MIDI-OX User Forum - Print Page


    
      
        MIDI-OX User Forum
        (http://www.midiox.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl)
      

        MIDI-OX >> Questions and Discussion >> Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input?
        
(Message started by: gabriels on Feb 9^th, 2008, 3:25pm)

Title: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input?
Post by gabriels on Feb 9^th, 2008, 3:25pm

Hi,
Can you think of some way to o use the laptop touchpad as an input to Midiox and so that I could map it for use as an XY continuous controller?

I suppose the problem would be that it could no longer be used as a pointing device. If so, maybe there would be a way to use a assign one of the keyboard keys to toggle in and out of "touchpad" mode.
Gabriel

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by Jamie OConnell on Feb 9^th, 2008, 5:41pm

Any Mouse X-Y to MIDI convertor will likely work with a touchpad. There are things like that around the web.

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by gabriels on Feb 10^th, 2008, 2:12am

Jamie,
I think you may have misunderstood my question.

I'm not trying to interface with an external touchpad. Instead, I'd like to use the touchpad on my laptop in such a way that it is read as an input to Midiox. In addition, I would have to be able to toggle into and out of this mode so that the touchpad could alternately become available for it's normal use as a pointing device or be dedicated to use as an xy controller that Midiox can read.

Of course, Midiox does "see" my touchpad even now. But it is only available as a pointing device. I want to link the touchpad to Midiox in such a way that it can be used as a joystick controller within Ableton.

Also, I don't want to have to hold down one of the two "buttons" associated with the touchpad. I've used Virtual FaderMaster in the past. It would almost do the trick, except that you have to hold down one of the "buttons" in order to engage the virtual joystick.

Since Midiox already has access to the output of the touchpad on my laptop, isn't there some way to force it to utilize that output as a joystick without resorting to some other piece of software?

Regards,
Gabriel

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by gabriels on Feb 10^th, 2008, 2:50am

Well, there does seem to be a way, using Virtual Fadermaster. I can get MidiOx to read the output of Fadermaster, and I can, of course, get Fadermaster to register movement on my laptop touchscreen, as long as I press either my left mouse button, or the left "mouse button" on my laptop keyboard (just under the touchpad).

I guess I could modify a mouse so that it had a push-push switch in place of the momentary left mouse button switch. Then, I could position the cursor over the joystick in Virtual Fadermaster, push the new mouse button, and start using the Virtual joystick. I wouldn't have to hold down the left mouse button. When I wanted to resume using the touchpad as a pointing device, I'd just have to push the new mouse button once more.

That's kind of klunky though. I'm hoping there's a more elegant solution just using MidiOx.

Gabriel

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by gabriels on Feb 10^th, 2008, 3:33am

But... A problem with using Virtual Fadermaster in association with MidiOx and Ableton is that when I shift the focus from Ableton to Virtual Fadermaster, Ableton no longer notices any keypresses on my laptop keyboard. I have various keys mapped to "switches" in Ableton, so the approach of using a separate software program to convert my touchpad into midi is probably not going to work.
I'm hoping you do have a solution using just Midiox.
Gabriel

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by Jamie OConnell on Feb 10^th, 2008, 3:11pm

I mentioned Mouse reading software because the touchpad on a lap top emulates and replaces the mouse. As far as Windows is concerned, it is a mouse, and the driver for it outputs data that is compatible and identical to mouse output.

If MIDI-OX had a built-in controller for the Laptop touch-pad (which it doesn't), you would have the same problem regarding focus. When you switch the input focus from one application to another, the original application loses the focus. So you would really need Ableton to implement this.

Have you tried to load any of the freeware VST touchpad plug-ins into Ableton to see if that would work for you?

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by gabriels on Feb 10^th, 2008, 5:51pm

I'm not exactly sure what a VST touchpad utility would be, but I'll search for something like that and report back.
Thanks,
Gabriel

Title: Re: Any way to use laptop touchpad as Midiox input
Post by gabriels on Feb 10^th, 2008, 5:59pm

Hmmm,
Touchpad 2 Midi looks very promising! I haven't tried it yet, but it mentions that it works even if it's not in focus.
Thanks for the suggestion....and I will post when I test it.
Gabriel