22/3/22
(so many palindrome dates the last few weeks!)
Getting back into Keyboard Maestro, a macro shortcut creator.
(Macros put lots of actions together so you can activate them at once or automatically in sequence. They’re good for repetitive, time consuming, boring jobs like batch-outputting multiple files or loading up particular sets of instruments with all the naming and routing done for them.)
Hormonally I have so little interest in doing anything, so this basic level of identifying a problem and solving it, increment by increment, suits me best at the mo. Next week I might write beautiful music, but not today, Satan, not today.
(Though I do have some ideas for structure and instruments and I did notate a basic sketch on paper this evening at the keyboard…)
23/3/22
Finally got to grips with Keyboard Maestro.
I’m extremely proud (unnecessarily so, I’m sure) about getting an Embertone String Quintet Macro that creates all the tracks and routes them properly with a little bit of manual input from me along the way, using a Track Stack on a saved channel strip setting. I can probably use this as a template for other regularly used libraries.
I don’t like Logic templates with tons of tracks already loaded up with tons of instruments – it feels cluttered and makes my head scattered. Much prefer a blankish template up front with all the busses in place for mixing but that’s all. Then I load up what instruments I want, as and when.
I do a lot of orchestral stuff but the ensemble is rarely the same from one job to the next and sometimes I like to mix it up with, say, what trumpets or strings or percussion I load up. But it would be nice to have those ensembles ready and waiting in the wings, the way I’ve got this String Quintet set up.
There’s a certain kind of satisfaction in getting a macro to run. Deep down, I think my raison d’etre is as a problem solver. My creativity comes from the thrill (not sarcasm) of developing an applicable solution. I get tired easily, so if I can come up with an elegant solution for an issue then I’ve saved myself some valuable energy. And I don’t feel as sleepy. Efficiency makes me happy.
THE THING IS it’s quite dull to write about here. So I’ll catalogue it for posterity but not go into it.
I’ve got the hang of Keyboard Maestro, and I was getting TouchOSC (mk1) to work fine with UNTIL I discovered for some reason it wasn’t sending any ‘modifier’ keystrokes (shift, command etc). Which massively diminished the number of shortcuts I could have in future. And I was peeved because the programme wasn’t working the way it said it should.
SO I looked at TouchOSC Mk2. Mistake.
Good grief that’s a nasty programme vs Mk1. Mk1 is simple and intuitive; Mk2 was made for programmers.
And after digging around I discovered it doesn’t send keystrokes AT ALL unless you start CODING ugh.
SO after some more digging I came across a post that mentioned OSCulator could add the modifiers and keystrokes, reading OSC info (rather than keystrokes or MIDI) from TouchOSC and then reinterpreting that into the keystrokes that I want to use to trigger Keyboard Maestro’s macros.
It worked a bit, intermittently, then wouldn’t work at all. I still want to work out why but I get fed up quickly with poorly implemented software so I’ve dumped it for now.
AND SO onto Metagrid Pro, which works amazingly well out of the box with Keyboard Maestro with hardly any additional programming or design and now I’m in love this programme… So I bought the premium version so I can customise it.
I still like TouchOSC mk1 for its XY pads and ease of use. The design is a bit clunky but it’s so basic that very little can go wrong. It sends out MIDI fine, so I can use it for that.
But, ahhhh Metagrid, with your ready-made templates for Dorico and Logic and your ease of integration with Keyboard Maestro – you are a delight and a relief.
I may write a little song of appreciation for you.
24/3/22
Logic does not handle ‘Patch’-saving well.
Multi instruments can only be saved as part of a ‘summing’ track stack – why can’t you just save it as a basic folder stack?
Without cocking up my finely structured bus system with extra unnecessary auxiliaries?
Then when loading a patch, even when it’s been saved with the exact same patch structure, same bus numbers and everything… it proceeds to make even more new auxiliary buses. So even though the labels look right, they’re just duplicates, and they don’t have all the effects on them.
This is not logical.
I don’t think I can get this to work. I have got the hang of Keyboard Maestro and Metagrid though. Super well designed.
It’s one of those days where I wish I’d picked up Cubase instead of Logic. I bet it saves all sorts of folders and sub folders. Ugh.
25/3/22
Ok so I’m not leaving Logic for Cubase.
I’ve got it all to work without cocking up my bus plan. Huzzah!
On a completely different note, I have an idea for a 30 day challenge for myself – to write 10 melodies a day. No need for chords or accompaniment. Just the melody. Long or short as you like. I thought I’d reached a bit of a compositional wall when it’s the same old problem of having too many ideas, to many options, and no external way (eg a director’s brief) to narrow it down. So instead of narrowing it down I’m going to treat it like Morning Pages from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and get it all down without any sort of judgement or plan for where to take any of the tunes next. It’s more of a stream of consciousness writing exercise to clear out the chaff and get to the good stuff. Worth an experiment anyway.