My Mixcraft foot controller experiment

[EL34]

I made some headway today on a foot controller for mixcraft
I made a movie of it in action. See the link at the bottom of this post

I tore down a PS2 keyboard and removed the keyboard controller circuit board.
I Soldered on some wires so I can trigger some macros with some switches.
Here's a link with info on how the keyboard hack works
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking-a-USB-Keyboard/

I ordered a cheapo USB keyboard from Walmart for $7.84 today
That's the keyboard I will use for the real switch box.

The macros are triggered by a free program called Auto Hot key
Here's a link to the Auto Hot key site
http://www.autohotkey.com/

It monitors key strokes and then you can set up elaborate macros and do all sorts of other cool things with the press of one key.

To start and stop recording is easy, you just trigger a Control + R once to start and then again to stop recording.

I am using the [ key to start and stop recording
The ] key does the rewind sequence so you can do another take

Script details:
The ^ character Control, so ^r is Control + R
The semi colons are remarks that do not get executed
The script now mutes the last overdub track so you don't hear it when you do another overdub.

The script:

; Mixcraft - Start and Stop recording
[::
Send, ^r
return

To rewind and get ready for another take is a bit more complicated.
Many things happen with the press of one switch

; Mixcraft - rewind sequence
]::
Send, ^g ;Add a new audio track
Sleep, 100
Send, {DOWN} ;Move the clip down to the new track
Sleep, 100
Send, ^u ;move the selected track up one
Sleep, 100
Send, {ESC} ;un-highlight the clip
Sleep, 100
Send, ^m ; mute the track you just recorded
Sleep, 100
; This section rewinds back to the previous flag
Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{CTRLDOWN}{SPACE}{SHIFTUP}{CTRLUP}
Send, {SPACE}
return

The macro above needs several other tweaks to refine it.
One thing that only works sorta ok is a complete reset back to a starting point flag.
Mixcraft does not have a command to do that and so I am using the playback to previous flag command and then stopping playback

Hey Dan, can you add a Cntrl + Something key that goes back to the starting flag and then stops?
What we really need is a special flag that indicates the starting point for a overdub.
The reason for that is that if you pass over the top of a flag during your overdub, the script will rewind to that flag, not the starting flag.

Anywho, I made a Winders media movie of the whole thing is action.
You can download it, but it should start streaming when you click on the link below
The movie does not show the overdubbed track as muted, but it does get muted now.
Movie link
http://www.el34world.com/Misc/Movies/MX5.wmv
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[Acoustica Greg]

Excellent!

I suppose we should keep working on control surface support for Mixcraft 6, though.

[EL34]

Not sure what that is?
Does it let you start and stop recording with your feet?

I should have my USB keyboard soon
I'll tear it apart and then I'll install the switching rig in the controller shown below

Here's the volunteer carcass I will be using for the real foot controller
It's a Guitar Rig 1 foot controller that is of no use to me.

[Acoustica Greg]

That would allow you to use hardware to control playback and mixing and stuff via MIDI. I think it should include foot pedals, but it's too soon to say for sure yet.

[EL34]

If all the keyboard commands are available via midi, then yes I should be able to do the same thing with a midi floor switch rig like my behringer FCB1010

If not, then no.

The good news is that I'll be using this rig in just a couple days.
Not sure when M6 will be out?

My script currently needs all the keyboard commands shown below.
^ = Cntrl key

; Mixcraft - rewind sequence
]::
Send, ^g ;Add a new audio track
Sleep, 100
Send, {DOWN} ;Move the clip down to the new track
Sleep, 100
Send, ^u ;move the selected track up one
Sleep, 100
Send, {ESC} ;un-highlight the clip
Sleep, 100
Send, ^m ; mute the track you just recorded
Sleep, 100
; This section rewinds back to the previous flag
Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{CTRLDOWN}{SPACE}{SHIFTUP}{CTRLUP}
Send, {SPACE}
return

[R0ckerb0y]

This looks fantastic! Thanks for going through this El

I'm going to actually work on the same thing. Punch-in/out is a huge issue for me! (I usually wind up employing one of my children to be button monkey for me when I have to do that.)

[EL34]

Thanks Jack

The whole hands free thing, using the feet instead , is second nature to most guitar players.
We are so used to stepping on Wah pedals and stomp boxes.

This is going to make life way easier when recording.

[EL34]

BTW, this site has a bunch of USB footswitches
http://www.delcomproducts.com/products_usbfsw.asp

The best one to get would be one that is programable because you will want to use key combinations that would never be used in Mixcraft

Anyone that wants to fool around with my automated script is welcome.
You do not need a footswitch to test the script
You can press key on the keyboard to activate the script.

You could create your own script to do whatever you like.
You will have to download AutoHotKey and replace the stock script with the contents of mine.
See AutoHotKey link in my first post at top.

[R0ckerb0y]

NOT a fan of Midi. Too much delay from the time you press a foot switch to the time it registers on the system.

How much latency does the macro/keystroke utility have?

[EL34]

I don't notice any delay
It's just like doing it on your keyboard.

I do have some 100 millisecond delays between each command, just because it seems like a good idea with such a large stack of commands.

It's not a big deal in my script because it's just rewindning for another take.

[I AM BOG]

No chance of a foot pedal board to control preset guitar sounds in Mixcraft so I could use it live?

[R0ckerb0y]

So it only uses the two keys? "[" and "]"?

I've got a keyboard torn apart and traced the wiring for those two keys, and found a suitable footpedal here at work that was going into the trash (I just need to test the switches!) It has 3 buttons.

I'm taking some pictures too to upload sometime this weekend.

[R0ckerb0y]

Just watched the video. Nicely done. As long as there's no real delay in the punch-in that doesn't matter.

The delay between performing all the steps to arm and setup a new take make good sense, and that's a really nice idea as well! (I hadn't even thought about that.)

[R0ckerb0y]

I got my foot switch done!

It works like a charm!

(I'm using Mixcraft 4 at the moment, I need to get my upgrade code and upgrade to 5!)

The first pedal punches in and starts to record with the tap of my foot, and the second pedal creates, rewinds and arms another track for another run at it!

Soooooooo very cool El34! Thanks!

I'll post pictures tomorrow, but it's awesome!

[EL34]

Ha, you got yours done before I got mine.
Nice work!
I thought my $7.84 Wal-mart USB keyboard would have been here by now.

No chance of a foot pedal board to control preset guitar sounds in Mixcraft so I could use it live?

I use Guitar Rig. You can do all that via midi footpedals.
You can switch 100's of guitar racks and presets with your feet.

So it only uses the two keys? "[" and "]"?

No, those are just the two keys I used for the experiment.
I wanted to use keys that you would never use in normal typing.
You don't want to trigger the macros by using common letters like"R"

That big blue foot switch that I am going to be using actually has DPDT switches.
This means that I can trigger two keys at once.
Like ( Control + R ) or ( Control + some other key combo)

You can alter the macro script to use any keys you like.
Just make sure they are not any key combo that you would ever use in Mixcraft during normal operations.
Look at the list of Mixcraft keyboard commands in the help file.

Just watched the video. Nicely done. As long as there's no real delay in the punch-in that doesn't matter

It's only Control + R to start recoeding, can't be much delay there.
Anywho, sounds like you are trying to do real exact punch in and outs which I never do.
I just let the tape roll, do my takes and then edit the sounds down to the size I need them to be.
Any sort of delay is not a big deal to me because I start rolling tape way before the actual spot I want to insert a sound.

Anywho, I'll set up a web page with step by step instructions for this project after I get my USB keyboard.
The circuit board I was using in the video is a PS2 keyboard, which is no good to me for this foot switch project.