TTFN Midi (Mac) for Wirecast released.

UPDATE: TTFN Midi was built and tested on a high end Mac Pro. There have been several reports of the switching being slow when used on some less powerful systems. It seems to depend on the loading on your particular setup. If you find this to be an issue then please use the earlier, less resource hungry, version that can be found here. We are not aware of any bugs with either version!

Controlling Wirecast with a midi device such as the Korg Nano Kontrol simplifies the process of streaming or recording, especially if you are doing everything yourself, not just making Wirecast easier to operate but allowing you to produce more professional results. Back in November 2010 we released the first complete package on how to configure and use the Korg with Wirecast and this has been very popular and has been picked up by some big names in the Wirecast world.

After using this for several months we realised that it should be possible to do more with the control software and the script only approach was very limiting. In order to provide a lot more flexibility and to include additional features it was redesigned from the bottom up with only a very few lines of code being reused!

The new approach still (currently) uses MidiPipe to capture the midi data but all MidiPipe does is to send the data to a new application – TTFN Midi – rather than directly to Wirecast. TTFN Midi then processes the data and sends the relevant commands to Wirecast, but as an application it can also provide additional functions.

In this release we have included several functions that we and the beta testers wanted, to demonstrate the flexibility of this approach.

If you don’t have a Korg but have a different midi controller the script in MidiPipe can be changed to ‘transcode’ the data to the midi data needed and then sent to TTFN Midi. If there is enough interest I will publish an example on how to do this!

Have a look at the video and download the software from the link below – please remember that no support is offered but do let us have any comments or suggestions!

Getting going:

Download TTFN MIDI:

[download id=”2″]

You must have installed:

Wirecast – and a licence key once you are happy with the software (video and audio watermarking without the licence key).

Korg USB device driver – Click on the support tab

Korg Kontrol Editor – Click on the support tab

MidiPipe – Please consider making a donation to the author!

You need to update the Korg button settings using Korg Kontrol Editor and the config file from TTFN Midi – “TTFN Korg Keys setup.nktrl” you only need to do this once.

Start MidiPipe by double clicking on the TTFN Midi Setup.midi file. If MidiPipe opens in a window you can minimise it.

Run TTFN Midi and look at the help information for assistance on configuring Wirecast.

Good luck,

Mark

14 comments

Dimitrios March 17, 2011 at 8:05 am

Great work Mark

I am also very interested in putting together a Wirecast system. I was wondering if you had looked into the Teradek cube as a way to have a n HD wireless camera source. Also It would be great if you could show how to use the desktop presenter, for example if the client wants to show a powerpoint presentation (I know I like Keynote much better too) and have it up at the same time as you have his camera shot up.

Thanks and keep up the good work

Dimitrios

Mark March 17, 2011 at 5:56 pm

Hi Dimitrios,

thanks for the kind comments.

Have not looked at the Teradek cube but will check it out now. Will certainly cover Desktop presenter in a future video, thanks for the suggestion.

Mark

Tom Olson April 4, 2011 at 2:10 pm

Hi Mark,

Will the Midi software work with the new korg nanokontrol2 also?

Thanks,
Tom

Mark April 4, 2011 at 4:09 pm

Hi Tom,

haven’t tried it, no compelling reason to upgrade (although 3 buttons per channel does make me think!). Would expect it will work, may need a one off remapping of the keys with the korg key editing software.

Let me know if you get one, happy to help get it working.

Mark

James April 17, 2011 at 5:33 am

I have just begun using Wirecast and love the nano kontroller and your software. The one issue I have is that Slide 6 controls Lower Third 7 and Slide 7 controls Lower Third 8 but Slide 8 controls nothing. Is there a way for me to reassign the Slides to the Lower Thirds.

Mark April 18, 2011 at 6:44 pm

HI James,

did you run the file to reconfigure the korg keys (using the software from Korg)? This has to be done as a one off.

Let me know if this doesn’t fix it.

Mark

James April 19, 2011 at 1:35 am

I re ran the configure file and changed the name in Korg Editor for Slides 6-8 to the one up value. They all are working great now! Thanks for the help.

John April 20, 2011 at 4:11 pm

Have you thought about adapting TTFN Midi (Mac) for the Korg nanoPAD as well but with a more limited function set? Although I really like the nanoKontrol, for me the nanoPAD is more suitable for a stressful live production environment where simplicity and (for me at least) limited functionality is better so there is a reduced chance of pressing the wrong button! How easy would it be to adapt the existing software for the nanoPAD? Thanks for writing such a great application.

Mark April 24, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Hi John, you should be able to program the keys of the nanoPad to use the software. Look at the config file (to be used with the Korg softwre) and note the midi values for the keys you want to use and then program the nanoPad keys to those values. If you need help let me know!

Mark