I just retooled my tablet performance interface to use Open Stage Control and thought I’d share.
I’ll probably do another video later (when I have time, ufff) to explain how it works.
If you haven’t heard of Open Stage Control, it’s excellent. Free-libre open-source TouchOSC killer. (The only thing missing is the accelerometer.)
hjh
+1 for Open Stage Control! After years of using Lemur and TouchOSC I basically switched to o-s-c overnight upon discovering it - in addition to filling a lot of gaps left by other softwares, the developer is super responsive in the forum and churns out updates regularly - nice to see how others are using it with SC!
anything specific lead you to switch?
The immediate driver was that TouchOSC was not quite working anymore. I live in mainland China and the tablet is actually running HarmonyOS (basically branded Android though, despite hyped claims from the company). While the interface itself hadn’t broken, it would stop sending messages after a few minutes, for no reason I can ascertain – it was receiving update messages from the computer but not sending (when it had been sending moments before). I’m sure this isn’t TouchOSC’s fault, but I can’t have this problem on stage.
Also, on principle, I prefer open source where possible.
Tbh one reason why I delayed switching was that I was afraid it would be harder than it was. The Open Stage Control editor is super easy, at least for the basic stuff I’m doing, and running it in the browser Just Worked (including automatically reloading changes from the editor). Once I saw how easy it was, there was really no reason not to switch. (The SC side of it was less easy, but that’s because loading my environment isn’t simple – I kept making dumb mistakes. But those problems get fixed once and then you just use it.)
hjh
Haven’t heard of Open Stage Control before. Looks great! Thanks for sharing!
Similar to @jamshark70 - Lemur is no longer supported and pretty buggy, and I was looking for an open source replacement. Also, everything in o-s-c can be customized with html/css/javascript, allowing for super flexible/dynamic interfaces that can also look amazing.
Being browser-based is great for a few reasons - I have some projects where several performers have to look at a screen (to control an instrument, interact with a dynamic graphic score, etc.) and using o-s-c lets them do so regardless of OS, phone/tablet/laptop, etc.
Yes! I think I will do this in my upcoming electronic ensemble class. Last time, I used an SC script to send “section” reminders to the players through a broadcast IP address. I learned from this that a broadcast IP address + UDP = many, many dropped packets. It was OK because each “section” was two minutes and I was sending a clock every second (120 updates per section), but I think it will work better if it’s SC (OSC message UDP) → Open Stage Control server on the same machine (no dropped packets) → web clients (many, presumably using TCP).
My other immediate thought when I saw that it’s based on a Web client is audience participation. Audience members or museumgoers only need Firefox or Chrome, no app to install.
hjh