MIDI.live - Realtime music visualization with MIDI

[Stephe]

There was a thread about it a few months ago - now I want to announce some important news:

MIDI.live is a software for realtime music visualization of MIDI data. It can be used e.g. at concerts, where the music of the keyboardist or e-drummer is visualized on a screen in realtime.

We now released a "technology preview" for testing, and are waiting for your feedback!

More infos: http://www.midilive.org

[Lukeofkeys]

OMG! You finally did it! I frequently checked you homepage and I was so sad too see that you had to reset the release date for several times, but now the waiting is over!!!!! :eek: :cool:
I just downloaded it and as far as I can tell, the user Interface is quite simple and self explaining! Good Job!
I can't wait to try this thing out when I'm home again (no midi device here)! :frown:

Wow! I'm just excited!

greets
Luke

[PinkFloydDudi]

WOOOOHOOOO. I went searching for this thread a while ago hoping there was new development to it or a release!

This is awesome news. I'll be downloading it when I get home tonight.

Like Luke, I'm SUPER excited for this!


A question: Is there any 3rd party developer support? For example allowing users to create their own graphics and use some API's to your stuff?

[rlainhart]

Stephe can answer this more fully, but as I understand it, because it's Java-based, it's relatively easy to write and incorporate your own plugins to extend the graphics capabilities of the application, and there will be specs available for this soon. So, creating your own graphic evnironments for the program should definitely be doable.




A question: Is there any 3rd party developer support? For example allowing users to create their own graphics and use some API's to your stuff?

[PinkFloydDudi]

Just read the quick users guide...(which should always be read before asking questions!)

"Every imagery and its algorithms are stored in plugins. Currently there are two visualization for demonstration purposes. There will be a plugin development SDK available in the near future"


(quick grammar nazi note: Saying "development SDK" is redundant. SDK stands for Software Development Kit...so all you would need to say is "there will be a plugin SDK available")

Again - awesome!

[Premetheus37]

Woohoo! I too have been checking this page quite frequently.

~Premetheus

EDIT: Windows Vista, aw nooooooo. Well, I'm gonna run it straight through java anyway.

[Enigma™]

Just read the quick users guide...(which should always be read before asking questions!)

"Every imagery and its algorithms are stored in plugins. Currently there are two visualization for demonstration purposes. There will be a plugin development SDK available in the near future"


(quick grammar nazi note: Saying "development SDK" is redundant. SDK stands for Software Development Kit...so all you would need to say is "there will be a plugin SDK available")

Again - awesome!

But you and I know what a SDK is... Not everyone does :) I see both sides lol

Like saying ATM Machine or BES Server. lol

[PinkFloydDudi]

But you and I know what a SDK is... Not everyone does :) I see both sides lol

Like saying ATM Machine or BES Server. lol


true...but anyone who would possibly have the ability to program that stuff (and be curious about it), would probably know what it meant.

Although the ATM Machine thing was a good analogy!

[Premetheus37]

Quick question: I read the users guide and can't find the answer. MIDIlive doesn't have my MIDI device as an option in the drop-down list. I have a keyboard connected via MIDI-USB and my mac recognizes the MIDI through Finale. Any ideas?

~Premetheus

[Stephe]

Quick question: I read the users guide and can't find the answer. MIDIlive doesn't have my MIDI device as an option in the drop-down list. I have a keyboard connected via MIDI-USB and my mac recognizes the MIDI through Finale. Any ideas?

~Premetheus

That's why we limited the use to MS Windows systems only (although it may work on Linux, I have no system available for testing)
Apple obviously refuses or forgot to implement the connection between Java's and OSX's MIDI sub-system. There are free libraries which solve that problem (google for "MMJ"), but these are only freely available for Java 1.5. Unfortunately, you need Java 6 to run our software.

This version of MIDI.live is only a technology preview. For the next version, we will get away from Java, since it is not the best programming language for realtime graphics, mainly in terms of performance.

And yeeeees, "development SDK" is redundant. But I'm too lazy to change the PDF just for this :wink:

[Lukeofkeys]

Quick question: I read the users guide and can't find the answer. MIDIlive doesn't have my MIDI device as an option in the drop-down list. I have a keyboard connected via MIDI-USB and my mac recognizes the MIDI through Finale. Any ideas?

~Premetheus

Was connecting a device today and had the same problem.... :confused:
Oh what a pitty, and I was so curious to test this thing out! Anyways....hoping for the next version! :D

greets
Luke

[PinkFloydDudi]

That's why we limited the use to MS Windows systems only (although it may work on Linux, I have no system available for testing)
Apple obviously refuses or forgot to implement the connection between Java's and OSX's MIDI sub-system. There are free libraries which solve that problem (google for "MMJ"), but these are only freely available for Java 1.5. Unfortunately, you need Java 6 to run our software.

FINALLY solves the "MAC vs PC" argument!!! hahaha. (kidding folks!)


And yeeeees, "development SDK" is redundant. But I'm too lazy to change the PDF just for this :wink:

There are actually quite a few grammatical errors, but at this point I highly doubt a priority for you guys!

I forgot to test it out last night (which I'm sort of pissed about for forgetting to do!)....Can't wait though

[Premetheus37]

Booo. There's already a couple of MIDI visualization programs out there for PC. I was excited because I thought this would be something that I could use.

~Premetheus

[mmichaelc]

This version of MIDI.live is only a technology preview. For the next version, we will get away from Java, since it is not the best programming language for realtime graphics, mainly in terms of performance.


Ah crap, I like Java. C then?

[PinkFloydDudi]

Ah crap, I like Java. C then?

C# I would guess.

[osiris]

I've got this kind of working now. I had some trouble with the midi devices (running on pc) but after I opened MIDI OX and tested the pc was recieving data, the device then appeared in MIDI.live.

The tunnel plugin is cool, although sometimes its a bit blotchy or pixelated. but if I put it on wireframe it looks much clearer.

Also the other plugin, its as if it hasnt loaded the textured skin or image (dno what to call it really) properly, so its like crappy 8bit graphics done badly, and just looks crap... anyone know how to sort this?

[PinkFloydDudi]

Couple of things...

1) What computers are you running / testing this on? Because mine pretty much instantly got pegged the second I would turn the visualization on!

I have AMD 3000+, 2.17 GHz, 2gb RAM, and a Radeon X850 Pro (Tweaked).

I started at 6% cpu, and after "selecting" the visualization, instantly went to 100% and things came to a screaching halt. Clicking a button would take about 30 seconds delay.


2) I would suggest having a "start / stop" button. I'd like to be able to select the midi visualization, make all the necessary settings changes I wanted to make, and THEN have the visualization run.

My machine is pretty old, and cluttered with random crap, so it might be more my end of things, but it still seems like quite the system resource hog.

From what little I did get to see though, it looks awesome.

[osiris]

I can't remember the exact spec of my pc, but its AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual core processor, 2gb of ram, plenty of hdd space... creative soundblaster xfi platinum soundcard. No graphics card.

As I said, with the tunnel plugin, if I set it to a wireframe, it's fine. clear image, sometimes a bit jittery if lots of midi data is sending...

But its the other plugin thats just not at all how it should be.

[Stephe]

I started developing the software on a Mac mini 2Ghz with an Intel GMA 950 -> Performance was miserable!
Currently, I have a macbook with Intel X3100 graphics, which is quite faster, but the fans are on all the time.
That's why I'm working on my PC with a quad-core and Nvidia 8800 GT, which is no problem at all :wink:

If we switch to another programming language, it will be C/C++. C# is quite similar to Java, and introduced by Microsoft, so it would only run on the mac with certain third party libraries. C/C++ is THE programming language for realtime graphics, so it will be that one. We initially decided to use Java, because we were using it throughout our studies, and it is very to develop on multiple platforms at once. And multi-platform was one of our goals. The only problem is the recognition of the MIDI devices on the mac.

Concerning the quick user guide: "Quick" refers to the fact, that it was written very quickly :wink:, and since English is not our native language (we are from Austria, Europe), grammar and spelling mistakes may occur. I'm sorry!

[PinkFloydDudi]

I started developing the software on a Mac mini 2Ghz with an Intel GMA 950 -> Performance was miserable!
Currently, I have a macbook with Intel X3100 graphics, which is quite faster, but the fans are on all the time.
That's why I'm working on my PC with a quad-core and Nvidia 8800 GT, which is no problem at all :wink:

Ok, so it does seem to be a resource hog on other machines too. Mine is certainly faaaarrrr from a quad-core with an 8800 GT.

Hopefully any transition to another language will ease this to make it better for a common person. With this type of application, while cool on your desktop...the only real practical implementation for the average musicians would be for it to run on an "average" laptop.
Not sure if thats possible, but one could have some wishful thinking!


If we switch to another programming language, it will be C/C++. C# is quite similar to Java, and introduced by Microsoft, so it would only run on the mac with certain third party libraries. C/C++ is THE programming language for realtime graphics, so it will be that one. We initially decided to use Java, because we were using it throughout our studies, and it is very to develop on multiple platforms at once. And multi-platform was one of our goals. The only problem is the recognition of the MIDI devices on the mac.
I've never really done graphic programming (my "art" barely includes stick-figures.) I would think C# would be more up-to-date to handle the graphics and real-time application. Guess I'm wrong though!

Concerning the quick user guide: "Quick" refers to the fact, that it was written very quickly :wink:, and since English is not our native language (we are from Austria, Europe), grammar and spelling mistakes may occur. I'm sorry!
Just meant as feedback is all, no apology necessary.

[Lukeofkeys]

(we are from Austria, Europe)

Ey....me too :D....funny coincident! ;)

greets
Luke

[Stephe]

Ey....me too :D....funny coincident! ;)

greets
Luke

Yeah! Und ich dachte ich bin der einzige hier aus Ö. ;-)



It seems that very little people are reading our system requirements and then wonder why it doesn't work on OSX ;-)

Judging from the first user feedbacks, it seems that performance and stability are a big issue. (no wonder, this is a pre-beta release ;-) )
On my Mac mini, it was possible to play a middle-class computer game (The Sims 2), so it is strange that the performance of displaying a few colored rectangles in MIDI.live is so weak. There must be a huge bottleneck between Java and OpenGL (Java native calls are always quite slow), so we have to switch to another programming language, in order to boost performance and allow users to run M.l on "normal" machines.

As I said before, C# is a Microsoft product, and therefore is for the Windows platform only, so it's a no-go. Plus, I don't want to learn a new language :wink:

So the choice is (native) C++. I'm currently experimenting with OSX's CoreMIDI API, C++ and OpenGL in Xcode. If somebody is experienced with that, tell me!

[Premetheus37]

It seems that very little people are reading our system requirements and then wonder why it doesn't work on OSX ;-)

I read the requirements and tried to get it to work anyway because I've been waiting for this to come out for months now hoping that it would be mac compatible. When I first heard about this product I searched the web to find something like it and found only software for PC.

~Premetheus

[St0rMl0rD]

Ey....me too :D....funny coincident! ;)

greets
Luke


Hello from your southern neighbor, Slovenija! :biggrin:

-J

[PinkFloydDudi]

Yeah! Und ich dachte ich bin der einzige hier aus Ö. ;-)



It seems that very little people are reading our system requirements and then wonder why it doesn't work on OSX ;-)

Judging from the first user feedbacks, it seems that performance and stability are a big issue. (no wonder, this is a pre-beta release ;-) )
On my Mac mini, it was possible to play a middle-class computer game (The Sims 2), so it is strange that the performance of displaying a few colored rectangles in MIDI.live is so weak. There must be a huge bottleneck between Java and OpenGL (Java native calls are always quite slow), so we have to switch to another programming language, in order to boost performance and allow users to run M.l on "normal" machines.

As I said before, C# is a Microsoft product, and therefore is for the Windows platform only, so it's a no-go. Plus, I don't want to learn a new language :wink:

So the choice is (native) C++. I'm currently experimenting with OSX's CoreMIDI API, C++ and OpenGL in Xcode. If somebody is experienced with that, tell me!

I play video games pretty regularly including Battlefield 2, World of Warcraft, and others...I'm usually able to run most of those games on high for all graphics with no issues. Even with some of the newer high-graphic games I can get by with it just being a bit choppy. This one stops me dead in my tracks the second I push "select".

I'm wondering if there is a memory leak somewhere (a rather large one)? Because the program runs perfectly fine until that graphic is started. But without even being full-screen, I can't see how something in that little window would suddenly peg my processor up to 100% like it does.

[Lukeofkeys]

Hello from your southern neighbor, Slovenija! :biggrin:

-J

Greets back fella! :D....

Yeah! Und ich dachte ich bin der einzige hier aus Ö. ;-)

Nett hier einen landsmännischen-DT-fan zu treffen ;)....hat Seltenheitswert!


greets
Luke

[osiris]

what is it that makes some of the light things go red in the tunnel plugin? :frown:

[Stephe]

what is it that makes some of the light things go red in the tunnel plugin? :frown:

a bug :wink: