Midi Automation, Compatibility, and Such (host to host/video input)

Hypno
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Hi, I’ve got some questions on extended functionality for the Hypno. I’ve seen a lot of conflicting information floating around on all these topics so I’d like to form one place to just collect the current consensus on the state of these ideas with the Hypno.

First of all, we know for a fact that Hypno runs a Raspberry Pi and thus is a USB Host in and of itself, which essentially means you cannot just connect it via USB to another host, like your desktop or laptop computer, and send Midi messages to it.

My question is then inquiring to the nature of current workarounds and solutions to this for the end goal of, say, sequencing a live set to cycle through presets and time synced automations without the need of CV and other modular gear.

I’ve found two possible workarounds to this with, again very mixed reports. First off https://forum.sleepycircuits.com/t/cv-video-midi-and-gear-questions/201/2?u=isja
As mentioned in this thread, using a physical midi interface, such as a Focusrite or Arturia Keystep type unit to “bridge” the midi gap and then converting the Din5 output from that to USB for the Hypno using one of the converters in the compatible USB Device list.

I’ve also seen someone who has done this with a Roland UM one and Ableton, apparently to a positive result. https://forum.sleepycircuits.com/t/video-challenges/67/33?u=isja

Some have also experimented with Midihub.https://forum.sleepycircuits.com/t/cv-video-midi-and-gear-questions/201/6?u=isja

And now, with no data on if this works or doesn’t, someone mentioned this Host to Host device that says in it’s description it would work for joining things like DAWs and Raspberry Pi systems. https://forum.sleepycircuits.com/t/cv-video-midi-and-gear-questions/201/12?u=isja

Finally, I have seen that you cannot, as is, use something like NDI and Usb Midi at the same time without external gear, and further more that only one USB (Video in, or Midi) is optimal or possible. Is this just with the original Hypno with the one micro USB or does this apply to the current model, even with a multiple USB I/O. If so, then how are presets stored on a USB if then recalled with MIDI? Furthermore, would it be possible for a preset to store a video loop location from, say, an attached USB drive video input as well as the internal Hypno parameters or is that asking way too much?

That’s all for now, thanks for any engagement whatsoever on the topic!

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I have the original Hypno and using an otg cable plus powered usb hub I’ve been able to run a webcam and midi data at the same time without issue, might even have run a usb with video files too.

My understanding is that using more than 1 usb device was a feature that was beyond the original scope so the creators wanted to manage user expectations by saying only one device at a time.

With NDI you might need a USB hub with integrated ethernet port to do video out and usb midi in (this needs fact checking).

But simultaneous video in and out is probably beyond the limit of the pi compute module to deal with smoothly, if it functions at all frame rate probably drops noticeably. Not sure about later versions as I don’t have them to test.

Midihub works great, cheap midi to usb cables work great.

All my stuff is in boxes but if I find the cables I’ll try my 2host and report back. I fully expect it to work.

For computer to Hypno midi I would use -

First: 2host, because it’s so simple

Second: midihub plus midi to usb cable, more faff but extra possibilities thanks to midi manipulation powers of the midihub.

1 Like
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… and what about Bluetooth MIDI?

1 Like
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Hey @Isja, welcome to the forum!! The mixed reports youre seeing is probably from earlier firmware revisions. Over the last coupe of years I have been expanding the usb functionality bc it is true as @Syntheist mentioned the Hypno was originally meant as a pure synthesis device and all of these usb functions got developed on top as I realized the device as a true all-in-one visuals solution.

Nowadays the Hypno is working well with multiple USB devices. Sampling video, UVC inputs and using midi at the-same time is working quite well and you can actually live switch between UVC and USB sampling so basically you could connect every usb possibility at once and rock it.

NDI out with the ethernet or usb ethernet dongle is also possible in parallel with all of this but unfortunately the NDI pretty much maxes the PI’s CPU and effects the overall frame rate, especially when also decoding (sampling) video at thesame time. So now I just recommend using a cheap UVC HDMI capture for desktop OS capture. (This was not something that could be called “cheap” before the pandemic stimulated radical abundance of capture devices, nowadays 2 cap cards can be had for <$40 )

I unfortunately cant speak to midi use with DAWs since I actually dont use this workflow myself, but people seem to have been able to use some of those workarounds you mentioned.

As for BT MIDI, this is actually something I am very interested in getting working but the drivers (using pi’s bluetoothctl utility) where very buggy from my tests. I have been having issues where midi devices appear connected and work for like 5 min and then the bluetooth driver crashes with no recovery possible without a reboot. This is all while that same BTmidi test controller was very stable on both iOS and MPC Live 2.

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Has anyone tried the supposedly class compliant Bluetooth → MIDI USB adapters like this one?

https://www.amazon.com/CME-WIDI-Bud-Bluetooth-Wireless/dp/B01N7I2TUS