Hi Guztavo,

That would be great, especially the lights on the keys.

Is it possible to include a T-bar to give manual control of cross-fades or dissolves?

Would it work alongside the keyboard, replace it or could you switch between the 2?

Please put me down as a beta tester ;-)

I'm currently testing a wireless USB keypad that appears to work well with programmed keyboard shortcuts. I can even operate it from a camera position, I don't suppose it would be possible to ...................... ? No? Silly me, I'll just keep dreaming.

Brian

I did make a switch with several hacks and find out that a simple nummeric keyboard can do the trick no hacking, afterwards i endid with only the keyboard because you get a christmass tree with all the usb connections. What i did is making a tally box with lights in my case 3 inputs and a lcd screen where i can name the in puts cam 1 cam 2 and 2 color leds underneath the text its small but you can see in one second witch input is live, but its always nice to hack and prototype around.

GreetZ Richie

The plan at this stage is to expand the current web interface with the addition of
various themes which emulate the layout of hardware controllers including a T-bar.

The advantage of this approach is the ability to use any touch screen device (iPad, Kindle Fire, Galaxy Tab etc)
to achieve similar results to a hardware controller.

Mixer control interfaces cost upwards of $1500 to make so it makes sense to concentrate
on a touch screen interface that can be used on a $199 kindle fire.

Hi Brian,

I am happy for customers to build (and market!) whatever devices they see fit.
The current vMix API supports controlling most of the options available including the fader bar.

I was just pointing out that hardware controllers are not something we are considering ourselves.

Regards,

Martin
vMix

Hi,

@Brian : OK with you about the importance of "physical" interface, I feel the same ;-) ! But I think Martin's plans are very good even for us, "tactile users" (;-)), and I'm glad to read them, the future expansion of the current web is really good news !

Indeed, there is not necessarily opposition between development for touchscreens and for hardware controllers : what I mean is that, if the web interface (and so the vMix API) becomes more and more powerful, we will then just need to have (or develop !) a third-party application to let a physical interface communicate with vMix in the same way that the web interface does... in a word, we will only need a "translator" between a hardware controller communication protocol and vMix API.

=> For example : it's quite easy to interface MIDI messages and vMix functions (I tried, it works !); so whenever every vMix function is available using the API, it will be possible to control vMix with any MIDI-compatible control surface !
And we can imagine interfacing other protocols.

So I really look forward to next Martin's improvements in the web interface... that sounds really really promising ! Martin, if we can participate in the development... please let us know, that will be with pleasure !!!

Best wishes,

Emmanuel

Emmanuel, i read other posts and i saw that you made your own driver to use vMix with MIDI... how did you do to handle the crossfader? wich programming language are you using?
Regards!!

Hi,

@Guztavo :

- there is no information about MIDI in vMix help... because vMix doesn't handle MIDI (or maybe it's an hidden functionality !). That's why I told about using a third-party software, working as a "translator" between MIDI messages (from a control surface) and vMix API functions requests.

- yes, I developped such a software : in C#, and using standard .NET MIDI libraries. To handle the crossfader : I used the API "SetFader" function (not mentioned in the vMix help, but I had seen it in the shortcuts).

Just to be clear, at this point it is not a "final product", I just did it to test and validate this functionality. I am at the moment still testing several video softwares, looking for the one that I could use for future shows (in 2013); vMix is one of the best I could find, but I need some few more functionalities (of course interoperability with external control surfaces, but also fade to black fader, precise cue points or something close to, playback speed control), so by now I am not sure it will be the one I will choose => I did not spend too much time on developping something that I'm not sure I will use ;-).

... but to be honest, I find vMix more and more interesting from one release to another... it is very promising ! I just wait for the last functionalities I need, or for a way to implement them by myself.


@Brian :

No problem with what you know or don't know... and by the way you know what you're talking about better than you believe ;-)
You are perfectly right : yes, theoritically it is possible to use the Presonus Fader Port - but I don't have one so I can't test, and the Presonus documentation is not very precise on which MIDI messages are generated, so maybe it would not be so easy... but I don't see why it could not be done.

Have a good day !


Emmanuel

Just wanna add my 2ct. I myself was already thinking about building such a thing. But unfortunately I don't have time for this in any of the near future. That's why I'm writing down my thoughts about it, in case it may help anyone doing so.


IMHO one should rather build an external mixer upon the basis of Arduino. The reason? If you publish a list with the parts needed and the source as well, everyone can easily build one mixer on his own. And another very important reason: it's affordable!

It's easy: Arduino already comes with most components needed and you don't have to be fiddling around with the deep knowledge of programming an microcontroller. On the other hand with the new Arduino Leonardo one can easily expose this device as a keyboard. Hence you could avoid using the API as you said you'd like.

Then again, I'd recommend using the API for several reasons. It allows the mixer to be used much more independently from the vMix' PC. On the one hand you can leave it far away with just the network connection needed. On the other hand it allows you to use the PC still, as you don't have to leave the focus up to vMix' window.

Finally, i think using the API is by far the most clean and sophisticated solution. Who knows what features API may bring in the future? Probably things that simply cannot easily be done by defining loads of shortcuts.

And what if keyboard shortcuts change - may it be because you did a fresh install, changed needs or just by accident? API calls are much more unlikely to change.


So to conclude: use Arduino, use the API. Then your mixer will provide by far the biggest benefit for everyone.

Regards, mh166

There is software out there that can map MIDI commands to keyboard shortcuts.
For example:

http://www.bome.com/prod...nslator/overview/classic

Hi Martin,




I just downloaded v8, and could not find anything about a T-bar, I suppose it is not included in this version ?
=> is it still planned for a future version ?

If not : would it be possible just to have an API function to control the alpha level of each input (like the slider that can be found in the "input settings => Colour adjust") ?
Maybe something like "SetAlphaLevelInput1" with a value that can be set between 0 and 255.

With such a function I could use an external slider to control the alpha level of the current inputs, and then use it as a "master video". It would be really great !!!

Thanks,


Emmanuel