Grrrrrrr... HID to MIDI frustration

[chaomocha]

Grrrrrrr… HID to MIDI frustration

Ok I’ve been trying really really hard to try and not post something which is clearly a fairly common topic, but I really just can’t find anything.

Truthfully, the underlying thing I’ve been trying to do is use a second QWERTY keyboard with Traktor Pro/ Traktor Pro 2. So what I’ve been trying to do is find an easy way to convert the HID signals to MIDI, so that way the keyboard commands between my laptops built in keyboard and the external keyboard. I also need keys that have the same command, like the shift keys, to send different signals, but actually if that cant happen thats ok.

Anyway I’ve tried a whole slue of programs, and none of them seem to work properly. Mjoy, joy to key, fergo, bomes, mousekeyboard200, etc. I have a plain old Logitech external keyboard, something I plan on ripping apart later and modding, and I run Windows 7 64-bit on a Dell XPS 17, and like I said I’m looking to convert the signals, or a similar alternative, to use for Traktor Pro / 2.

I’m sort of thinking this just isn’t a possibility at this time, but thanks in advance for anyone who helps!

[derschaich]

praise GlovePIE (free download) over an over again!

[chaomocha]

Ya I remember reading about this on the forums, I guess I forgot to try it whoops. Thanks a bunch for the reminder haha. I’ll report back once I try it and see how it goes. For now, off to a party.

Oh god this is going to a be confusing isn’t it? Considering I’ve never done scripting that is…

[zestoi]

@chaomocha

Ya I remember reading about this on the forums, I guess I forgot to try it whoops. Thanks a bunch for the reminder haha. I’ll report back once I try it and see how it goes. For now, off to a party.

Oh god this is going to a be confusing isn’t it? Considering I’ve never done scripting that is…

i had a similar issue with wanting to use a usb touchpad as an X/Y type pad input. i wrote a glovepie script that swallows the mouse input so now only my laptops touchpad actually moves the cursor around and then wrote code to output midi from the usb touchpad.

glovepie is very cool - and the scripting is relatively simple.

[chaomocha]

So there’s a way to swallow one keyboard and keep another keyboard an actual keyboard? because that’s exactly what I’m looking for. I guess my next question is how do I script GlovePIE? Any tips or links or anything on how to do it, because I’ve never really scripted anything before really.

[scyn]

If I recall correctly: Glovepie is able to convert keystrokes into midi, but it cannot swallow the keystrokes from a particular keyboard when multiple keyboards are connected.

So if keyboard1 is your regular keyboard & keyboard2 is your midi controller-to-be, then:
midi.channel1.asharp0 = Keyboard2.W
Will only make keyboard2 output a midi note when pressing the ‘W’ key. However (and this is why I ended up using gamepads instead) keyboard2 will still output a W keystroke…

@chaomocha

I guess my next question is how do I script GlovePIE? Any tips or links or anything on how to do it, because I’ve never really scripted anything before really.

This thread is where I started out:

Multiple QWERTY Midi Controllers? - Page 2

Once you’ve got midi-yoke installed, the glovepie scripting is really simple. For example, to make the ‘W’ key output a midi note, this is all the code you’d need:

midi.DeviceOut = 2
midi.channel1.asharp0 = Keyboard2.W

[chaomocha]

@scyn

If I recall correctly: Glovepie is able to convert keystrokes into midi, but it cannot swallow the keystrokes from a particular keyboard when multiple keyboards are connected.

So if keyboard1 is your regular keyboard & keyboard2 is your midi controller-to-be, then:
midi.channel1.asharp0 = Keyboard2.W
Will only make keyboard2 output a midi note when pressing the ‘W’ key. However (and this is why I ended up using gamepads instead) keyboard2 will still output a W keystroke…

This thread is where I started out:
Multiple QWERTY Midi Controllers? - Page 2

Once you’ve got midi-yoke installed, the glovepie scripting is really simple. For example, to make the ‘W’ key output a midi note, this is all the code you’d need:

midi.DeviceOut = 2
midi.channel1.asharp0 = Keyboard2.W

Wow thank you for all this advice, this is gunna help alot. Maybe you could answer my next question now though too, and I’m just thinking of it now that you mentioned I can’t swallow the keystrokes completely. Can I convert both keyboards to midi instead, and have say for example the W key on one keyboard set to send a different midi signal than the other? Or will it not be able to differentiate between the two still? Maybe my question doesn’t make sense, I don’t really know what I’m doing as far as these new programs go lol.

[zestoi]

@scyn

If I recall correctly: Glovepie is able to convert keystrokes into midi, but it cannot swallow the keystrokes from a particular keyboard when multiple keyboards are connected.

not tried multiple keyboards but this bit of code works for swallowing mouse input so my main one is used as a mouse and i use the external one for midi:

mouse.Swallow = true
fakemouse.DirectInputX = mouse1.DirectInputX
fakemouse.DirectInputY = mouse1.DirectInputY
mouse.LeftButton = mouse1.LeftButton
mouse.RightButton = mouse1.RightButton
mouse.MiddleButton = mouse1.MiddleButton
mouse.XButton1 = mouse1.XButton1
mouse.XButton2 = mouse1.XButton2

[zestoi]

yep - also works for keyboards with this…

keyboard.swallow=true

then u ofc need to add the code to make the main keyboard still work as a keyboard:

[zestoi]

@chaomocha

…I can’t swallow the keystrokes completely. Can I convert both keyboards to midi instead, and have say for example the W key on one keyboard set to send a different midi signal than the other? Or will it not be able to differentiate between the two still? Maybe my question doesn’t make sense, I don’t really know what I’m doing as far as these new programs go lol.

yep u should be able to make the main kw work as a kw and the external one for midi.

and yep to the next question - you should be able to make both keyboards send out different midi data if you swallow them both.

not a big deal as when u click to stop glovepie then they’ll both work as usual kb’s again anyway… tho keeping the main one (assuming glovepie can route that back to being a normal keyboard but i’m almost certain it would be able to) as a normal kb probably makes the most sense.

[zestoi]

this is my external touchpad xypad script just to show the type of stuff you can do - you can put in some pretty decent logic if you want/need it:

if (var.XYpadInit == 0) then
midi.DeviceOut = 8 // device number to use
debug = midi.OutDevName // show device name in use
midi.GeneralMidi = False
midi.DefaultChannel = 1
var.XYpadXres = 500
var.XYpadYres = 320
var.XYpadXborder = 10
var.XYpadYborder = 10
var.XYpadXmax = var.XYpadXres + var.XYpadXborder * 2
var.XYpadYmax = var.XYpadYres + var.XYpadYborder * 2
var.XYpadXmidiMin = 0
var.XYpadXmidiMax = 100
var.XYpadYmidiMin = 0
var.XYpadYmidiMax = 1
var.XYpadMode1Time = 1.5
var.XYpadInit = 1
endif

mouse.Swallow = true
fakemouse.DirectInputX = mouse1.DirectInputX
fakemouse.DirectInputY = mouse1.DirectInputY
mouse.LeftButton = mouse1.LeftButton
mouse.RightButton = mouse1.RightButton
mouse.MiddleButton = mouse1.MiddleButton
mouse.XButton1 = mouse1.XButton1
mouse.XButton2 = mouse1.XButton2

if mouse2.present then

if (mouse2.LeftButton) then
var.XYpadMode = 0
endif

if (mouse2.RightButton) then
var.XYpadMode = 1
endif

var.XYpadXdelta = Delta(mouse2.DirectInputX)
var.XYpadYdelta = Delta(mouse2.DirectInputY)

if (var.XYpadXdelta != 0 || var.XYpadYdelta != 0) then

if (var.XYpadMode == 1) then
var.XYpadTime = TimeStamp()
var.XYpadReset = 0
endif

if (var.XYpadXdelta != 0) then
var.XYpadX = var.XYpadX + var.XYpadXdelta

if (var.XYpadX < 0) then
var.XYpadX = 0
elseif (var.XYpadX > var.XYpadXmax) then
var.XYpadX = var.XYpadXmax
elseif (var.XYpadX < var.XYpadXborder) then
var.XYpadXmidiCC = var.XYpadXmidiMin
elseif (var.XYpadX > var.XYpadXres + var.XYpadXborder) then
var.XYpadXmidiCC = var.XYpadXmidiMax
else
var.XYpadXmidiCC = floor(MapRange(var.XYpadX, 0, var.XYpadXmax, var.XYpadXmidiMin, var.XYpadXmidiMax))
endif

midi.Control0Coarse = var.XYpadXmidiCC%
endif

if (var.XYpadYdelta != 0) then
var.XYpadY = var.XYpadY - var.XYpadYdelta

if (var.XYpadY < 0) then
var.XYpadY = 0
elseif (var.XYpadY > var.XYpadYmax) then
var.XYpadY = var.XYpadYmax
elseif (var.XYpadY < var.XYpadYborder) then
var.XYpadYmidiCC = var.XYpadYmidiMin
elseif (var.XYpadY > var.XYpadYres + var.XYpadYborder) then
var.XYpadYmidiCC = var.XYpadYmidiMax
else
var.XYpadYmidiCC = MapRange(var.XYpadY, 0, var.XYpadYmax, var.XYpadYmidiMin, var.XYpadYmidiMax)
endif

midi.Control1Coarse = var.XYpadYmidiCC%
endif
else
if (var.XYpadMode == 1 && var.XYpadReset == 0) then
if (var.XYpadTime < TimeStamp() - var.XYpadMode1Time) then
var.XYpadX =  floor(var.XYpadXres / 2)
var.XYpadY =  floor(var.XYpadYres / 2)
var.XYpadReset = 1
endif
endif
endif
endif

[chaomocha]

this scripting things doesnt seem as hard as i think im making it out to be haha. thank you so much for all of this, its gunna be a big help cuz i love controllerism and customs and using random usb stuff to try and map out, so this will hopefully be a big break through. its 1am though right now so ill give this all a try tomorrow and will report back hopefully with good news!

[zestoi]

@chaomocha

this scripting things doesnt seem as hard as i think im making it out to be haha. thank you so much for all of this, its gunna be a big help cuz i love controllerism and customs and using random usb stuff to try and map out, so this will hopefully be a big break through. its 1am though right now so ill give this all a try tomorrow and will report back hopefully with good news!

cool - sounds good. you really dont need to have any coding skills to script in glovepie as its 99% just what input becomes what midi output - with maybe a few if this then do that things if you need something a little extra…

[scyn]

@zestoi

yep - also works for keyboards with this…

keyboard.swallow=true

then u ofc need to add the code to make the main keyboard still work as a keyboard:

I’ve got multiple mouses to work as intended…but multiple keyboards I’ve yet to see work the way we’re discussing here. The problem with using:

keyboard.swallow=true

Is that all keyboard keystrokes get swallowed; there’s no way to re-initialize the primary keyboard so that it outputs keystrokes. I’d like to be proved wrong here, but I’m pretty sure that the current release of glovepie won’t allow for swallowing only certain keyboard keystrokes.

[zestoi]

@scyn

The problem with using:

keyboard.swallow=true

Is that all keyboard keystrokes get swallowed; there’s no way to re-initialize the primary keyboard so that it outputs keystrokes. I’d like to be proved wrong here, but I’m pretty sure that the current release of glovepie won’t allow for swallowing only certain keyboard keystrokes.

so this type of thing won’t work at all?

Keyboard.Swallow = true
Keyboard.A = Keyboard1.A
Keyboard.B = Keyboard1.B
Keyboard.C = Keyboard1.C

only have the one keyboard here so have no way of testing.

[derschaich]

if it works same as with mouse.swallow this solution should work!

[scyn]

@derschaich

if it works same as with mouse.swallow this solution should work!

It has something to do with the way Windows integrates the keyboard, which is different from how it handles the mouse. I remember somewhere in the glovepie forums coming across a post discussing microsoft’s lack of transparancy with regards to it’s keyboard integration processes; and the maker of glovepie moving onto other projects before being able to crack it.

Buy a few gamepads, connect them to a usb hub and you’ll have buttons aplenty. If you actually get it to work - I owe you a drink.

Cool XY pad script zestoi.

[zestoi]

@scyn

It has something to do with the way Windows integrates the keyboard, which is different from how it handles the mouse. I remember somewhere in the glovepie forums coming across a post discussing microsoft’s lack of transparancy with regards to it’s keyboard integration processes; and the maker of glovepie moving onto other projects before being able to crack it.

Buy a few gamepads, connect them to a usb hub and you’ll have buttons aplenty. If you actually get it to work - I owe you a drink.

but gamepads and other HID devices do work tho… @derschaich actually does that in his custom controller - 2 gamepads connected via a usb hub.

i didnt know keyboards were different - that’s a pain in the ass then. i’ve only tried a gamepad and my external touchpad thing.

having a quick search… the problem seems to be when u want to swallow the input in glovepie rather than not being able to treat the two keyboards differently - so the OP’s original issue is doable maybe? assuming no hotkeys are setup in traktor that would get triied when either kw is used ofc.

[zestoi]

so seems that with glovepie and keyboards you can do either…

• treat input from each keyboard differently, convert to midi etc, but the actual keypress still gets sent out too (as a keypress)

• swallow the keyboard input and only send out midi - but then you can’t differentiate between each keyboard

[scyn]

@zestoi

so seems that with glovepie and keyboards you can do either…

• treat input from each keyboard differently, convert to midi etc, but the actual keypress still gets sent out too (as a keypress)

Which a lot of people might be ok with. I just found (using the controller in ableton) that sometimes when I had a device control selected and I used the keyboard controller, that the keystrokes would be entered into the control’s value field. It just got in the way a bit too often having keystrokes.

But to the OP…go for it. You might just find that it’s not a bother having those keystrokes coming in alongside the midi data. You’ll probably end up learning quite a bit in the process of setting it up.