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Microtonal Seaboard Mapper

Features

  • Splits seaboard keys vertically using the Slide dimension & retunes to any arbitrary tuning system
  • Cross-platform support
    • Pre-built executables for Windows and macOS (Catalina 10.15 or newer).
    • See build instructions to build the program yourself if you're using an older/different OS.
  • MPE output mode (For Equator/Strobe/Ableton/Bitwig/etc...)
  • MIDI output mode (useful for Pianoteq/Kontakt/ZynAddSubFX/etc) where each 'step' corresponds to 1 semitone in the output.
  • Range splits for MIDI output mode.
    • Open multiple instances of a VST and offset them by +/- 2 octaves to get the full range of a piano in 31 edo.
  • Different slide (cc74) modes
    • Fixed value of choice
    • Relative
    • Absolute
    • Link slide to press (channel pressure)
    • Bipolar
  • Invert sustain pedal (because I couldn't find this feature in Equator lmao)

Quick Start

  1. Download the latest release here.

    • If you are on macOS, the pre-built application only works on Catalina (10.15) or newer versions.
    • If you're using an older version or a *nix OS, read the build instructions to build your own application from the source code.

  2. Connect your Seaboard RISE/Block, turn it on.

  3. Open the ROLI Dashboard and check the pitch bend range setting. Take note of this as you'll have to key it in later. Also check the pitch bend range of your synth & DAW. (If you're using Strobe 2 instead of Equator, your pitch bend range must be +/-48 semitones as it is the default for all its MPE presets)

  4. Make sure you set Slide mode to absolute in the ROLI Dashboard

    img.png

  5. Set slide sensitivity to max.

  6. Make sure your MIDI mode setting is on MPE mode in the ROLI Dashboard

  7. Create a Virtual MIDI Port. Name it whatever you like.

  8. Start the seaboard mapping program. It defaults to this 31 edo mapping:

    • White keys are split into 5 vertical segments. From the bottom:
      1. down
      2. natural
      3. up
      4. natural
      5. up
    • Black keys are split into 3. From the bottom:
      1. sharp
      2. flat
      3. up of the next white key

  9. Select the Seaboard MIDI input device

  10. Select the virtual MIDI port you created as the output device.

  11. Use the virtual MIDI port as the MIDI controller for your DAW/VST/Equator. (Make sure you don't activate both the seaboard and virtual port inputs at the same time.)

  12. If you want to use a different mapping, enter map into the console. Refer to the .sbmap file format and the 31 edo mapping script on how to create your own mappings, or file an issue with the "Mapping Request" label.

  13. If you want to use the seaboard with a non-MPE, but microtunable synth (e.g. Pianoteq, Kontakt, ZynAddSubFX), you have to turn on MIDI mode.

How does it work

The mapper reads input from the seaboard and uses the midi message CC74 (the 'Slide' dimension) to distinguish vertical sections of each key. The mapper outputs midi data to a virtual MIDI port that is used to control the Synth.

A mapping file (.sbmap) denotes the vertical points where the key splits. Each split key is assigned a cent offset value (used for MPE mode), and a step number which represents the number of steps from the note A4 (used for MIDI mode).

Checklist / Troubleshooting

To make sure this program runs correctly:

  • You can't be using a Seaboard GRAND (it doesn't have the slide dimension)
  • Turn on & connect seaboard before running the mapper.
  • Slide sensitivity must be maximum
  • Slide mode must be absolute on the ROLI Dashboard (slide mode inside Equator's Global settings can be whatever)
  • No. midi channels setting on ROLI Dashboard should be set to maximum (15)
  • The pitch bend range specified must be correct as per the ROLI Dashboard, and the pitch bend range of the synth used must match the specified range.
    • Important: Strobe 2's 5D MPE presets requires a pitch bend range of +/-48 semitones.
  • The mappings/ folder must be in the same location as the .exe/.app/executable otherwise the default mapping will not load by default.

IMPORTANT for macOS users: If you're using the pre-built application, and you get this error:

img.png

That means that your OS version is too old. You have to build the app from source

MPE mode: Equator/Strobe 2/MPE synths/DAWs/etc...

For synths that support MPE, it should work out of the box. Remember to enable only the virtual midi port as the controller and disable the seaboard midi device's input.

If you're using Strobe 2, your pitch bend range setting must be 48 on both the ROLI Dashboard and on the mapper.

The output MPE messages are similar to the MPE messages sent by the seaboard, with the exception of two extra pitch bend messages: one before and one after the NOTE ON event is sent.

MIDI mode: Keyscape/Pianoteq/Kontakt/Zynaddsubfx/etc

After starting the mapper and connecting the devices, type the midi command to enter MIDI mode. MIDI mode maps every split-key partition to a certain note output as denoted by the .sbmap mapping file.

The default 31 edo mapping default.sbmap will map A4 to A4. Then, any subsequent diesis up will be output as the next semitone. A^4 = Bb4, A#4 = B4, Bb4 = C5, etc...

By default, only the first MIDI channel of the output will be used to output plain old MIDI data. More channels are used depending on the number of keyboard range splits.

Any aftertouch/pitchbend/midi CC messages will be forwarded to all active output channels simultaneously.

Range splits: Get more range/keyboard splits in MIDI mode

MIDI only has 127 notes available - when using larger EDOs, the effective range of a single microtuned synth becomes very limited.

However, with this mapper, the seaboard is now able to output MIDI notes across different MIDI channels to achieve a larger range using multiple VST instances or using a VST's internal multi-channel mapping ability.

Pianoteq 6+ natively supports multi-channel midi inputs to obtain a larger range for big EDOs. Follow these simpler instructions instead for pianoteq..

Otherwise, to get more range out of microtunable synths, you can open multiple instances of them and set them at different octaves listening to different MIDI channels of the virtual MIDI output port.

Here's an example of what you can do using the default 31 edo mapping:

  1. Open 2 instances any synth that supports microtonal tunings
  2. Set the first instance to listen to MIDI channel 1 and transpose it one octave lower than normal.
  3. Set the second instance to listen to MIDI channel 2 and transpose it up one octave.
  4. Enter the split command in the mapping program.
  5. The mapper prompts: enter channel split position(s) or leave blank for 1 output channel only: .
    • Input e4. This means that all the notes that lie on the MIDI keys C-1 to Eb4 (inclusive) will be outputted on to MIDI channel 1, and the notes E4 and above will be sent to MIDI channel 2. (If more splits are needed, input more split points, each one separated by a space)
  6. Next we are prompted: enter midi output offset for split range channel 1 (range C-1 - Eb4).
    • Input 31, representing an offset of +31 steps. This offsets the -1 octave transposition of the synth instance on channel 1. This way, we get an additional 1 octave range below. If you're using a different tuning system/EDO, input the number of steps that represent one octave in that tuning system.
  7. Similarly, we are prompted: enter midi output offset for split range channel 2 (range E4 - G9).
    • Input -31, representing the offset of -31 steps, which offsets the +1 octave of the synth instance on channel 2.

Apart from using splits to increase playing range, it can also be used in a 'normal' way to create keyboard splits where each split plays a different patch.

Any MIDI CCs received will be sent to all active channels at once. As such, if you're using two instances of Keyscape, it is crucial that you turn off the sustain pedal noise on either one of the VSTs, otherwise you'd get double the sustain pedal noise.

Microtuning on Pianoteq

Pianoteq offers multi-channel keyboard mappings which bypasses the need for opening multiple instances of pianoteq in order to get the full range.

To make use of this in the seaboard mapper:

  1. enter autosplit in the console to turn auto split mode on

  2. Under Pianoteq's microtuning screen, there's a button on the top right to change the keyboard mapping. Click on it and you will see an option titled 'Extended layout for up to 16*128 notes'. Open the drop down and select MIDI channel 5

img.png

  • This will cause the notes received on each subsequent MIDI channel to sound one octave higher than the previous MIDI channel.
  • The checked midi channel (5) denotes the MIDI channel that will not have any octave/equave transposition at all.
  • E.g. if MIDI channel 5 is selected as the main channel, Notes played on channel 4 will sound one octave below what's played, notes played on channel 6 will sound one octave up, etc...
  • Note that if the scala tuning file imported on Pianoteq denotes a non-octave tuning (e.g. Bohlen-pierce/Wendy Carlos's alpha/beta), then Pianoteq will transpose according to the tuning system's period.

Other Settings/Commands

Save

You can save the current mapping, split, slide and pedal settings using the save command.

This generates a file called config.dill in the same directory as the executable file.

If you want to override the settings, you can just run the save command anytime. You can store a particular setting for later use by renaming the config.dill file to something else, then renaming it back to config.dill when you want it to be used the next time you open the seaboard mapping application.

Slide modes

Fixed slide

Enter slide 0 to set the Slide amount (CC74) to 0 for all notes no matter the Slide input. Values from 0-127 are allowed.

Press slide

Enter slide prs to mirror the Press dimension to the Slide dimension.

Relative slide (default)

Enter slide rel to emulate relative slide mode

Absolute slide

Enter slide abs to forward the raw absolute slide messages unchanged.

Bipolar slide

Enter slide bip to emulate bipolar slide mode. Initial Strike will yield a Slide value of 0, and sliding all the way to either to top or bottom will yield the max Slide value of 127.

Seaboard Map .sbmap file format

The mapper loads .sbmap files to assign a mapping to the seaboard. If mappings/default.sbmap exists, it will load that mapping on startup.

Each line of the .sbmap file can either be a descriptive comment, a comment, or key split data.

Mappings are meant to be generated algorithmically with a script. Take a look at https://github.com/euwbah/microtonal-seaboard/blob/master/mapping_generator/edo31.py for an example.

/ descriptive comment

Lines that begin with / will be printed in the console when the mapping is loaded.

# comment

Lines that begin with # will be ignored entirely

Key split data

This line will describe how to split one key.

The values of the key split data are to be separated by spaces or tabs, and are presented in the following format:

<note> <p1> <c1> <s1> (<p2> <c2> <s2> ... <pn> <cn> <sn>)

  • note: 12edo note name of the key that this split applies to
  • pn: a cc74 (slide) value representing the exclusive upper bounds of the nth vertical split point
  • cn: (for MPE mode) the cents offset of the output note with respect to the key's original tuning in 12 edo.
  • sn: (for MIDI mode) the output MIDI note represented as number of steps from the note A4.

Take note of the following constraints:

  1. Key split data lines must have at least one split point.
  2. The split points must be presented in order of increasing cc74 (Slide) values
  3. The final split point must always be 128 representing the maxima of the cc74 value range.
  4. You can leave out notes in the mapping file. Not all of them have to be mapped in order for the program to work. The left-out notes will default to the standard behavior and tuning.

Key split data example

For example, this is line 92 of the default 31 edo mapping:

A4 30 -38.7097 -1 50 0.0000 0 73 38.7097 1 98 0.0000 0 128 38.7097 1

The first value of the line, A4 is the note name of which this split data pertains to. The split information only applies to this one key. Capitalisation does not matter.

After this, the values are presented in groups of threes.

The value 30 represents that the following tuning data only applies when the Slide value (CC74) is below 30 (exclusive). This is the area right at the bottom of the white keys on the seaboard.

The next value -38.7097 represents the cent offset of this note with respect to the 12 edo equivalent on the same key. In 31 edo, this is the note A-down. The cent offset is used to calculate the amount of pitch bend to send when in MPE mode.

The final value of the triple is -1, and this says that the output of this key when in MIDI mode is 1 note below A4 (that is, Ab4).

Looking at the next 3 values, 50 0.0000 0, tells us that for the Slide values 30-49 (inclusive), which is the middle section of the white key, we will apply a tuning offset of 0 cents in MPE mode, and an output of A4 in MIDI mode. In 31 edo, this is the note A-natural.

The next 3 values, 73 38.7097 1 gives us the note A-up, and will be applied for Slide values 50-72 (inclusive), which is the part of the white key right below where the black keys begin.

Huh?

Don't worry if this is all too cryptic. If you want a mapping for your seaboard, simply file an issue with the "Mapping Request" label, detailing:

  • The tuning system (+ base tuning frequency)

  • The mapping points, e.g.: "white key: down = 0-29, natural = 30-55, up = 56-127

    • To know exactly what Slide values are being sent when you press a key at a certain vertical position, you can use a MIDI monitoring tool and filter to view only Control Change messages that are CC74.

  • If the tuning system is meant to work with MIDI-only synths (e.g. Pianoteq/Kontakt/ZynAddSubFX), which 12 edo note to anchor the tuning system to.

I will try my best to get it done :)

Build Instructions

If the pre-built releases don't support your OS, or if you want to contribute/play around, you can follow the following steps to build the program yourself. Don't worry it's not hard!

If you have any issues with building, do file an issue and paste the entire contents of your terminal.

Build for macOS

  1. You have to be on a mac (Pyinstaller doesn't support cross-compile)
  2. Install the latest version of Python
    • Double check that you are using the right version of python by opening the terminal/powershell, then enter python3 --version
  3. Download the latest source code
  4. Extract the .zip source code anywhere.
  5. You need to check that you have these:
    1. Check that you have g++ by opening your terminal and entering g++. If it says note: no developer tools were found..., and a prompt pops up with an install button, click it. img.png
    2. If you already installed VSTs and DAWs, and have successfully used your Seaboard with the Mac, you most probably already have CoreMIDI and/or JACK. If not you should check that your CoreMIDI is working
  6. Open the terminal within the directory of the extracted source code.
    1. If you're unfamilliar with cd, go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > services and enable New Terminal at Folder
    2. Open Finder and right-click on the extracted folder containing the source code.
    3. Click the option New Terminal at Folder.
  7. Inside the terminal, enter ./build.sh
    1. If it doesn't work the first time, enter chmod +x build.sh then try again.

When that is finished, you should see a new file: microtonal-seaboard.zip inside the folder. The app is contained within. Congrats!

Build for Windows (you have to be on Windows 10)

  1. You have to be on Windows 10 (Pyinstaller doesn't support cross-compile)
  2. Install the latest version of Python
    • Double check that you are using the right version of python by opening the terminal/powershell, then enter py --version
  3. Download the latest source code
  4. Extract the .zip source code anywhere.
  5. You need to check that you have a C++ compiler installed:
    1. If you are uncertain what that is, just download and install this: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2019
  6. Open cmd/powershell in the directory of the extracted folder.
    1. If you're unfamilliar with cd, open the folder containing the extracted source code inside the File Explorer, then right click any blank empty space, and select the option "Open PowerShell window here"
  7. Inside the cmd/powershell, run .\build.bat

When that is finished, you should see a new file: microtonal-seaboard-windows.zip inside the folder. The app is contained within. Congrats!

Build for Linux

  1. You have to be on Linux/WSL (Pyinstaller doesn't support cross-compile)
  2. Install the latest version of Python
    • Double check that you are using the right version of python by opening the terminal/powershell, then enter python3 --version
  3. Download the latest source code
  4. Extract the .zip source code anywhere.
  5. You need to check that you have these:
    1. If you are on Debian (Ubuntu/Mint/etc)
      1. sudo apt-get update
      2. sudo apt-get build-essential python-dev libasound2-dev
    2. If you are on Arch/Manjaro
      1. sudo pacman -Syu
      2. sudo pacman -S base-devel alsa-lib
  6. Execute ./build.sh

When that is finished, you should see a new file: microtonal-seaboard.zip inside the folder. The app is contained within. Congrats!