what if there was a way to control hapax with key commands? you could get a macro pad and set them up in a custom layout! my emu e4xt and most emu ultra samplers were doing this in the 90s and everybody loved it! movie producers were just moving fast editing scores and foley fx because they had these key combos! and nobody had doubts if they were using a fully pro device! also less wear on button encoders! you can buy some sophisticated macro pads these days for cheap. i use them with cad and reaper and internet browsing and storing phrases like passwords etc but they work in any context with any operating system that uses usb hid input! its not strictly necessary on hapax but would be interesting imho. i would use it.
Interesting though. Related: do any macro pad/keyboard firmware variants convert key combos to MIDI commands?
most DAWs will.
and i personally love reaper and the endless utility of DAWs. i love plugins and the great variety of synth models that dont show up much in hardware, or really as detailed and deep if they do. once youre making mixes properly in a digital environment you can really put some depth in, or slam a weak source into a saturated monster! dynamic eq and transparent side chaining and limiting basically allow almost any effect you wish. it doesnt need to be pumpy, or harsh.
anyway thats why i like DAWs and hapax. theres just so much you can automate creatively.. its a challenge to use it effectively and i like challenges like that
but as far as turning a usb hid message to any midi command at all or even into sophisticated actions that even have multiple steps, reaper excels. im sure bitwig does too. same with live or fls. routing controllers is what DAWs do. VCV rack can use usb hid input and output audio or cv for your modular synth control! and hid devices are so inexpensive. most of them light up also, and give very fast response to button presses. i use my macro pad to start/stop/rewind/record/increase/decrease tempo while i route internet radio to another track and mix my loops in on tempo. its a good way to see if your loops cut it in a mix.
well anyway, it would be great to have sophisticated custom control over hapax with hid or midi from an external source. many mechanisms to be delivered that way i think. midi is so easily recorded and manipulated… its nice if your edits and cuts and patterns stay midi for longer before you commit to audio… it gives you a chance to work in the sound engines youre using to fine tune the results.
you guys like it that much?
Yeah it goes without saying that DAWs do that. I’m wondering if there are any ways to do that with custom macro pad firmware to bypass the need for a DAW.
Some KB firmware allows sending MIDI messages instead of regular characters, but to the best of my knowledge it’s one MIDI message per key. I am not aware of anything that would convert combos to MIDI, which would be necessary for something like a MIDI macro pad.
no way without major firmware dev action. i use daws so it works rather well for me. hapax im sure is based on linux or can have usb input already. its not uncommon for platform based gear to have a way to accept regular ascii text input. i assume hapax is built on a platform but i dont know for sure. if it is, this kind of thing might not be so hard to implement. its not strictly necessary, i just wanted to see what you guys thought.
PyraMIDI was the more primitive version of what i think you’re describing, using MIDI CC values to send different commands to Pyramid. not sure how much more sophisticated Hapax could get beyond the “trigger recording” “mute tracks”-level commands PyraMIDI implemented though . . .
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you could define key combos for operations or the regular stuff you mentioned. maybe input to the matrix? im sure lots of things would work. but anyway, what do you think of the idea? thats what i was asking. midi control would be a bonus of course! maybe even more appropriate. but if its super easy, why not add ascii hid over usb? you might not be used to this kind of thing but i am and you could be interested because these hid macro pads are not expensive from the right source and they can get pretty sophisticated!
i do like that! i was not so deep in my pyramids but now im thinking maybe it should go back on the want list. they could be subordinate to hapax! i wonder if the transition from one pattern to another is smooth. when i send commands to switch the pattern i mean. and can you do it legato style?