Multitouch on a Mac without a Touchscreen

Posted on January 28, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

fingerpinger

As you may have noticed it’s been a little quiet around here lately. The reason for this is that since the end of 2013 I have been keeping myself busy with a studio remodel (more on that later) followed by concentrating on preparations for a performance (I’m pleased to announce) at Echofluxx 14 in Prague, May 2014. Here’s a quick note about Echofluxx 13 from their site:

The Echofluxx 13 is a festival of new media, visual art, and experimental music produced by Efemera of Prague with Anja Kaufmann and Dan Senn, co-directors. In cooperation with Sylva Smejkalová and early reflections, the Prague music school (HAMU), and Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), Echofluxx 13 will present international and Czech presenters in a five-day festival at the Tracfačka Arena in Prague, Kurta Konráda 1, Prague 9, May 7-11, 2013. For more information contact: info@echofluxx.org

I’ll discuss more details about this upcoming performance in another post. For now I would like to bring attention to the possibility of using the Mac trackpad and/or Apple’s Magic Trackpad for multitouch. My performance at Echofluxx involves using custom built software to loop granular audiovisual media. This idea evolved from projects in the past that used a 32″ touchscreen. This time the media will be projected, so I naturally decided to use the iPad as the controller. I built the project using Cycling ’74 Max and MIRA, which was very convenient, but I couldn’t get over the latency using the iPad over WiFi for multitouch controls.

I decided that the most convenient alternative would be to use the trackpad on the Mac laptop. Max has an object called “mousestate” that polls button-status and cursor-position information from the default pointer device. However, it is not designed to take advantage of multitouch data. This is where Fingerpinger comes in. Fingerpinger was able to detect ten independent touch points (perhaps more but I was out of fingers) on the built in trackpad on my MacBook Pro. Which begs the question; how did I take that screenshot?

Ten touchpoints on such a small surface is probably impractical, but I only need two; one for X-Y data and a second one for volume. Most importantly I wanted the audiovisual content to be activated simply by touching the trackpad rather than having to click or hold down a key. Fortunately Fingerpinger has a state value for each touchpoint that I was able to use to activate on touch and release. The latency is hardly noticeable compared to an iPad over WiFi, and I have also simplified my setup meaning I can travel with less equipment and rely on fewer technologies. I still like the idea of using an iPad for multitouch controls, mostly because of the opportunities for visual feedback. But for this particular application Fingerpinger is a great solution.

Music with Context: Audiovisual Scores for Improvising Musicians

Posted on December 30, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

Last May I completed my MFA in New Media at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. A good stretch of my time at the college was spent working on my master’s thesis. Here’s the abstract:

This paper explores the idea of mutable, audiovisual scores for improvised musical performances through the description of personal perspectives, practical examples, proposed projects, and research. The author postulates that an audiovisual score can be a useful tool to connect improvising musicians to each other and their audience through the insertion of a mediating audiovisual layer within the work. These systems are used as a primary influential agent for an ensemble of improvisers, providing them with a context for a musical conversation. In contrast to traditional notation and graphic scores, audiovisual scores embrace the chaotic ambiguities of environmental influences giving the music the context of unpredictable everyday events. Presenting an unpredictable audiovisual score parallels the indeterminate improvisation of the ensemble. It activates the last vestige of what remains immutable within traditional forms of notation driven performance inserting it into a mutable layer within the work.

Recently it occurred to me that many AudioCookbook readers will find the subject matter in my thesis interesting. There are detailed, conceptual explanations for many of the projects that I have shared here over the last few years. There are also references to work by many other artists who have provided inspiration to me. If you’re interested please click the link below to view or download the document.

Music with Context: Audiovisual Scores for Improvising Musicians by John Keston

Postfauxpocalypse Excerpt No. 5

Posted on December 5, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

This is the fifth excerpt from my Ostraka performance, “Postfauxpocalyse,” on October 24, 2013 at Popup Northrop. It was recorded directly from a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro to a Sony PCM-D50 at 48kHz/24bit. Again the instruments used were a DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys, Korg Monotribe, and Memory Man analog delay. This is my favorite of the series so far because, although improvised, it feels the most compositional.

Postfauxpocalypse Excerpt No. 4

Posted on December 4, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

This is the forth excerpt from my live performance, “Postfauxpocalyse,” on October 24, 2013 at Popup Northrop. I recorded it directly from a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro to a Sony PCM-D50 at 48kHz/24bit. Again the instruments used were a DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys, Korg Monotribe, and Memory Man analog delay.

Postfauxpocalypse Excerpt No. 3

Posted on December 3, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

This is the third excerpt from my live performance, “Postfauxpocalyse,” on October 24, 2013 at Popup Northrop was recorded directly from a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro to a Sony PCM-D50 at 48kHz/24bit. Once again the instruments used were a DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys, Korg Monotribe, and Memory Man analog delay.