Following up on my post about Controlling Flash with a Monome, I’ve done a bit more research on the ways to get controller data in and out of Flash.
My current conclusion: Oscar for OSC, Red5 for MIDI. Read on for the details.
Oscar
In Short: OSC to Flash, one-way, Mac-only.
Details: The slickest of the controller translation apps, this one is great for connecting up the Monome and any other controllers that support OSC natively. Additionally, if none of the MIDI solutions are working for your setup, you can convert your MIDI to OSC using Quartz Composer and then route it through Oscar and into Flash. Perhaps a forthcoming post on this?
Red5 Flash Server
In Short: Open source Flash Server, includes MIDI functions.
Details: This Java server supports streaming audio, video, and lots of extra stuff. It seems like it’s perhaps overkill if you just want to get MIDI into flash, but hey, it works! The newest stable release (0.8) is available for OSX, Windows, or as source to build on your own box. Unfortunately, the Mac 0.8 installable version needs Java 1.6, which was never released for 32-bit Mac systems. Thankfully, you can download the 0.6 release pre-compiled, and it works just fine. Last updated June 2009.
Starter Code: Lukasz Karluk put together a great starting point: AS3 Code for Red5
MidiToFlash
In Short: A Java applet and bridge that enables MIDI input into Flash, including through a webserver.
Details: I really wish I could have gotten this to work. He’s got an online example that worked for me, but I couldn’t get my local version to connect properly. After messing about with it, I can no longer get his example to see my MIDI messages either (though my devices still show up properly). To be fair, I updated my OS in between the working and not-working tries, so it could be that, or something else I messed up. Let me know if you’ve had success with this project – there’s lots of possibility for fun multi-player MIDI games here.
FlashMIDI
In Short: MIDI input and output from Flash, last updated 2005.
Details: Assumed abandoned, this was a plug-in based on some sort of undocumented feature. It allowed MIDI control, as well as playback of MIDI files. It was mostly Windows-Only, though there was an Alpha version of a Mac plug-in made.
FlashServer
In Short: Max/MSP external allows bi-directional communication- last updated 2006
Details: Assumed abandoned, this was an external for Max/MSP (so you need to write a Max/MSP program that would use it). Mac and PC versions still available for download, current compatibility unknown (written for Flash 5).
flOSC
In Short: A Java server that creates a bi-directional channel for communication between OSC devices and Flash.
Details: I did get it working, but Oscar is much slicker. If you’re on a PC, this is a great (perhaps the only) solution for OSC to Flash communication. There’s a new flOSC by tranxete, but like Red5 0.8, it requires Java 1.6, so it’s a non-starter for me.
Starter Code: From tim, based on the fwiidom classes: flOSC As3 Classes.
Tim, of the flOSC classes above, also has a good round-up on using MIDI in Flash.
3 Comments
you should look at remote shared objects in flash too. Using a wowza streaming server on amazon ec2, I have set up a remote control application with remote shared objects that can control things across the world. perty neet stuff
Hey man, thanks for the mention. Did you find a way of sending midi CC data via Red5? that’s the reason i gave up on it, although i guess there’s not so much call for it with something like the monome.
I will get round to doing a full write-up on the code for flOSC soon!
I love your background!!
I didn’t catch that MIDI CC isn’t supported in Red5. Total Bummer. I’ll have to brush off my JAVA skills and have a stab at it!
One Trackback
[...] who did WAY more homework than me to find a totally opensource solution. Surya, over at mmmlabs, figured out a method to do it with opensource software. The method includes installing Red5, which impressively decided [...]