Experimental program to explore using Sonic Pi 2.12.0dev-midi-alpha3 with a midi keyboard as an input device. Sounds are produced by SP using various features on the keyboard used (M-Audio Oxygen8 v2) An accompanying video illustrates the program in use and gives full details. https://youtu.be/hNaGcgnO6mo

MidiIntoSP.rb

#experimental program to try out midi in with Sonic-Pi 2.12.0-midi-alpha3 by Robin Newman March 2017
#An Oxygen8 v2 keyboards is connected to my Mac.
#This sends midi signals to the m2o module of osmid which translates the midi to OSC and
#feeds the signals to the osc_cues_port in Sonic Pi
#the midi messages can therefore be detected by judicious use of the sync command
#look at the osmid_m2o and osc_cues logs to figure out the message(s) to intercept
#further useful info in osmid readme files at The osmid distribution is at https://github.com/llloret/osmid
#in my case the keyboard was connected to port 2, and I used the first midi channel (0)
set_sched_ahead_time! 0.1 #reduced this to reduce latency

k=[] #define array to hold received midi data
k[1]=k[6]=k[32]=k[74]=k[52]=0.48;k[71]=k[83]=0 #initialise the controls I used on the Oxygen8 keyboard
#k[1] Modulation Wheel (pitch), k[6] Pan Value,k[32] cutoff, k[71] synth selection,k[83] volume
#k[74] sustain,k[52] release. Your keyboard may use/have different control numbers.
define :norm do |n| #scale 0->127 to 0->1
  return n.to_f/127
end

sn= :tb303 #synth for zoom1 loop
sl=[:tb303,:beep,:prophet,:piano,:zawa,:mod_saw] #synth choice for keyboard
define :synthchoose do |v| #scale 0->1 to 0,1,2,3,4,5`
  return (10*v+0.1).to_i/2
end


live_loop :cc do #loop to extract control change data
  
  c=sync '/midi/2/0/control_change' #wait for cc signal check for port/channel values in log
  
  k[c[2]]=norm(c[3]) #store scaled cc value in appropriate k array position
  
  if c[2]==71 #print out selected synth name, or control + value for other controls
    puts sl[synthchoose(k[71])]
  else
    puts "control",c[2],"value",c[3] ,norm(c[3])#print controller number and value
  end
  #sleep 0.01 #poll every 0.01  Sam Aaron suggested removing this sleep
end


live_loop :zoom1 do #play long note and control pitch,cutoff and volume using three controllers
  use_synth sn
  r=play 100*k[1],sustain: 1000,amp: 0
  10000.times do
    control r,note: 100*k[1],note_slide: 0.1,cutoff: 20+80*k[32],cutoff_slide: 0.1,amp: k[83],amp_slide: 0.1,pan: 2*k[6]-1,pan_slide: 0.1
    sleep 0.1 #poll every 0.1
  end
end


with_fx :gverb,room: 25,mix: 0.4 do #add gverb to kybd loop
  live_loop :kybd do
    s=sync '/midi/2/0/note_on' #wait for note_on
    
    puts s #for testing
    
    #choose synth with cc 71
    
    n= s[2]
    v= norm(s[3]) #velocity value 0 when note goes to off
    synth sl[synthchoose(k[71])],note: n,amp: v,sustain: k[74]*2,release: k[52]*2
    #sleep 0.005  #Sam Aaaron suggested removing this sleep Now plays chords fine!!!!
  end
end

live_loop :bong do #percussion using 6 transport keys on Oxygen8
  #controls 20,21,22,23,24 and 25
  b=sync '/midi/2/0/control_change'
  
  sample :elec_bong, amp: 1.5 if b[2]==20 and b[3]==127
  sample :perc_snap, amp: 0.8 if b[2]==21 and b[3]==127
  sample :bd_haus, amp: 2 if b[2]==22 and b[3]==127
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: 2 if b[2]==23 and b[3]==127
  sample :loop_amen_full,amp: 2 if b[2]==24 and b[3]==127
  sample :loop_mika,amp: 4 if b[2]==25 and b[3]==127
  sleep 0.1
end

Very interesting!
@llloret says osmid is used by Sonic Pi. Does it mean that we don’t need to install it separately to run your code?

Hi!

thanks for that nice script and associated video on youtube!

Is there a way to get continuous control of a synth parameter using a midi knob but instead of a super long single note like you do in the video, of a loop that keeps repeating?

I really can't crack this one I'm new to sonic pi but i really wanna get midi cc to control synths without having to retrigger the note every single time