The GIMP: A synasthete?



  • From the package description in ubuntu gutsy (and it's the same in Debian)


    The GNU Image Manipulation Program

    The GIMP lets you draw, paint, edit images, and much more! GIMP includes the functionality and plug-ins of other famous image editing and processing programs.

    If you'd like to use a MIDI device as an input controller in GIMP, install libasound2 and read the how-to at /usr/share/doc/gimp/README.MIDI

    Why The FUCK would I want to use a MIDI device to control an IMAGE editor?



  • @m0ffx said:

    From the package description in ubuntu gutsy (and it's the same in Debian)


    The GNU Image Manipulation Program

    The GIMP lets you draw, paint, edit images, and much more! GIMP includes the functionality and plug-ins of other famous image editing and processing programs.

    If you'd like to use a MIDI device as an input controller in GIMP, install libasound2 and read the how-to at /usr/share/doc/gimp/README.MIDI

    Why The FUCK would I want to use a MIDI device to control an IMAGE editor?

     Don't you want to see the music, man? 



  • Um, maybe a pressure-sensitive foot-pedal or such, to adjust some sort of opacity/brush size/etc?



  • I'm more scared of what that README.MIDI may contain...



  • There's a lot of control panels which operate over MIDI. The MIDI control protocol is not in any particular sense related to audio, it's just popular for that purpose. If you have an external control device with knobs and sliders and stuff like that on it, MIDI is the normal protocol for this device to interact with a computer, and such a device could certainly be useful for image manipulation.

    Imagine the convenience of a tablet for drawing, and a rack of sliders for colour and opacity selection, or brush size, or any of the other controls that normally rely on the fiddly click-and-drag interface. MIDI is how you do it.



  • @PSWorx said:

    I'm more scared of what that README.MIDI may contain...

    It's a copy of http://www.gimp.org/unix/howtos/gimp-midi.html



  • @asuffield said:

    There's a lot of control panels which operate over MIDI. The MIDI control protocol is not in any particular sense related to audio, it's just popular for that purpose. If you have an external control device with knobs and sliders and stuff like that on it, MIDI is the normal protocol for this device to interact with a computer, and such a device could certainly be useful for image manipulation.

    Imagine the convenience of a tablet for drawing, and a rack of sliders for colour and opacity selection, or brush size, or any of the other controls that normally rely on the fiddly click-and-drag interface. MIDI is how you do it.

    I figured there would be some good reason for it. But of course when I see MIDI mentioned, I think of audio, it was created for that purpose after all.



  • @m0ffx said:

    @asuffield said:

    There's a lot of control panels which operate over MIDI. The MIDI control protocol is not in any particular sense related to audio, it's just popular for that purpose. If you have an external control device with knobs and sliders and stuff like that on it, MIDI is the normal protocol for this device to interact with a computer, and such a device could certainly be useful for image manipulation.

    Imagine the convenience of a tablet for drawing, and a rack of sliders for colour and opacity selection, or brush size, or any of the other controls that normally rely on the fiddly click-and-drag interface. MIDI is how you do it.

    I figured there would be some good reason for it. But of course when I see MIDI mentioned, I think of audio, it was created for that purpose after all.

    I'd guess that impression comes from the occurence of midi files, where certain input sequences from those control devices have been recorded and can be played back. Where outside of audio would such a feature be reasoneable? 



  • @asuffield said:

    I'd guess that impression comes from the occurence of midi files, where certain input sequences from those control devices have been recorded and can be played back. Where outside of audio would such a feature be reasoneable? 

    From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_Instrument_Digital_Interface 

    Other applications of MIDI

    MIDI is also used every day as a control protocol in applications other than music, including:

    Such non-musical applications of MIDI are possible because any device built with a standard MIDI Out connector should in theory be able to control any other device with a MIDI In port, just as long as the developers of both devices have the same understanding about the semantic meaning of all the MIDI messages the sending device emits. This agreement can come either because both follow the published MIDI specifications, or else in the case of any non-standard functionality, because the message meanings are agreed upon by the two manufacturers.



  • @asuffield said:

    Imagine the convenience of a tablet for drawing, and a rack of sliders for colour and opacity selection, or brush size, or any of the other controls that normally rely on the fiddly click-and-drag interface. MIDI is how you do it.


    I never considered that before... Sounds like a very good idea, I'd really like to try that one day :D



  • @Daniel15 said:

    @asuffield said:

    Imagine the convenience of a tablet for drawing, and a rack of sliders for colour and opacity selection, or brush size, or any of the other controls that normally rely on the fiddly click-and-drag interface. MIDI is how you do it.


    I never considered that before... Sounds like a very good idea, I'd really like to try that one day :D

    I've seen it done exactly once, but it's actually not that expensive to get a MIDI panel with a half dozen sliders on it. When you need to simultaneously control two or more sliders it suddenly becomes obvious why it's so much better - a mouse simply cannot do that. 



  • A lot of lighting equipment is controlled by MIDI actually.

    One of my guesses is that perhaps it can spoof a joystick port into thinking its receiving MIDI data rather than serial data?  Now that I've said it it sounds far fetched.  Maybe the GIMP guys just didn't feel like writing joystick support because a MIDI module already existed, haha.

     



  • You ARE right. It was quite standard to have a combined MIDI  and game port

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameport#MIDI_connectors 



  • Allow me to point out the WTF:

    The GIMP lets you draw, paint, edit images, and much more! GIMP includes the functionality and plug-ins of other famous image editing and processing programs.

    If you'd like to use a MIDI device as an input controller in GIMP, install libasound2 and read the how-to at /usr/share/doc/gimp/README.MIDI



  • @asuffield said:

    There's a lot of control panels which operate over MIDI. The MIDI control protocol is not in any particular sense related to audio, it's just popular for that purpose. If you have an external control device with knobs and sliders and stuff like that on it, MIDI is the normal protocol for this device to interact with a computer...

    This should explain to anyone who doesn't understand (as in my case in the past) why many sound cards have both game and midi connectors as the same physical port.



  • Oh I see I'm a bit late.

    Oops.



  • @ChZEROHag said:

    @asuffield said:

    There's a lot of control panels which operate over MIDI. The MIDI control protocol is not in any particular sense related to audio, it's just popular for that purpose. If you have an external control device with knobs and sliders and stuff like that on it, MIDI is the normal protocol for this device to interact with a computer...

    This should explain to anyone who doesn't understand (as in my case in the past) why many sound cards have both game and midi connectors as the same physical port.

    From my point of view (I wrote some MIDI programs, and I play and program synths, well, used to do so when I had more time) it doesn't make sense to use MIDI for this kind of control. Combining it with a game port does make sense (it's cheap), but the protocol is really geared towards events that occur while playing a (musical) keyboard. Note-on messages have two more bytes, other controllers one more byte, some are flexible, if you repeat a note-on on the same channel, you can leave out some information, messages can be interrupted by "alive" messages, etc. It's really convoluted.

    Using that as a graphics controller seems inspired by total laziness and as such constitutes a WTF indeed.



  • @TGV said:

    From my point of view (I wrote some MIDI programs, and I play and program synths, well, used to do so when I had more time) it doesn't make sense to use MIDI for this kind of control. Combining it with a game port does make sense (it's cheap), but the protocol is really geared towards events that occur while playing a (musical) keyboard. Note-on messages have two more bytes, other controllers one more byte, some are flexible, if you repeat a note-on on the same channel, you can leave out some information, messages can be interrupted by "alive" messages, etc. It's really convoluted.

    Using that as a graphics controller seems inspired by total laziness and as such constitutes a WTF indeed.

    You're thinking about the parts of MIDI that are designed for carrying audio data - that's a combination of certain optional features of the base protocol, plus the extension known as "General MIDI". It is only a tiny fraction of the MIDI protocol's capabilities.

    There are other ways to use the MIDI protocol. The 'control' side of the protocol is completely unrelated to the sound side that you're describing, and does not involve any note-on or note-off messages; it is designed specifically for the purpose of accepting input from sliders, knobs, buttons and pedals and relaying them to a computer. MIDI itself is designed to span the complete range of functions relevant to theatrical productions, with particular attention paid to the major areas of lighting, sound, machinery (lifts/robots/etc), video, projection, 'process control' (fog/smoke/water/etc), and pyrotechnics. If you are interfacing any or all of these things with a computer, MIDI is both the industry-standard and the only way to do it, because it's what all the hardware and software talks.



  • @asuffield said:

    There's a lot of control panels which operate over MIDI. The MIDI control protocol is not in any particular sense related to audio, it's just popular for that purpose. If you have an external control device with knobs and sliders and stuff like that on it, MIDI is the normal protocol for this device to interact with a computer, and such a device could certainly be useful for image manipulation.

    Imagine the convenience of a tablet for drawing, and a rack of sliders for colour and opacity selection, or brush size, or any of the other controls that normally rely on the fiddly click-and-drag interface. MIDI is how you do it.

     

    You mean, something like this?



  • Do people still use stuff that goes on the MIDI port nowadays anyway? Because if I can choose between something that goes in the MIDI and something that goes in a USB port, I'll stick with USB.



  • Maybe once I get a keyboard controller that uses USB.



  • I can't believe so many people are poo-pooing such a cool idea. Hasn't anybody ever heard of ART? It's about using stuff in new, unexpected ways. I think it's awesome that I can dig out an old MIDI slider board out of my closet and use it for something.

    Oh -- I guess I forgot. You guys think GIMP exists only to photoshop teenage girls' faces onto porn model bodies. It's not like anybody is being, oh, CREATIVE with it or anything.

    There's a lot of cheap, old MIDI gear out there. Why reject all that and invent some new, probably expensive type of controller just because MIDI wasn't "meant" for this?

    And where is the WTF with libasound2? Yeah, how totally unexpected -- MIDI protocol code can be found in a sound library? That's a complete shock to me. I guess they should have duplicated all that effort in a totally new library just because the application isn't "sound."

    I'm losing faith here, people.

     

     



  • [quote user="Renan "C#" Sousa"]Do people still use stuff that goes on the MIDI port nowadays anyway? Because if I can choose between something that goes in the MIDI and something that goes in a USB port, I'll stick with USB.[/quote]

    Desktop lusers may not use it, but MIDI is used by everybody who uses high-tech equipment in theatrical productions and similar fields. Digital sound mixers, computer controlled lighting boards, all this stuff talks MIDI and nothing else.


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