New AeroMIDI coming soon - And we mean it. ;)

The word 'soon' in software development usually means 2-3 times longer than 'actual soon'.  At any rate, it is actually soon now...Ok, I digress....Its coming SOON. ;)  Just needs to go through a round of testing.

This image shows the new "Action Cards" which lets you assign gestures to midi actions.   You can track a circular gesture or a swipe to the right and trigger a beat.  In fact, it is easy to do beat juggling and is actually viable at 1/8th quantization.
You can also set it up to track the hand or hands in X, Y or Z, as well as hand rotations such as Pitch, Yaw and Roll.

When a gesture is triggered, a flash of color is drawn on the screen.  (As seen to the right.)

Each "Action Card" can be assigned to a group.  In this case, we have two groups: Blue and Green.  Only one card from each group can be active at a time.  Right now, C and D are active.

Finger tracking in cubes still works, of course.  The cubes are bigger and its easier to go into a cube.

Create some scales that go along with your song and trigger them.


Also, if you are lucky enough to have an Oculus Rift

 Here is the Oculus Rift view.  Of course, you'll need an Oculus Rift...otherwise its just silly.

And here is the old style camera follow mode.  The addition is that you can now turn the camera to the orientation of your hand.

While fun - the "Fixed Camera" mode is really the most practical.  Although, results may vary.

The new version of AeroMIDI is a week or two away.  If you bought it via AirSpace, it may be 2-3 weeks away.  (We have to get those bugs out - yes - we may have a few)

Thanks for reading!

New AeroMIDI mode coming soon!

Hey there,

We are working on a new mode for AeroMIDI called "Hand Tracker" which tracks your hands/palms in space and will generate CC messages without having to be in cubes.

The upcoming version will have hand tracking in X,Y, Z, but will also track pitch, yaw and roll.  This will be an alternative or maybe even the default way to generate CC messages.  All the same range, snap and mapping modes will be available, as well.  This will make it easy to turn AeroMIDI into an simple controller that will not require you to be viewing the screen.

In addition, we have changed the way that the mapping modes work.  Instead of having 6 buttons with 3 different modes on each button, we have changed it to be toggles for the following: (linear, exponential fast, exponential slow, reverse and mirrored.)  This is much more intuitive and easier to work with.

There are many other changes and fixes which will be made available incrementally.

Thank you!

AeroMIDI Survey - Help us make AeroMIDI better

We like to take feedback from our users.  We want to know what you like and what you don't like.  Please take this short survey to help us mold the software into what you would like us to build.

Take the AeroMIDI survey now!

Thank you!

How to select cubes that are behind other cubes

Let's say you've designed a great layout with cubes in several Z-depths with a row in the front and a row in the back and suddenly you decide you want to edit and select a bunch of cubes in the back row.   

How do you do this?

There are two rows of cubes.  (These cubes are transparent in this example.) Make sure you are in Edit mode. Click the rotate left button highlighted in red.

This rotates the view clockwise to the left so it looks like this.

Click on a non-cube area and then drag over the last row which is now on the left.  

Alternatively, if you just want to edit a single cube, you can press the TAB key to cycle through the cubes until you get to the one you want.

Here is more help on editing: http://aeromidi.net/support_manual/cubes.htm 

Hope this helps!

Experimenting with camera location

Hey there - MIDI controller aficionados,

For the next update of AeroMIDI, I am going to be experimenting with camera location and orientation.  The inclination to push through to a cube can sometimes be un-intuitive.  This is because the camera never changes its orientation and is always looking in the same direction.  Taking a cue from 3D video games, the camera is always in a follow mode behind the character.  I've tried this with a rough camera script and when the camera moves to the orientation of the finger/hand, AeroMIDI is more fun and feels more fluid.  The key is to get it to be smooth and feel natural.  Of course, this new camera mode will be an option in the settings, in case you love the current camera mode.  I hope to have a new build with this option by next week or so.

I must admit that I am new to 3D programming this year and have still got some of the kinks to work out.  If there is something that you feel could be improved, by all means write us via aeromidi@acoustica.com .

Also, we have been promised by the Leap Motion team that substantial improvements in finger persistence and skeletal tracking are coming in the future.  That will be nice.  Fingers crossed on that one. :)

Thanks for reading.  And here's to your success in 3D MIDI controllers, Leap Motion and AeroMIDI!  Cheers!

What are you doing with AeroMIDI and the Leap Motion Controller?

We've built AeroMIDI and now we want to see what you can do.  Who wants to see a programmer make music? :)  We want to see what musicians are doing!  Post your video to YouTube and let us and the world know how you are innovating music with new technology!

What are you doing with AeroMIDI?

• One big cube to control filters or other parameters?
• Triggering notes to make a performance?
• Triggering sounds?
• Altering your voice?

Thanks to one of our early adopters Noise Solution.  Noise Solution's is a social enterprise using music and technology with people who are disengaged from the mainstream through problems such as mental health, addiction, offending, challenging behaviour or chaotic lifestyles.

Here is one of their videos using AeroMIDI.

AeroMIDI build 0.94 released!

This new build fixes the following problems.

* Installer remembers your old install location.  (Windows non- AirSpace version only)

* Exit cube message now works properly.  It was mistakenly firing the enter cube setting.  

* Duplicate midi messages when clicking the status bar keyboard now fixed.

* Now offsetting cubes when they are duplicated.  (Towards the camera.)

* Authorization dialog bug fix – after entering an invalid code, it would disable the GUI (Non AirSpace only)

* Project file association with AeroMIDI. You can double click an AeroMIDI project and it launches AeroMIDI. (You may need to manually associated .aeromidi files with AeroMIDI)

* Double click a cube to bring up its properties.

It usually takes a week for the AirSpace versions to be updated, as they have to review it and run it through their tests. 

But the AeroMIDI.net versions are ready to download!

 

Download version 0.94 here: http://aeromidi.net/download.php

AeroMIDI pricing lowered to $29.99 during introductory period!

AeroMIDI pricing has been lowered to $29.99 during this introductory period.  The MSRP is still $99.99.  If you had purchased at $99.99, we can gladly refund the difference, as well.  Please contact us via aeromidi@acoustica.com .  If you had purchased via AirSpace, you will need to contact the Leap Motion team.

We will be coming out with a version 0.93 by the end of next week.  (August 8th)

Thank you!

AeroMIDI 0.92 released

AeroMIDI 0.92 has been released.

Download it at http://aeromidi.net/download.php

Here is the change list:

• Recent Wall Persistence - this is a new feature that helps when navigating adjacent cubes with a shared wall.  This keeps walls around for an extra .2 seconds after leaving a cube.
• Fix for sending a note off before a note on.  This caused glitches on some synths.
• Temporary crash fix for those that could happen with some anti-virus programs such as Kaspersky, ESET, Avast!
• New Example files for use with Mixcraft 6.  Look in the installation folder followed by "Example Projects" and then "Mixcraft 6".
• The camera freeze position is now saved with the project.

Here is a screenshot of the new "Alien Worlds" theremin style instrument.  Very cool. 

As always, we are interested in your feedback and suggestions.  Send them to aeromidi@acoustica.com .  Thanks!

Mac download or install damaged? Not.

We have discovered a download/install issue with our Mac version of AeroMIDI.  The problem is that the security settings on the Mac might be defaulted to not allow software downloads from companies other than Apple or identified developers. 

If you get the message "Aeromidi is damaged and should be moved to the trash" then you are encountering this problem. 

Its not really damaged.  This is Apple’s security measures that prevent you from running applications that aren't directly from Apple’s store.  In order to get passed this go to your System Preferences > Security & Privacy.  Click the lock icon to unlock it.  Enter your password and switch to “Allow Apps from ANYWHERE”.  After this, you will be able to install it.  Reset your Security & Privacy to the proper level if desired.

We will work on becoming an accepted Apple developer. But, in the meantime, this is a solution.

Thanks!

AeroMIDI first release!

The Leap Motion Controller been released and AeroMIDI is now available for download.  You may notice that the version is 0.89.   Since the software is manipulating cubes in 3D space, there are a few tweaks and adjustments that we will be making.  By all means, try out the demo/trial and send us your feedback.

Download the AeroMIDI trial here

Here are some of the things we have fixed/changed that will show up in the next version:

• Time persistent walls.  When pushing against a wall in a cube and then moving to an adjacent cube, it was possible to forget that the actual location of the finger would have been further out in Z-depth.  The finger was simply constrained and then when the finger moved out of the cube, it was freed and zoomed out of range.  The new code allows any walls to persist for 200 milliseconds once the finger has left a cube.  This allows for smooth cube transitioning as expected.
• There is a crashing bug related to an anti-virus.  We are awaiting a bug fix there from the Unity 3D developers.
• There was a bug in MIDI output where AeroMIDI is sending a note off before a note on, causing some synths to be silent.

As this is new technology and a new way to explore MIDI, we encourage you to send in your projects, videos and ideas.  Of course, please send any bug reports to ambugs@acoustica.com

Thank you!