From the original SynthMaker forum (2004–2014), with its members’ names and dates.
NothanUmber ·
Hi,
have you already seen/heard of the Thummer? Very nice concept!
Have build a very simple "poor man's" adaption of the underlaying ThumMusic Pitch System for notebook and mouse. (Here a link to a google-translated german forum entry where I already posted the details (sounds a little bit like Master Yoda but should be understandable - here the link to the original version.)
Have fun
NothanUmber ·
Have applied some updates to the script. (In order to spare you from having to read the ugly google translation here a short subsumption of how and for what it can be used):
What does it:
It is a simple implementation of the ThumMusic Pitch System with an ordinary computer keyboard. In contrast to their upcoming product that one isn't velocity sensitive of course and only offers one "claviature" instead of two (except you have two computers... 😉 ). (Basically you just have a sequence of whole notes in one row, the pitch difference between two rows is a quint.) As a workaround to the lack of continuous touch sensitivity you can control the note velocity with the vertical mouse position and additionally the sustain pedal with the horizontal axis. (Who prefers to control e.g. modulation or pitch bend - or even wants to completely substitute the mouse with e.g. a joystick/data glove etc. can do that by just changing a single line.) With the "page up" and "page down" keys or alternatively with the mouse keys you can transpose the whole instrument up or down in octave steps. (maximal range: 10 octaves)
The biggest problem beside the lacking velocity sensitivity is the fact that most computer keyboards only recognize a limited number of simultaniously pressed keys at once. (with my keyboard three voices are possible in all cases, four voices work only for some key-combinations). So this script can not replace the (yet to be released) jammer hardware but it should be sufficient to evaluate the concept (and imo it's much more fun to play with as e.g. with the SM internal "PC keyboard" mode 😉 )
Installation:
Download this script and load it with the latest version of that program. As a SM user you'll presumably want to control some softsynths with it, so you'll have to also download Midi Yoke, tell Windows to use e.g. the virtual device "Midi Yoke #1" as standard midi output (via the audio panel of the system controls window) and then select the very same device as midi input in your host application (or SM).
Hope someone else also finds that useful 🙂
GaryG ·
Cool.
(bit late, i know 🙂)
Just been looking at thummer, janko etc. layouts in relation to laptop use, PIE could be very handy. Thought about an SM version but I don't think the keyboard handling is up to it (prove me wrong children, prove me wrong 🙂)
cheers, .g
infuzion ·
I like the concept of "alternative" controllers, but IMHO they tend to be very expensive, hard to find, fix, etc. Best bets with features/price IMHO: + Using a USB game joystick & a USB Joy to MIDI converter + http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Axiom25-main.html + That touchscreen with SM-driven software (sorry, forgot name, if someone can please 🙂 )
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