Midi Fighter Twister support for Bitwig 2

[Yokai]

As a Christmas present to all my fellow knob-twisters, I have published some minor updates to Axel's Bitwig integration for the Midi Fighter Twister.

- Device parameters controlled by the Twister now have visual feedback in the Bitwig GUI.
- Pressing knob 5 now toggles the remote control panel on the selected device. The panel is no longer automatically shown.
- Mismatched LED colors were corrected.

Don't forget to import the new .mfs file using the MF Utility!

https://github.com/dgmulf/bitwig-midi-f ... g/0.8.1.D1

I'll make a pull request for the main branch in the morning. I will likely be making some further tweaks to the Twister script in the future, so stay tuned!

You rock! Heartfelt thanks!

[Yokai]

@dgmulf I tested your stuff today and those are some nice improvements! I really love seeing the visual feedback in the Bitwig UI now.

FWIW the dynamic colors for the first three knobs on page 1 (that should match the selected track color) still have some odd color choices depending on the actual track color selected. But then Moss's Push 2 controller likewise has some weirdly mismatched colors for the note mode pads so maybe Bitwig's API just makes it hard to get at a good color match?

[dgmulf]

FWIW the dynamic colors for the first three knobs on page 1 (that should match the selected track color) still have some odd color choices depending on the actual track color selected. But then Moss's Push 2 controller likewise has some weirdly mismatched colors for the note mode pads so maybe Bitwig's API just makes it hard to get at a good color match?

Thanks for pointing out the issue! The LED color fixes that I made were unrelated. I hadn't previously noticed, but yes, some of the track colors aren't properly represented, particularly the grayscale colors. I'm not sure what's possible yet, but I might look into it once I finish implementing the features I'm currently working on.

[dgmulf]

- Double-pressing a knob assigned to a device parameter now resets the parameter to its default value.
- Visual indications for device control now only appear in Device mode.

https://github.com/dgmulf/bitwig-midi-f ... s/tag/0.9D

Enjoy!


Before making any further changes, I will likely write my own framework from scratch. If there are any new features that anybody is itching to see, now would be a good time to let me know. I can't guarantee anything, but I'll at least consider them.

[Yokai]

Before making any further changes, I will likely write my own framework from scratch. If there are any new features that anybody is itching to see, now would be a good time to let me know. I can't guarantee anything, but I'll at least consider them.

If you're starting from scratch, I'd love to point out one feature of pawnbroker's design that I would like to see maintained somehow...

The pre-mapped knob functions all sit on pages 1, 3, and 4 of the twister. Therefore, page 2 is essentially a blank slate with all knobs in CC mode and toggled OFF by default. This is GREAT for two reasons:

1. Starting from page 1, where I keep the twister 98% of the time, one press of the MR side button gives me page 2 and 16 knobs ready to be assigned via Bitwig's mapping mode. (And one press of the ML side button brings me back to the template knobs on page 1.)

2. Flipping to page 2 like this turns off all the lights on Twister. Since Twister is connected to my computer 100% of the time, this makes it less annoying (because of the lights) when I'm doing things other than music production.

If there were only ONE enhancement I could ask for about page 2, it would be to make the Twister template in Bitwig somehow "pass" the CC values for page 2 through to the MIDI mapping of various SYNTHS. For example, VPS-Avenger and Pigments both have these in-synth MIDI mapping buttons, but for whatever reason, neither of them currently "see" the page 2 CC output from the Twister.

I don't know if it's just a hard limitation of Bitwig itself that CC values are not passed through the template to individual soft synths like this, or whether it's a limitation of pawnbroker's controller template. (And yes, I have tried setting the "Map Source Priority" to "MIDI" in the Mappings browser panel--in fact that's the only way to get Bitwig's own Mappings browser panel to "see" the CC messages from page 2.)

It would be a HUGE boon to somehow make the CC messages from page 2 "pass thru" to the Soft synths, especially for VPS-Avenger! Have you ever looked at the available automation controls revealed by Avenger to Bitwig's Plugin Parameters panel (and automation)? There are roughly 1500 of them!!! Currently it's a mild PITA to assign a Twister knob from page 2 to any control inside of Avenger (or Pigments), because both of those UIs are fairly large and tend to cover up the plugin insert chain if you're working in single screen mode for Bitwig. You have to select the control you want in the synth UI to focus it to the top of the Plugin Parameters panel, then drag or minimize the synth UI out of the way so you can use Bitwig's MIDI mapping to select the knob on the Plugin Parameters panel. And then drag/maximize the full synth UI back into view, select the next control you want, and repeat this tedious process.

By contrast, it would be great to be able to leave the synth UI up in place and just use the in-synth MIDI mapping mode to quickly twist or push some knob on page 2 to the synth controls you want. As I said, though, I'm not sure Bitwig even allows this type of "pass thru" behavior for connected controllers?

[Yokai]

- Visual indications for device control now only appear in Device mode.

Nice enhancement!

Oh, and one other enhancement request for when you build your own framework....

Currently, if a 3rd party plugin has some type of "Bypass" button inside it (and if it's exposed to the Plugin Parameters panel in Bitwig), you can assign a shortcut panel knob to that "Bypass" plugin parameter. And using your MOUSE to move the shortcut panel knob will indeed toggle the bypass.

But in your current 9.0 D version of the template, the corresponding Twister knob will have no effect on that shortcut panel knob. You cannot toggle the bypass by twisting or pressing the corresponding knob. Again, not sure if this is a bug in pawnbroker's template or just a limitation of Bitwig's controller framework API?

[dgmulf]

2. Flipping to page 2 like this turns off all the lights on Twister. Since Twister is connected to my computer 100% of the time, this makes it less annoying (because of the lights) when I'm doing things other than music production.

Yep, I use page 2 to flip the lights off as well. I'll be sure to retain this feature.

If there were only ONE enhancement I could ask for about page 2, it would be to make the Twister template in Bitwig somehow "pass" the CC values for page 2 through to the MIDI mapping of various SYNTHS. For example, VPS-Avenger and Pigments both have these in-synth MIDI mapping buttons, but for whatever reason, neither of them currently "see" the page 2 CC output from the Twister.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure whether this is currently possible, but I'll look into it.

Currently, if a 3rd party plugin has some type of "Bypass" button inside it (and if it's exposed to the Plugin Parameters panel in Bitwig), you can assign a shortcut panel knob to that "Bypass" plugin parameter. And using your MOUSE to move the shortcut panel knob will indeed toggle the bypass.

But in your current 9.0 D version of the template, the corresponding Twister knob will have no effect on that shortcut panel knob. You cannot toggle the bypass by twisting or pressing the corresponding knob. Again, not sure if this is a bug in pawnbroker's template or just a limitation of Bitwig's controller framework API?

Improving control over "stepped" parameters like On/Off switches, waveform/filter type selectors, etc. is an important goal for the new extension, so I'll do my best to address this problem.

[pawnbroker]

Hi,

just made a release of dgmulfs additions, sorry for taking so long.

https://github.com/axelhjalm/bitwig-mid ... es/tag/0.9

[jsterne]

Hi everyone,

I’ve just been reading through this thread and am a bit confused. Is there a way to just use the MFT in its “default” mode of 64 knobs + alts that send CCs that I assign in the MIDI Fighter Utility? Or is that just impossible with the way Bitwig handles controllers? Sorry for the dumb question but I’m a n00b to Bitwig.

I’m more interested in it as a control interface where I don’t have to look at the computer.

TIA.

[Yokai]

Hi everyone,

I’ve just been reading through this thread and am a bit confused. Is there a way to just use the MFT in its “default” mode of 64 knobs + alts that send CCs that I assign in the MIDI Fighter Utility? Or is that just impossible with the way Bitwig handles controllers? Sorry for the dumb question but I’m a n00b to Bitwig.

I’m more interested in it as a control interface where I don’t have to look at the computer.

TIA.

Use the "Flexi" controller in Moss's "Driven By Moss" package. You can build any custom controller you want that way.
https://youtu.be/1JjNaviDS5A

[dgmulf]

Twister4Bitwig v1.0 has been released, and brings a huge list of improvements!

(Note: this extension has not been thoroughly tested and should be considered a beta release. Please do not use for critical applications such as live performances until further testing has been done!)

Changes from MidiFighterTwister v0.9D:

Complete rewrite. In order to improve code readability and extensibility, not only for myself but for anyone else who may want to customize the extension to their liking, the previous extension was rewritten from scratch.

New: Absolute Output mode. Enabled in the new extension by default, Absolute Input offers the following advantages:
- Better control over list-type device parameters, such as oscillator waveform, filter type, on/off switches, and so forth. List-type parameters in Bitwig native devices are no longer hyper-sensitive to tiny knob adjustments, and third-party VST parameters that were previously impossible to control via the device knobs are controllable in Absolute Output mode.
- Encoders are guaranteed to be capable of stopping at exactly 50%. This can be useful for parameters like oscillator tune, stereo pan, or EQ band gain.

Redesigned Mixer mode. The new Mixer mode, which replaces the old 16 Volumes page, offers more control, and now utilizes the same colored visual indicators as Device mode. Coarse and fine control for track volume and pan, as well as mute and solo toggles, are available for eight tracks at a time.

Improved input handling under-the-hood. Many subtle improvements were made to the way the extension handles input from the Midi Fighter Twister, which should provide an overall more ergonomic user experience. For example...
- Knobs mapped to lists of discrete items (such as track and device selectors) no longer "teeter" between two adjacent items.
- Unwanted potentiometer jitter caused by pressing a knob button should be intelligently filtered.

LED indicators are used for every knob. All parameters now report feedback via the LED indicator rings on the Midi Fighter Twister. For example, the illuminated dot on the track selection knob shows the relative position of the currently selected track.

Miscellaneous additions and fixes. There are too many to list here, but further improvements include:
- The preset browser knob can now scroll through the Category, Tag, and Creator columns, in addition to the Results column.
- In User mode, MIDI CC data is now passed directly from the Twister to third-party VST plug-ins, and can be mapped directly within the VST GUI when supported.

Finally, you may want to review the functionality changes in the new Help PDF accessible via the question mark icon next to the controller's entry in the Bitwig Studio Settings panel, or here.

Please feel free to give me any feedback you may have on the new extension, and open an issue on Github if you find a bug! And, if you would like to support my efforts, you can send a small donation to paypal.me/dannyism.

[Yokai]

"- In User mode, MIDI CC data is now passed directly from the Twister to third-party VST plug-ins, and can be mapped directly within the VST GUI when supported."

I'll give this a whirl tomorrow. Looks great!

[Yokai]

@dgmulf - Bitwig 2.5b7 doesn't seem to "see" the Twister4Bitwig.bwextension file. (On Windows.) So I can't test it.

[dgmulf]

@dgmulf - Bitwig 2.5b7 doesn't seem to "see" the Twister4Bitwig.bwextension file. (On Windows.) So I can't test it.

Hi Yokai. Just making sure you saw my reply on the Github issue tracker. Did you manage to solve this issue? I can't replicate it on my system.

[Yokai]

@dgmulf - Bitwig 2.5b7 doesn't seem to "see" the Twister4Bitwig.bwextension file. (On Windows.) So I can't test it.

Hi Yokai. Just making sure you saw my reply on the Github issue tracker. Did you manage to solve this issue? I can't replicate it on my system.

Actually I missed your reply there (I don't use GitHub much--at work we use Perforce so I'm not really Git-aware). Got it sorted out, and now testing and using it in my current projects! Do you prefer feedback here or in GitHub?