#1

hello everyone.

im trying to understand if there’s a quick and easy way to convert GPS data to MIDI. The plan is to use this data as a modulation source in ableton.

any suggestions?

#2

I don’t have the answer, but am more wondering: what form does the GPS data take and how are you acquiring it? As a Linux user, assuming you have a GPS device and corresponding driver connected to the computer, my inclination would be to write a small program which was jack client to read the data from the device and output midi. I’m assuming you could do something along those lines on other platforms, and perhaps in you’re environments (maybe Max for live?).

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#3

I just got done setting up GPS on Linux for a stratum-1 NTP server. You’d want to run gpsd, which will get the GPS data off of the port and then makes the data available over a socket. gpsd comes with some command line console utilities, and I think one of them is in Python, which may be a good place to start hacking.

You can get a lot from the GPS stream, including satellites in view and things. The data is usually formatted as NMEA 0183, which is a set of text strings of fields consisting of comma-delimited fields. Google it and hopefully you can find a spec, or at least enough examples to get you going.

Sounds like a fun project!!

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#4

I did build a similar project once. Since people are often a bit unclear about what they want: Is your intended source live GPS (satellite) data or are we talking about (prerecorded) tracks/pathways?

#5

hey, probs should’ve mentioned that it’s not one of my personal projects.

so. one dude wants to use gps data from his phone to control various parameters in ableton.

im looking at this app atm http://www.bitshapesoftware.com/instruments/gyrosc/

guess it might work.

#7

gyrosc-screenshots

defs can see GPS in the app menu

#8

AFAIK, the integration of gyro data with GPS is to improve GPS’s resolution. Why wouldn’t you/they just use the gyro data for modulation? I think you’d have to run circles around the building to get meaningful GPS modulation data, but I may be wrong…