MIDI loopback solution, since Drambo can’t route to itself via MIDI output module. I guess it’s a limitation to prevent crashes due to infinite loops.
    And yes, I also have separate script to control LEDs of APC40 that’s routed as:
    APC40 -> Drambo (via track) -> Mozaic -> APC40 (via MIDI output module)
    This works completely fine and seems like a good solution to enhance you controller capabilities.

  • edited September 2022

    @skrat

    I’m using the controller for mapping as well (controlling both AUM passed through Drambo and Drambo itself)
    My routing
    Controller -> Drambo -> mozaic on the master track -> midi output to controller.

    I have no mapping issues, but you may be trying to accomplish something different.
    I’m also in the beginning stages of this, so I might not have hit your roadblock.
    I’d love to see a project file (if you can) to see if I might run into the same thing….if I am, this solution is probably right out for me…..

  • edited September 2022

    fwiw, there was a report recently on the Drambo forums that the Route plugin from Audioveek's Midi Tools fx suite supports midi loopback. can't confirm this personally. anyone else?

    https://audioveek.com/route/

    edit- n/a. sorry for the noise...

  • @bangzero said:
    fwiw, there was a report recently on the Drambo forums that the Route plugin from Audioveek's Midi Tools fx suite supports midi loopback. can't confirm this personally. anyone else?

    https://audioveek.com/route/

    That's what the OP is using. But he has trouble handling multiple MIDI channels through one instance. Seems like the Route module converts all inputs to one channel.

  • miRack can do midi loopback . But setting it up is more annoying to me than bouncing midi off of streambyter.

  • edited September 2022

    @AlmostAnonymous said:
    I’m also in the beginning stages of this, so I might not have hit your roadblock.
    I’d love to see a project file (if you can) to see if I might run into the same thing….if I am, this solution is probably right out for me…..

    It really depends on your needs: do you need to transform, enhance or filter MIDI messages coming from your controller to Drambo? If yes, you'd need loopback. If no, then you probably only need to send MIDI back to controller (controlling LEDs?), so your setup is OK as it is.
    To explain my needs: The most important thing that is not working as expected is the track switching buttons on APC40 - instead of sending e.g. MIDI note on and off messages, they send 8 MIDI CCs with values of the "device control" 8 encoders, that are banked internally in APC40 for each track. So I have my crazy script that starts collecting CCs from the first sent in 1 second interval and if they're exactly the ones of the channel, I am sure it is the track switching button triggered, so instead of those CCs, I send note on message, which can be mapped in Drambo on track switching pads. This can be changed by using different APC40 mode, in which it is a "blank canvas", but then I'd need to manually handle all the LEDs and probably much more stuff, so this hack around seemed a bit easier.
    There are few more things like transforming tempo encoder to send absolute values, but relative to host tempo, since incremental CC messages somehow does not work on BPM in Drambo (although there's the option, it's probably buggy).
    Also the top 8 encoders have buttons for 3 groups (originally pan/send/user), which weirdly does not work as expected out-of-the box, so I have to bank them inside Mozaic.
    So these are the things where I need to have Mozaic as a man-in-the-middle between APC40 and Drambo. A bit more complex, but surprisingly works well so far.

  • @skrat , I wonder if your APC40 has a different operating mode that might work better. Some of these controllers are designed to work with specific desktop DAWs, but they can be switched into a state which works like a normal MIDI controller.

  • @uncledave said:
    @skrat , I wonder if your APC40 has a different operating mode that might work better. Some of these controllers are designed to work with specific desktop DAWs, but they can be switched into a state which works like a normal MIDI controller.

    Yes, there are different operating modes, but as mentioned above, none of them is ideal. The "Generic mode" is probably the most ready as-is, but there's the issue with track switching I mentioned above. Then there are two Ableton Live modes which are actually what I refer to "clean slate", since you need to handle everything by yourself - especially LED feedback and note on/off to distinguish between momentary and toggle buttons.
    So it's a question of which enhancement seems to be less work :wink:

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