# "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote EDIT: Video added



## edafe96 (Jul 5, 2007)

Hi folks,

instead of working I spent the last two days fooling around with a Nintendo Wii-Remote (these funny wireless things which you wave around like crazy). You can get this controler (ca. 40 EURo) without having to buy the whole console and you can hook it up via bluetooth to your computer. There are a lot of little freeware-tools for converting your moves into MIDI-controler data (e.g WiiToMidi for Mac), route the midi-stream to your sequencer (via IAC-Bus), filter out the unwanted data (the controller generates a huge amount of it) and assign it to the desired target. That´s it. It works!!!

In my case, I assigned the incoming CC42 to velocity-crossfade on a Vienna InstrumòÙë   \ ýÙë   \ þÙë   \ ÿÙë   \ Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \Ùë   \	Ùë   \
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## Hannes_F (Jul 5, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

Very interesting! Can it do even more than up and down?


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## edafe96 (Jul 5, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

Hi Hannes,

yes, it can recognize up/down, left/right, forward/backward, speed and velocity.
You can even play drums with it.

I limited myself to just one controller direction, because one can imagine the large amount of unused data which spams your track automation.

Greetz

Tino


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## Hannes_F (Jul 5, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

I need it.


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## Angel (Jul 5, 2007)

Tino...
that's a very funny and perhaps useful trick...
thanks for that!

Could you please post a video of yourself conducting your virtual orchestra? That could be great fun 

Angel


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## edafe96 (Jul 5, 2007)

Angel @ Thu Jul 05 said:


> Tino...
> that's a very funny and perhaps useful trick...
> thanks for that!
> 
> ...



Uhhm, this means I would have to clean up my studio, iron my swallowtail and borrow a video-camera somewhere...

Doesn´t sound like "great fun" to me 

But we´ll see...

By the way: is this a "germans-only" thread?


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## sbkp (Jul 5, 2007)

Nein.


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## ComposerDude (Jul 5, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

No, only three.


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## Blackster (Jul 6, 2007)

Make them four


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## Angel (Jul 6, 2007)

The germans are known for being funny, happy and very relaxed people!


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## zonobono (Jul 6, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

four and a half


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## edafe96 (Jul 6, 2007)

Angel @ Fri Jul 06 said:


> The germans are known for being funny, happy and very relaxed people!



Definitely! And to prove that, I will do a little videoclip conducting my computer 

Just give me a little time.


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## Angel (Jul 6, 2007)

YippieYaeeey Schweinebacke


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## DeOlivier (Jul 6, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*



zonobono @ Fri Jul 06 said:


> four and a half


So can we say that zonobono and me count as a fifth one?


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## Angel (Jul 6, 2007)

being solidly united (is this the correct term?) I am
2.5 fifth german
1 fifth swiss
1 fifth austrian
and even 0.5 fifth bavarian 

/me hugs everyone


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## ComposerDude (Jul 6, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

('Three' was just from the play-on-words from 'nein' --> 'nine'... )

By the way, the Wii controller idea is VERY interesting. How good is the fine sensing of position? (Does it mostly measure acceleration? Does it use any kind of spatial field for reference or is it motion only?)

-Peter


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## Waywyn (Jul 6, 2007)

Angel @ Fri Jul 06 said:


> The germans are known for being funny, happy and very relaxed people!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6W3vNzfCto


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## edafe96 (Jul 6, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

Hi guys,

as I promised: Here is the video, exclusively for you V.I. Control Members

http://www.tmmusic.de/extern/Wii_to_midi.mov

I have to admit, I didn´t concentrate too much on a proper musical performance... 
but I hope, I could give you an impression of how the whole thing works.

I also hope, I could prove Angel´s theory about us germans.

And yes, I had a lot of fun doing this =o 

You may like it

Greetz

Tino

P.S. the movie is about 35 MB - sorry for that


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## sbkp (Jul 6, 2007)

Thanks for that!

(And the jokes.... lol)


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## IvanP (Jul 7, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*



edafe96 @ Sat Jul 07 said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> as I promised: Here is the video, exclusively for you V.I. Control Members
> 
> ...




LOL!!! You made my day :mrgreen: 

Thks for sharing, 

Iván


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## Angel (Jul 7, 2007)

That's absolutely terrific..... many thanks, Tino ))

and Waywyn: How did you get the first video of me recorded by my dad?!?


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## Waywyn (Jul 7, 2007)

Angel @ Sat Jul 07 said:


> That's absolutely terrific..... many thanks, Tino ))
> 
> and Waywyn: How did you get the first video of me recorded by my dad?!?



Well, he showed it around at a party, trying to present his well educated 24 year old son :mrgreen:


@Tino: Haha, really cool video. Maybe next time I may assist you. I am just living a few kilometers away


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## Angel (Jul 7, 2007)

you just want to get a grip on that magazine


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## edafe96 (Jul 7, 2007)

Hey Guys,

thank you for your feedback!




Angel @ Sat Jul 07 said:


> you just want to get a grip on that magazine



@ Waywyn: You can have the magazine, I´m through with it


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## Aaron Sapp (Jul 7, 2007)

*Re: "Conducting" your orchestra wireless with a Wii-Remote*

Funny stuff, Tino.  I liked the cat.


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## careyford (Jul 7, 2007)

This is fantastic. I'm going to steal a controller from my nephews!!

Great instructional video, Tino.  

Richard


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Jul 7, 2007)

That was really excellent, Tino! You must do more in the future, please. Thanks, man! o-[][]-o


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## ThomasL (Jul 7, 2007)

Awesome Tino, thanx a lot!

Just gotta get one...


Best 
Thomas


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## Waywyn (Jul 7, 2007)

edafe96 @ Sat Jul 07 said:


> @ Waywyn: You can have the magazine, I´m through with it



Naaah, as you threw it off the keyboard it looked like shiny and hard. I think you had it a bit too long. But thanks o-[][]-o


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## edafe96 (Jul 8, 2007)

Hi all,

thank you for your great responses :oops: - it was my pleasure!

I learned so much here... I am happy, if I could give something back.






Waywyn @ Sat Jul 07 said:


> edafe96 @ Sat Jul 07 said:
> 
> 
> > @ Waywyn: You can have the magazine, I´m through with it
> ...



It looks so shiny, because it is in a craftsmanlike tended condition - but, if you don´t want to ... I´ll keep it


:D


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## José Herring (Jul 8, 2007)

Friggin' brilliant! You should have warned me though. I told my 5 year old son that there was a guy that conducts his computer with a remote....he was like.."let me see, let me see"...so I let him see. Fortunately his mom wasn't around. So we both could laugh out loud.

Brilliant use of the technology. Bravo!

Jose


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## Gatam (Jul 9, 2007)

Thanks a lot for your so nice Video !!!
:lol: 
Do you know if it's possible to use 2 Wii Controller at the same time with Logic and the DarwiinRemote app ?

thanks again !!


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## musicpete (Jul 12, 2007)

What a brilliant video! I nearly fell of my chair, laughing.... "Ruhe da oben!"


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## Hannes_F (Jul 12, 2007)

If somebody wants to try this on PC:

Google for GlovePie, BlueSoleil and for a detailed "how to" and a midi script look here: 
http://crustea.vjfrance.com/article-130714.html

I tried it, it works. However currently there are two drawbacks still:

- The Wii controller basically measures force (which is connected to acceleration) and turnage (I mean changement of angle per time). With other words, there are no gyros in it but accelerometers. With fast turns you will reach other maxima than with slow turns. For midi controlling I would eventually prefer absolute coordinates in x, y and z.
- The midi values that come out go like 58, 61, 63, 66 etc. instead of 58, 59, 60, 61, 62 ... Obviously some rounding errors.

Anybody else tried it?

Nevertheless this has been so interesting that I ordered a data glove. Maybe this does more of what I would like to have.


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## Gatam (Jul 12, 2007)

Thanks for your help Tino
i'll begin with one controller to see
new fields to explore,
very exciting !!!
thanks again.


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## synthetic (Jul 12, 2007)

Very cool video.


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## MikeGraybill (Jul 12, 2007)

Awesome. This is exciting to see!! I am wondering if it could be possible via clever programming to create an app filter that could combine the various axis/trigger/button data to simulate conducting the tempo of a work you have already sequenced "straight". Or maybe with two remotes set to two different channels you could conduct time with one hand and overall volume/intensity with the other?

So much of a sample composers' time is spent fudging efficient notation to simulate the desired line as it should be played - using this for tempo could be frikin neat!

Thanks for the extra effort btw, video made me :lol:


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## Daryl (Jul 13, 2007)

Surely the best thing to do for tempo is to play it, however badly, the way that you want it and put the bar lines in afterwards?

D


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## edafe96 (Jul 13, 2007)

Hello Hannes,

the Dataglove thing looks very promising. I´d love to see this in action - unfortunately it is for PC only.

So it looks like it´s YOUR turn to make a video now


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## horselesspaul (Jul 30, 2007)

I just spent the day messing with my new Wii remote. Tino, you're a star. Thanks.
Now to get the nunchuk as well..


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## edafe96 (Oct 9, 2007)

horselesspaul @ Mon Jul 30 said:


> I just spent the day messing with my new Wii remote. Tino, you're a star. Thanks.
> Now to get the nunchuk as well..



Thanks Paul,

I recently got a video from a workmate of mine who managed to control Logic´s surround-parameters with a nunchuk. Please have a look: 

http://www.tmmusic.de/extern/Nunchuk_Logic.mov

again: this is not me, it´s my colleague Bernd Keul from Cologne

Wireless surround-mixing, that´s great!


Cheers

Tino


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