Audio in put source for standalone on a mac revisited

[alexanderfrese]

Hi to all from Germany.

So to get it right once and for all after doing a lot of browsing through site and forum and not finding any clear statements:

The "audio input" for the standalone version of the platinum edition on a mac running OSX 10.4.something can only be a physical sound input?
Is it right that the standalone version cannot use any data pushed to any of the given physical outputs of the machine?

I toggled all audio sources and did not find any response.

So to help me make a decision again the important question: Is the fact true and intended to be that way or is it some sort of misconfiguration and/or error that will be corrected in future versions?

I even constructed an audio loop with my maya44usb sound device. I had sound on my external studio equipment and routed it to my input ports of the maya. I can't not control the way back into the mac accoustically, since that signal way runs straight to the machine not touching any mixing panel. But I had the input signal stregth (according to the playback) visible on the audio tab in my system preferences. So the audio was circled back into the machine.

Still - although the standalone player shows the maya when toggling through the input sources – the standalone program does not show any response at all.

Confused and a bit unhappy, since the standalone feature was the main reason for spending them 30$ for my Lady’s 40th anniversary party this winter. So there may be some time to fix it – or to grumble about the cash spent for nuttin'

Alex

[willrob]

I can't comment on whether it's supposed to work (or rather not work) this way, but I can verify that on my Mac OSX 10.4.2 system I cannot get the stand alone or the screensaver versions of G-Force to respond to music playing on the Mac.

I haven't tried plugging an external audio source into the computer, but I suspect that was intended to work by the developers; since the whole point of a stand alone was to respond to "live" to sound input. I'm not sure if the screensaver was ever meant to respond to any audio source.

If you've attempted to use Darkroom on your Mac, you probably are aware that it's not working correctly either—it fails to read script information and to respond accordingly.

[alexanderfrese]

Mmmpf, forget about the saver. But as I said: The standalone feature was the crucial factor for buying the whole thing, and now it does not do anything.
I wonder how all those using some more professional software (for DJing, like MegaSeg or others) couple their audio to G-Force. Comparable setups were widely discussed around here. After all a windows only feature?

Alex

[willrob]

It would be possible to DJ via iTunes, but not if the DJ needs to look at their song list while projecting G-Force. If one used a set song list, then it would be self playing...but most DJs I've seen keep changing tacks as they gage the crowd's taste and energy level.

[alexanderfrese]

Yep, this fact and ITunes’ limited DJ comfort makes this a rather loungy background elevator muzak thing, which was not what I was going for.

I wish some of the mods or other pros would step in. I can accept a little banging my head against the wall if there is no way. Now don't get me wrong – I am a patient user, but my common sense and german laws would guarantee a complete refund if a clearly stated property of a good does not exist in real.

More important is (in order of importance): Is there a workaround? Will there be an update/fix (before Dec, when I will have to DJ that party)? Or is it completely out of bounds (in that case, I could at leaststop trying again and again)?

Alex

[Hambone]

I'm using standalone with an external audio source, and it works fine.

I run the standalone on an iBook, and use a Griffin iMic to receive the audio from an aux send on my mixer. Tweaking the EQ on the aux send is cool, too, as it alters the wave shapes. The iBook S-Video output goes to a video capture card in a G5, and then into Arkaos VJ on its way to the projectors.

That whole process takes about 250ms from audio to projector screen, so I set up a negative 250ms delay in Ableton Live to compensate for it. I sequence the G-Force parameter changes from Live via MIDI to the iBook.

As far as the audio source, the iBook sees the iMic as an external audio source without a problem.

Would love to have antialiased WhiteCap incorporated into G-Force Standalone!

[willrob]

Hambone:

Can you get Darkroom 1.4.1 to render a script you create, rather than creating a random quicktime output? I'm using a Mac with OSX 1.4.2 and Darkroom won't respond tyo scripting. It uses the music I select, but ignores the script and runs as if it were the iTunes visualizer.

[alexanderfrese]

Yep, that's what I thought might be a workaround. Still the standalone seems not to understand the input source from the maya 44 usb.
Weird thing is the input is visible in the audio control panel by means of the OS’s input meters. Standalone lists two maya sources when toggling by Shift+A, but there seems to be no response.
I might check some other cabling to route that audio signal to the Mac's normal audio in. That would take some annoying crawling under the desks and behind the computer… But it would eventually focus the error to the maya 44 usb as the problem. Though I believe the standalone app should cling to the core audio scheme. And as long as some I/O-devices comply with that, it should pick up signals routed accordingly.

And I still don't get why standalone does not use signals routed to a mac's output – whatever output that might be. To my knowledge, the core audio principle is some sort of open architecture. So it should be possible. And that would work around any latency problem or issues with any strange output devices. If it could, there might be a considerable number of new clients. So c'mon!

[Hambone]

Hambone:

Can you get Darkroom 1.4.1 to render a script you create, rather than creating a random quicktime output? I'm using a Mac with OSX 1.4.2 and Darkroom won't respond tyo scripting. It uses the music I select, but ignores the script and runs as if it were the iTunes visualizer.

Nope. That's one of the reasons I set up my system to render the visualizer on the fly from an audio input. It's so much more flexible. I've created and captured 20 or so Ctrl-X scripts on the iBook, and trigger them from the G5 via MIDI, either directly embedded in an Ableton Live sequence, or I "play" the scripts from a MIDI keyboard. I've got MIDI keys to change wave shapes, toggle slideshows on and off, etc. It gives me the flexibility to play any audio track and "play" G-Force along with it. I also play live percussion, and G-Force is awesome with the live audio input, but can't really use it because of the 250 millisecond delay through the video capture card.

[Hambone]

Yep, that's what I thought might be a workaround. Still the standalone seems not to understand the input source from the maya 44 usb.
Weird thing is the input is visible in the audio control panel by means of the OS’s input meters. Standalone lists two maya sources when toggling by Shift+A, but there seems to be no response.
I might check some other cabling to route that audio signal to the Mac's normal audio in. That would take some annoying crawling under the desks and behind the computer… But it would eventually focus the error to the maya 44 usb as the problem. Though I believe the standalone app should cling to the core audio scheme. And as long as some I/O-devices comply with that, it should pick up signals routed accordingly.

And I still don't get why standalone does not use signals routed to a mac's output – whatever output that might be. To my knowledge, the core audio principle is some sort of open architecture. So it should be possible. And that would work around any latency problem or issues with any strange output devices. If it could, there might be a considerable number of new clients. So c'mon!

The only way I can get Standalone to use audio from the same computer is to use Soundflower to create virtual audio ins/outs. Send your audio to the Soundflower output. Standalone will see the Soundflower audio input, which can come from any source on the Mac. You'll have to pipe the Soundflower input to another audio device to listen to it.

Try it out... it's free.

[alexanderfrese]

Guess what – that's what I researched and got to work while not cheking your new posting. And I already thouht I could post some clever trick…

Anyway if it works – don't fix it.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Though that standalone app could use some brush up to get this done all alone.

Alex

[Hambone]

Another cool effect for tweaking the visuals is to gate the audio via a send to G-Force. It can really tighten up the patterns, and because you won't be hearing it, it doesn't matter what the gating is really doing to the audio signal.

For DJing, using classic EQ kills to alter the waveform works well. Delays are effective, too.

And if you're using multitrack audio, send different tracks. I like using the kick or bass track.

Too many possibilities!

[nickanthony]

My approach was to run a cable from the headphone/line output jack to the line-input jack. Then I set standalone audio source to line-in. This way standalone responds to what-ever audio source is being played on the MAC.

I use a "y" cable in the line to be able to monitor the audio with headphones.