Show HN: Macros with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Pedalboard in macOS

Show HN: Macros with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Pedalboard in macOS(github.com)

84 points by fretlessjazz 2 days ago | 21 comments

_kb 1 day ago |

This is like vim pedal (https://github.com/foxweb/vim-pedal) on steroids. I love it.

Sir, Emacs pedals came way earlier, we needed to avoid "Emacs pinky"!

I picked up a couple of foot pedals built to control manual transcription software from thrift stores. That was years ago and I hacked them to control music software instead. Then one day I got Nvidia's Parakeet model running locally and was sold on automatic transcription in an instant. So in an ironic twist, I started using one of my spare transcription pedals to do transcription by wiring it up to a harness for Parakeet. It's great and the setup is basically trivial to create these days on Linux with a bit of help from an agent.

webprofusion 1 day ago |

Funny I just built a custom midi controller firmware and configuration manager app for the Line 6 Pod GO (which is traditionally not a full midi controller):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Line6podgo/comments/1wgo1tr/pod_go_...

rahulmax 1 day ago |

Love this! In the photography community, we had MIDI2LR (MIDI to Lightroom) (https://rsjaffe.github.io/MIDI2LR/)

I used Behringer Xtouch Mini mapped to Lightroom. This allows tactile controls, and also lets you keep your eyes on the photo being edited, instead of the constant back and forth between the controls and the photo.

Bad_CRC 1 day ago | |

Darktable also supports Midi controls, I played with it with a korg nano kontrol back in the day.

exceptione 1 day ago |

As an organ player, I sometimes dream of having a full midi pedal under my desk. Would be an easy way to get some extra exercise. The problem though is that I don't think such a thing is compatible with a comfy office chair. The polished wood of an organ bench isn't comfortable but it allows for mobility.

ddmf 1 day ago |

I used a usb foot pedal with three switches for playing world of warcraft - originally bought it for PTT but realised how useful it was and ended up using it for the speed boost spell and the big damage cooldown.

This takes it to the next level!

simongray 1 day ago |

Other than the novelty of being able to press buttons with your feet, why is this useful?

If you lack special buttons, you could also just buy a bigger keyboard (or a MIDI controller that sits on the table).

alexfoo 1 day ago | |

You can keep your hands on the keyboard. Some people find having to move them away from their usual home place breaks their flow.

Sure there are things like an Elgato StreamDeck that you can do similar things with but they still require you to move a hand from the keyboard.

I suppose it is similar to using voice control things like Alexa. Setting a timer by hand in the kitchen isn’t exactly hard but it is so much more convenient to do it by voice if your hands are covered in raw chicken juice or the like.

_def 1 day ago |

I always thought using something like this for debugger shortcuts could be fun

ashtuchkin 1 day ago |

Love it! Trying to use it with my nanoPAD2 and it only outputs `note_on` and `note_off` events. Can we bind on these? Example output:

22:56:38.740 note_on channel=1 note=36 velocity=89 [nanoPAD2 PAD]

c-hendricks 1 day ago |

Love my FCB1010. Absolute beast that's no worse for wear after 20 years and countless moves.

tristanMatthias 1 day ago |

I have one of these! And I almost made this exact thing myself! Love this thank you. PS would love a little UI for this if there isn't one already

quietlathe 1 day ago |

Remember setting up my FCB1010 for guitar effects back in the day. Using it for macOS macros is such a clever pivot!

aguynamedben 1 day ago |

This would be sick for video game keybinds!

DylanMerigaud 1 day ago |

Looks solid, best of luck with it.

edwardbonnett 1 day ago |

quite tempted to use this to start and stop game recordings

NewJazz 1 day ago |

This is dope. Would love to bring it to linux

tetraodonpuffer 1 day ago | |

I have something like this in linux using a novation launchcontrol, it's quite straightforward using aseqdump, say I use the buttons to switch desktops, I have this launched as part of my session and always in background. While developing this I just printed $line to see what aseqdump sent to figure out the regexes

    while IFS=' ' read -r line; do
      if [[ "$line" == *"client"*"Launch Control"\* ]]; then
        device=$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f2)
      fi
    done < <(aconnect -i)

    aseqdump -p ${device::-1} | while IFS=' ' read -r line; do
        if [[ "$line" == *"Note on"* ]]; then
            note=$(echo "$line" | grep -o "note [0-9]*" | cut -d' ' -f2)
            if [ "$note" == "9" ]; then
                wmctrl -s 8
            fi
        elif [[ "$line" == *"Control change"*"127" ]]; then
            note=$(echo "$line" | grep -o "controller [0-9]*" | cut -d' ' -f2)
            if [ "$note" == "114" ]; then
                # some macro
            fi
        fi
    done

wyre 1 day ago | |

Repo is 2,500loc, all-in, according to SCC. Should be really easy to point your favorite coding agent at the repo and have it one or two shot something similiar in the language of your choice.

while IFS=' ' read -r line; do if [[ "$line" == *"client"*"Launch Control"\* ]]; then device=$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f2) fi done < <(aconnect -i) aseqdump -p ${device::-1} | while IFS=' ' read -r line; do if [[ "$line" == *"Note on"* ]]; then note=$(echo "$line" | grep -o "note [0-9]*" | cut -d' ' -f2) if [ "$note" == "9" ]; then wmctrl -s 8 fi elif [[ "$line" == *"Control change"*"127" ]]; then note=$(echo "$line" | grep -o "controller [0-9]*" | cut -d' ' -f2) if [ "$note" == "114" ]; then # some macro fi fi done