- Do you want to control your live artistic digital setup with gestures ?
- Are you a soundpainter?
This tool is made for you!
As part of my master thesis at EPFL (Switzerland) at the EM+ lab, I am building an app with Max/MSP that allows the user to control a virtual orchestra with soundpainting or user-created signs.
Features
Even if you are not familiar with Soundpainting, the following features may interest you:
- Create and train your own signs.
For instance, you could create a sign for “launch my program.exe”. The program has been built to recognize common Soundpainting signs but you can just build the ones you need!
- Record your signs, save them to files and build your own dictionary of signs.
- Recognize signs using your own hardware: you can use the built-in motion capture models (PoseNet, HandPose, Hi5, Kinect…) but also connect your own with Max in little time. Once you have defined the number of features of your input, its name and connected the data pipeline to Max (for instance with OSC), you don’t need anymore routing or spaguetthi patching! You can start building signs from very simple inputs, such as mouse, keyboards or your favorite midi controller if you want!
- Connect with as many Wekinator or Mubu machine learning models as you need for recognizing different types of signs: poses, movements, position in space…
- Create complex requests with the grammar of Soundpainting, which is optimized for real-time performance; but also creating your own regular grammar: your own sign language.
- Play with the built-in virtual orchestra or Ableton OSC controller and create your own set of sounds, triggers. With signs and gestures, you don’t have to use hardware anymore to control you favorite DAW or software: your body can communicate with them.
What is Soundpainting?
Soundpainting is a sign language that is used commonly between human perfomers, to communicate between each other or with a composer during the performance. For instance, using Soundpainting, you can form a request such as: “Guitar 1, improvise, with, jazz, feel, slowly enter” or “Dancer 2, make a loop, in relation with, guitar 1, now”.
We all know how cool can computer-assisted music or tools can be and the potential they offer. My experience with Soundpainting is that synthesizers, mixing devices, effects… can be painful to manipulate in real-time performance. With this tool, you can manipulate them directly from Soundpainting signs (or your own!): you can program them to respond to commands that you will be able to send with your body… and this recognition tool.
As for now, only basic parts of the Soundpainting grammar are implemented in this tool. There are plenty of modes in Soundpainting that could be added later in the future, that will allow to create different request structures. But if you are a beginner in Soundpainting and want to explore what you can so with some basic signs and your own sounds, this is the right tool for you. Then if you want to code your own regular language and get deeper in the interfacing possibilities, that’s also the right place to start.
Setup
Required and recommended hardware
- A webcam is required for HandPose and PoseNet, the two main built-in motion tracking models. An integrated one is ideal but you can also use your phone as a webcam for your computer through USB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHhZbDXT6sw) or wireless local network (IP webcam).
- A kinect may also be used with lower performances and more painful installation process (Todo: describe installation process)
- A 64 bits computer (developped on Windows 10) with Max/MSP (tested with Max 8) is required, although a standalone version should be released in the summer for all OS.
- Recommended with webcam input: dedicated GPU (Tested on Nvidia 1060 GTX). Users without dedicated GPUs may find PoseNet and HandPose either running slow or inaccurate and may have trouble recognizing gestures at a convenient distance from the computer.
- Recommended: 16+ Go RAM, i7 or i9 CPU (Tested on i7-8750H). Make sure that your computer has sufficient ventilation and power to hold the stress of running several models simultaneously. Consider undervolting GPU and power throttling CPU in case you do, like me, reach critical temperature while running the program during a long time.
Standalone app
Standalone apps will be released during the summer. The tool can only be used with Max/MSP installed yet.
In Max/MSP
- Install Max/MSP (latest version).
- Check that you have a Java distribution (for the mxj objects) and install one if necessary.
- Download the pre-release or clone this repository and in the “Main_patch” folder, open the last date-stamped patcher (for example “24062020_better_UI.maxpat”).
- Check the console for errors. You may have missing packages, hence objects not found. If it is the case, install the missing packages in Max:
- MuBu for Max
- jasch
- CNMAT-Externals and CNMAT-odot
- Bach Project libraries
- Inside the patcher, install the NPM modules by hitting the dedicated buttons (one for PoseNet, one for HandPose, one for both buffer management script and automaton).
- If you wish to use the DTW classifier, install Wekinator (wekinator.org).
- Run PoseNet and HandPose once each. Then, go to your GPU settings and force the each electron process to run on the dedicated GPU rather than the integrated one. Check that you then achieve higher FPS.
- You are now ready to use the patcher! Follow the instructions inside the patcher. Here is a summary:
- In layer 1, launch PoseNet and HandPose
- Route them to the right model (full body and hands) - you can also add your own inputs and models
- Set the PoseNet and HandPose parameters to run both at around 10 FPS
- In layer 2, define the signs you want to record for each model
- Launch the recording of signs
- Save your recordings to files
- Launch Wekinator, create a DTW classifier and set its internal parameters
- Hit the “train model” button for each model
- In layer 3, check that both DTW and kNN classifiers are running and classifing your signs
For use with Kinect
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Install the Kinect (with appropriate drivers on Windows) and plug it in the computer.
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Install Processing https://processing.org/ and launch the “simpleKinect” scripts in the “Utilities” folder (source: SimpleKinect https://github.com/jpbellona/simpleKinect).
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Get the motion tracking data in Max via OSC. I will soon implement it directly into the patcher.
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You can now use the tool! For instance, try to launch the PoseNet model with the Wekinator DTW model and train your first signs!
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To build your own standalone, check out the procedure for Max/MSP (and Processing if you use the kinect scripts).
Communication with Ableton Live
You can use the tool to communicate with Ableton Live.
- Install Ableton Live 10 (it may be compatible with Ableton live 9), for instance the free trial version.
- Install a compatible version of LiveOSC. It is recommended to use the following: https://github.com/ideoforms/LiveOSC. The LiveOSC folder must be copied to the “MIDI Remote Scripts” folder of Ableton. On windows: “\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 10 Trial\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts”, on Mac it should appear under: “/Applications/Ableton*.app/Contents/App-Resources/” (unverified).
Then in Ableton Live:
- open File>Preferences
- under Link/MIDI, set Control Surface 1 to “LiveOSC”
References
This project is based on the following tools:
The project was also inspired by :
Each of these is an example of the performativity and potential of gestures and signs for music creativity, composition and instrument expansion.
The project is licensed under GPLv3, as required by the Bach Project.
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