@join said in EVI and EWI Alternate Fingerings:

Hamming distance computation

I am thinking that Hamming Distance is a good starting point, but may have to be modified by issues of kinesiology such as "it's harder two swap two fingers (i.e. pick one up and put the other down) that are next to each other vs. on different hands". The condition where two fingers always move together (I think it's called Focal Hand Dystonia) may be an extreme example of this issue.

I wrote a quick YAML (Yet Another Markup Language?) parser in perl to check for errors and coverage, but wound up manipulating my experimental mappings in Excel and (gasp) pencil and paper.

One decision I am thinking for a designer of a finger mapping is:

"Should the finger mapping cover all the possible fingerings, or leave some NOP (no-operation) fingerings that would be ignored (i.e. play the most recent pitch)".

I chose to leave some NOP fingerings because

• (a) I suspected that additional fingerings might take up storage (does not see to be the case, based on the description of @join), and

• (b) the 15 NOP fingerings in my YAML spec (out of 64 non-pinky fingerings) do seem to me to be "mistakes" and are probably best left at the most recent pitch.

@join said in Support for high-resolution MIDI?:

Have you found a good solution for this?

Yes! For my current use - Sylphyo => Link/MIDI => Cantabile => Kontakt 6 - the facilities for drawing response curves has been the complete solution for handling this issue. This was suggested and discussed in detail in this thread on the Native Instruments forum:

https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/high-resolution-breath-controller.442309/

... and I have found that the flexible envelopes (drawn, rather than the table option) are a straightforward and complete solution. I have recently been using envelopes for other purposes - controlling parameters on modular synths using elevation and roll (have not tried compass yet) and that is a fantastic alternative to expression pedals.

For other scenarios that do not have the flexibility provided by Kontakt, I am not sure the solution. MIDI filters do not seem to be the answer, since they are translating MIDI to MIDI, not extending the bit depth of the MIDI stream itself.

There might also be an issues for sound libraries that are encrypted (locked) by the vendor, rendering the curve inaccessible - but I'm not sure about that.

... and Thank You @join for the amazing amount of detailed information!

Right ... those rule-based descriptions in the manual are great, but I am thinking that the Sylphyo engine does not actually work on rules (based on work I did programming two new finger mappings).

It seems to have a set of patterns that allow closed, open, and "don't care" finger positions. And if no pattern matches (i.e. the 2^8 (256) possible non-thumb fingerings are not completely covered), then I am thinking the Sylphyo ignores the fingering.

Very interesting that you generated the PDF programmatically - I have been working on a TTF font - it is currently an (old-style) Windows symbol font, but I am planning on converting it to a bona-fide Unicode font using the Private Use Areas.

@williamjturkel I believe that there are no rules involved with finger mappings - at least they are not specified that way when developing a new finger mapping. There are finger patterns - like you show in your PDFs - with the addition of a "don't care" option for any given finger position.

I think anything that is not covered by (i.e. does not have a specified fingering) in the finger mapping results in a "do nothing" - i.e. continue playing the last pitch.

Interesting ...

I am wondering, however, if some of the fingerings you have listed are "producing" a particular pitch because it was a hold-over from the most recent pitch you happened to be playing. My experience is that fingerings that are unassigned in a particular finger mapping simply continue to play that most-recent pitch.

Also, what I have begun mapping are the "don't care" finger positions. I have found it useful to combine fingerings using a "don't care" graphic notation (maybe a grey circle, rather than black or white ... although this does not work well if you are building a TTF/OTF font).

The "don't care" system is used by the Sylphyo itself, or at least by the developers in programming the Sylphyo for a new finger mapping.

Folks who use Reaper might be interested in a set of track icons I developed for the Sylphyo.

I've made icons for the Sylphyo alone as well as versions that indicate the Link (upper right), and MIDI vs. Audio signal (lower left). Here's what they look like in a recent project of mine in Reaper:

As of Reaper v6.19, for Windows 10x64, the unzipped images should typically be placed in
/Users/<user>/AppData/Roaming/REAPER/Data/track_icons/Sylphyo

This package is released under the CC0 "No Rights Reserved" Public Domain Declaration (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/)

I do not have sufficient privileges on this forum to post a ZIP file, so here's a link to the package on my server (another, more "privileged", user might want to fetch and re-post the ZIP file on this forum):

https://ClintGoss.com/zip/SylphyoReaperTrackIcons_ClintGoss_v1.00.zip

I've got my Sylphyo turned on and paired with my Link.

Pressing the Up and Down (^ and v) buttons seem to do nothing. I was thinking that they should change the Link to output the next / previous sound setting on the Line Out and phones channels.

The Up/Down buttons themselves seem to work physically, since holding them both puts the Link into pairing mode.

What am I doing wrong??

When I first set up the Link, I was scratching my head a bit looking for the ASIO driver. Did not realize the USB connection was MIDI-only (it is MIDI-only, yes?)

Are there any plans to promote the Link to an audio interface? I am currently running the Line Out to an RME Interface on it's own USB port.

If it is not possible to run the Link on its own ASIO connection, I could re-wire the MIDI out of the Link into the the RME Interface and save a USB connection. My laptop only has three USB connections, and I'm guessing that using a USB hub would be a no-go for audio work.

Does the Sylphyo accept MIDI patch change commands from external sources?

I would love to use an external controller to change patches abd base keys without having to with the (admittedly easy) patch change and key change interfaces on the instrument itself.

Could you tell me whether the Line In and two Line Out connections on the Link are Balanced (TRS) or Unbalanced (TS)?