This project is intended to demonstrate the various technologies described
during the 2016 Niagara Summit Developer Bootcamp, including the Common Object
Model, ndriver, BajaScript, bajaux, Gradle, D3, and more.
It provides the ability to configure musical synthesizer voices using Niagara components and views, and then to play that synthesizer in the browser.
midi-se and midi-ux are standard Niagara modules built with Gradle. Check
out the Building Niagara 4 repository
for more information on how modules are built.
Once the module is built, start up a station and use the midi palette to add
a Synthesizer to your station. Under the Synthesizer will be a folder called
Presets. Drag as many presets as you like from the midi palette into the
Presets folder.
Once that is done, navigate to the Synthesizer in the browser as a user with
the HTML5HxProfile configured. Use the dropdown at the top to select a preset
to play, and press keys on the keyboard to trigger notes.
If you have an external MIDI device like a keyboard, you can use that as well
to play your Synthesizer. (Currently this is supported only on Supervisors,
not JACEs.)
On your station, navigate to the Devices container and add a MidiNetwork
from the midi palette. Open up the MidiNetwork and click the Discover
button to discover all available MIDI devices on your system. Select the device
that you want to play, and drag it to the bottom pane to add it to your station.
Now, when viewing your Synthesizer, the dropdown in the top left will contain
your MIDI device.
BOX has a built-in safety delay of around one second when flushing component events down to the station. This prevents a busy JACE from overloading with events, but also prevents response time from being truly instantaneous as you would need for a musical instrument. For the demo, we dialed that delay down to zero to get the real-time response to work - safe for a Supervisor, but with potential performance concerns were we to do this on a JACE. We are investigating the possibility/safety of opening up this capability in Niagara 4.3. In the meantime, to get the best possible response times, use of the keyboard is suggested.
This demo was put together with the Launchpad Pro in mind as a triggering device. If you happen to have one, the LaunchpadProWidget will show your keypresses as you play them, and the circle buttons down the right edge allow you to select different presets to play.