Front Row remote and Logic

[A-lex]

I was looking into a way of starting/stopping a recording from behind my drumkit and I realized that I have a perfectly reasonable solution without any need for additional hardware-- the remote that comes with my new mac mini.

 

Problem is, there doesn't seem to be enough FREE software out there to let me do what I want with the remote and Logic. So, I wrote a little app that allows me to map the buttons on the remote to the record, play, fast forward, rewind, and stop keystrokes in the default Logic keyset.

 

Is anyone else interested in this? I could package it up a bit nicer and offer it here for others. Seems like a much better solution than buying a foot controller or something just to hit record from across the room.

 

-- A-lex

[michael.lee]

Yes, Yes, Yes!!! I'd love to have something like this.

[music_boy]

Yeah man that would be so cool actually! I never use that damn remote so this would make it truly useful!

 

Good man!

[BennyFromXXX]

Bring it on!

Good thinking!

[j]

theres 'sofa control' and 'remote buddy' but neither do logic atm

[as far as i know]

 

so yeh, bring it on.

[A-lex]

Alrighty then. I'm at work right now, but I'll clean it up and put it up tonight or tomorrow.

 

The problem I saw with sofa control was that it communicated with apps via applescript, which is powerful, but to my knowledge Logic doesn't have an applescript dictionary.

 

There could probably be a remote buddy plugin (they call them behaviors) for Logic, but remote buddy itself costs money and I think that's ridiculous for something this simple.

[A-lex]

A quick question or two about how I finish this thing up:

 

Does anyone use different keys from the default keyset for record, play, stop, fast forward, and rewind? If so, I suppose I should allow the key events sent to logic to be editable.

 

Anyone interested that uses Logic Express? Does it have the same key bindings? What's the name of the application itself (I use the name of the app to be a nice citizen and only take over the remote if logic is in the foreground)?

[j]

i use the original keyset.

 

i *think* express is exactly the same?

[brownie]

Go to http://www.salling.com/clicker/mac/

 

i use my cel phone as a remote for Logic, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'free stuff' , there's a script for Logic Pro and Pro-tools.It doesn't work with all phones but there's a list.

 

i've been using this for a while, works great.

 

cheers CB

[brownie]

btw. it also controls all the stuff your imac remote controls ie: iTunes, Keynote, PowerPoint, EyeTV, DVD Player, VLC, plus tons of other 3rd party scripts.

[A-lex]

Sorry all, I was busier this week than I expected and was also not in the studio because my FirePod mysteriously stopped working

 

Although I don't want to waste my Friday evening on software development, I'll probably get around to posting the app tomorrow

 

I *wish* I had a cell phone that works with salling clicker. I've known about it's usefulness since 2003, but never had a phone that it supported (back then I think it was just sony-ericssons I think). Not to mention that my phone sucks at about everything it does anyway... here's to the coming iPhone w/ a remote interface

[A-lex]

Okay, I've decided to go ahead and just release a 0.5 of the app. Its fully functional and all, but not quite as polished as a 1.0 release.

 

You can grab it here: http://a-lex.powelltown.com/download.php?filename=RemoteLogic0.5.zip

 

Let me know if you have any problems and I'll fix 'em as soon as I can.

[lupin]

Dude, you're a hero, can't wait to try this out. Downloading now!!

[lupin]

Just some quick feedback... Rewind doesn't seem to work for me... I'm on 10.4.7 and 7.2.1.

Also, re the menu key, maybe that could offer toggling between what you have going now and zooming with the + _ >> and << buttons. Also, how about being able to ff and rw by bars/beats rather than just continuous?

This little app is absolutely awesome, I recommend that everyone with an Intel mac downloads it. I can see this getting real use in the studio. Awesome way to impress the clients when they ask to hear it back!!!

Thanks very much for designing this, and also for sharing it!!!

Best, L

[peter v]

First of all, thank you very much for that soft-remote, alex. Rewind works fine here on 10.4.7. Logic 7.2.1 and MacbookPro. The record button gets highlighted, but nothing else happens, although a track is record enabled. The app crashed a few times, but nevermind. Thanks again -

Cheers, Peter

[A-lex]

I think there are probably two possibilities why certain buttons wouldn't work for you.

 

1. Your keyset is different from my default Logic keyset which defines record as the asterisk and forward and rewind as a period and a comma, respectively. As part of the polishing of the app, I'll probably have a way for people to set their own keys to each of the buttons since that seems to be the only way to interact with Logic programmatically.

2. Its also possible that with different keyboards you'll get different results. I think most extended keyboards should work with RemoteLogic as advertised, but my concern is that some keyboards send different key codes to get the same result. I'll look into a solution and post an update as soon as I can to fix that.

 

I'm very curious about any crashes of the RemoteLogic app. Especially if you're able to reproduce them. Send me a private message if that's the case and I'll do my best to fix them-- the app is pretty simple and should be easy to get kink-free.

 

-- A-lex

[00420]

Awesome! Thanks!