Open Sound Control and Eurorack

Equipment
#1

I’m just wondering whether anyone here has explored the possibilities of Open Sound Control as a way of interfacing with Eurorack? Or is it something anyone has any interest in?

This seems to be the only module on Modulargrid that offers OSC as an option:

Has anyone here used it? Any comments?

Seems like the MIDI became the standard computer/modular comms protocol almost by default. But if you’re working with a computer, the resolution that OSC offers seems to me to make a lot more sense in relation to Cv. Obviously MIDI is way more plug and play, so it’s attractive in that way but I guess I’m just interested to hear what people think.

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#2

yeah, Ive played with using OSC with thing like Bela Salt (and Pepper),
as you say the higher resolution is very useful, it makes it feel more continuous, so closer to cv.

using wifi is great so you don’t need loads of usb cables trailing to the rack.
(I also like using Ableton Link, rather than midi clock for similar reasons)

another thing, Ive done with Bela is use both ethernet and usb network connections for osc,
this might be more suitable in some scenarios, useful for minimising latency/jitter.

mainly, when Ive used OSC its been for control surfaces e.g. the madrona soundplane ‘app’ can transmit osc, rather than midi … its a good example of continuous nature/resolution since pitch is sent as a continuous signal (float) rather than pitch+bend - so was very cool for that.
also its quite easy to create max/pd patches if thats your thing.

I’ve also used it to communicate between various rPI/Organelle, thats quite fun.
(really, this was just an extension of Link, just not restricted to sync)

also, I guess on iOS theres are a plethora of apps e.g. i used lemur as a control surface for a bit of fun,
but I’m not really invested in iOS at the moment, so not something Ive done much with.

of course, support for midi is more prolific… so it still has a major role.
perhaps one day midi 2.0 and rtpmidi will be more widespread, then I guess the gap between osc and midi will be less - but until then I think OSC is very useful.

anyway… i like using both wifi/networking and osc.
I think you just have to be a bit careful if your not a ‘developer’ that you ‘applications’ that can generate the osc in a way thats useful to you.

note: I do kind of wish I’d bought a 2.4sink during KS(?), since my Bela inevitably is used for other things… and is quite a bit bigger than the 2.4sink.

3 Likes
#3

Yes, I’m working on an OSC thing for Eurorack.

But it doesn’t have a physical interface and CV outputs like this module, it connects to eurorack modules via I2c. It’s just a RPI Zero W.

Midi over Bluetooth, web interface and Ableton link are also on my roadmap.

These movesense sensors are really interesting by the way. I’m gonna read more about that :wink:

#4

Sounds like you’re in deep!

One of the things I’ve wondered about are latency:
Wifi vs wired.
Closed network (not sure if this is the reight term: basically a network that just consists of your two devices) vs open network (piggy-backing on some general purpose network).
Does OSC perform noticably better latency-wise vs MIDI? I presume it’s contextual to some degree?

The other is how much extra work is required on the part of the user to set something up?
OSC obviously requires some kind of naming scheme. I’m wondering a Euro module should have a fixed naming scheme?
modulename.output1
modulename.input1
The user sets things up on the other end to send to/receive from these addresses/ids.
But then you’d need some way to disambiguate messages if you had multiple modules. I guess they each have a separate IP address?

If I was to use something like an OSC Euro module it’d have to be as close t oplug and play as possible, otherwise I wouldn’t use it.

#5

Sounds interesting.
When you say it doesn’t have a physical interface, do you mean it’s configured over Wifi?

#6

Yes, via WiFi. The raspberry Pi creates its own hotspot (Or not, but the performances are better with an ad-hoc network). Then most of settings and additional functions will be set via a web interface like the 2.4 sink module I guess).

Right now, I just connect and develop via ssh and there are no particular things to set, the list of II commands is stored, so I haven’t worked on a nice web interface yet.

It just converts the OSC messages it receives and send them over the I2c bus. The physical outputs can be the outputs of one or multiple TXo for example. It talks to any “follower” module that has a II protocol implemented, with the set of commands already available for each module. And the addresses are formatted like this:

/module_name/unit_number/command/port value
ie: /txo/1/cv/1 1234

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#7

I can’t say I’ve done back to back testing, partly because I’ve never had an issue with what I’ve been using it for.

wifi can be a bit ‘varied’, if latency is critical, I’d use a wired (ethernet or usb (*)) connection, using a local switch (**) that said, things like Ableton Link show you can work around these things - and not everything has to be ‘super time critical’ :slight_smile:

(*) bela is cool in this area, as it can do networking over a standard usb cable , so you can connect bela salt directly to your computer (e.g running max), and fire OSC message over that wired connection, without any ‘real’ network :slight_smile:

(**) in my ‘studio’ I put a dedicated (cheap) hub/switch so that everything is connected in one hop… this is also as i want to try to get more stuff working over rtpmidi.

yeah, this is the thing that’s needs exploring in OSC, since there are few/no standards.
really its ‘up to you’ (or the module).
I think things like the 2.4sink, let you customize the OSC names.

yes, you can either separate things at a network level, or at the OSC level (namespace).

multi-casting can also be interesting… (if supported by your firmware/software)
this would be where a number of devices/modules all receive the same messages,
but they can of course react differently…

I think generally, OSC is a little more work to setup, just because its use in music is not as ‘standardized’ as midi
but thats never been a real issue for me, since when I use OSC its usually a ‘custom’ application, so midi is not much use to me anyway :wink: