#1

Hey, peeps,

I recently migrated to mac from windows. I used to use an old games controller to run effects in Ableton when performing live. I used M-joy, and earlier had also used Rejoice for this purpose. I’m now using mac and have no idea where to start. Google has provided me with options that are either expensive or over complicated.

I know this could be done easily in Max or PD or whatever, but this just to have another little toy to play with live, I don’t want to spend too much time or system resource on it.

Any ideas?

#2

Don’t know if it’s working for other game controllers, but i was very happy with stick shift:
http://monome.org/community/discussion/14507/intro-stikshift-joystick-max-patch-for-logitech/p1

if you use max4live:
if i remember correctly there were some other m4l-patches at the m4l device library.

#3

some names of m4l apps:
joymatrix, hijoystick

max-app:
gamepad2midi

oh, and there are some apps/vsts(?) i haven’t tested so far (and not sure if they’ll work on a mac):

fergo_JoystickMidi,
nf_joy,

hope that helps.
Peace!

#4

Thanks for the info I’ll take a look.

Fergo is windows only I think, that is a great one, though!

#5

Thanks trppng. Simeon, I did Stick-Shift so let me know if you need some tweaks to it. Been a while since I made it but I’ve been thinking about pulling it out and putting it to use again.

#6

Me too !!!
Haven’t used it in a while but for some time i think about re-including it in my setup. It was so much fun.

#7

Thanks for the offer, Shimmy! To be honest I’m not currently, and have no desire of ever again running Max live, so I’ll take a look from a “fun/creative/seewhathappens” point of view but I’m really looking for something light on resources and that “just works”.

I know it may seem really narrow-minded of me, but I’ve found through trial and error that the less software is happening, the more creative I am musically. It’s my own limitation, I know. I’m not saying that running something like Max when playing live stifles creativity. It just takes up so much of MY attention that I don’t end up improvising and making the music as good as it can be.

One day I’ll have a tech that can set everything up for me and I’ll be able to concentrate just on the music, but until then, simple solutions is where it’s at.

#8

No problem, but if you want to try it, you do the setup of Midi CCs one time then just use it. You can leave it up for viewing or start it and go.

#9

MultiControl may be a candidate for your new setup. OS X only.
http://www.uio.no/english/research/groups/fourms/software/MultiControl/

1 Like
#10

Woah, @GmbH! That is one versatile patch! Still opens up ALL of max for me, but it seems to save and retrieve well and tracks absolutely every bloody HID on my system… fascinating - I’ll see how it works in a set and report back.

#11

Glad to hear it’s useful and looking forward to your developments!
:smile_cat:

#12

Never ended up using it a whole lot but when playing around with it I was happy with Osculator - although I was using wii controllers, which synced up super easy and gave all kinds of mappable information (3 axis of direction, acceleration, plus buttons). Not sure how it would play with other controllers. It’s $20 - I guess I remember paying for it…seems like a waste of money now. The MultiControl looks sweet!

1 Like
#13

Hey @Shimoda,

Would just like to say absolutely fantastic work on the StikShift patch - I only got wind of it a few months ago but it’s been such a great tool to explore Max and find new ways of creating instruments.

Anyway - I’ve been struggling a bit with the deadzones. They don’t seem to have any effect. I’m assuming (and maybe I’m just being dumb here) that the purpose of them is so that they don’t output values when the change is very small? Because that’s what I need as I’m using some to control pitch bending into Ableton. Now I’ve read the manual and you acknowledge that but for the life of me I can’t work out what’s not working. I downloaded a fresh patch just in case I’d accidentally messed with it but it still doesn’t do it.

Cheers

#14

I’ve had success running something like: 2 OEM NES controllers > Cheap USB adapter > Generic HID input diver > pd-extended (puredata) > Script about 10 minutes more advanced than the provided example > Virtual MIDI device > your wildest dreams. Well, mine at least. Message me if you want the script. New and unsure how to share something like that.