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Re: Foot Controllers.

On Dec 7, 2015, at 10:53 AM, andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Don't know if the Mcmillen gear has such features as options for
> "longpress function doesn't happen until you release the switch",
> which is kind of a deal if you want to set up your most efficient
> combination of switches.
> (because a loop function happenning after a fixed longpress time can be 
> rather unmusical).

Sitting somewhere between the physical buttons and the software to be 
controlled, one would like software that turned Press & Release events 
from the physical button into either of the following event streams based 
on how long the button gets held:

        Press - TapRelease

or

        Press - Hold - HoldRelease

Then one needs software that can map those four events (Press, Hold, 
TapRelease, HoldRelease) into MIDI events.

And then, of course, one needs looping software that does intelligent 
things with MIDI events. For example, a Line 6 looper (and many others) 
treats the Rec/Dub switch differently depending on mode:

        Empty + Rec/Dub ==> Recording
        Stopped + Rec/Dub ==> Recording (Empty really only exists at 
startup)
        Recording + Rec/Dub ==> Overdubbing
        Overdubbing + Rec/Dub ==> Playing
        Playing + Rec/Dub ==> Overdubbing

        etc

This allows for more efficient interfaces though some of that could just 
be being smart about what the control events are for the looper. I loved 
the EDP and found it pretty straightforward in its basic operation but it 
was also button intensive.

And consider that the above can get more complex if we want to recognize 
double-taps as well. Then the press (and its follow on events) might be 
identified as being a multi-press if it followed the previous release by a 
short enough interval.

Mark

P.S. I did a bunch of analysis a while back on how to get as much 
functionality as possible out of as few buttons as possible. I should post 
that some time in the hope that someone might be able to use it.