this is my open source project for expressive controllers…
History / Concept
the original idea behind this project was a kind of ‘EigenD light’.
I love the concept of EigenD as a performance environment, the way it interacts with the Eigenharp is fantastic - it is like having a kind of ‘open firmware’ for the Eigenharp, which runs on a computer.
But… I wanted to have the Eigenharp ‘standalone’, without computer… so I decided it would be fun to use a RaspberryPI as a kind of ‘dongle’ - by porting and running EigenD on it.
This worked but really the rPI(2!) was not really that powerful, so I wanted something a little bit lighter than EigenD - but with the same basic idea , a performance environment/dongle but without a GUI - and hence MEC was born.
Its been ongoing going for quite a while now, adding things like Soundplane and MPE support to it.
however, it got a bit more focus and a push last year, when I started using it on the C&G Organelle.
the idea being to use the Eigenharps and Soundplane with “Orac” , another project of mine… with Orac came a concept of parameter control… something Id been considering for while, but not got around to.
simply put, the idea was to be able to not only get expressive control of synths (mpe/osc) using the eigenharps/soundplane/mpe but also to be able to control other synth parameters and operation from hardware … in particular either via a Push 2 or OSC (so an ipad etc)
this was the missing piece, the idea that you have a control surface to play on, but something else to allow deeper control … whilst again, seeing it as one instrument.
sure the rPI/Organelle is a computer but thats not the point (many synths have DSP = computing in them), its about a dedicated hardware focus.
anyway thats kind of the history, and also the dream…
more will be happening in 2019 on this, as I release MEC and Orac on more platforms 
Support
deliveries
- mec-app, a standalone console application. (main priority)
- mec-bela, a project for the Bela platform (see http://bela.io)
- mec-vst, a VST/AU which sends ‘touches’ from mec to VST/AU it hosts.
- mec-max, an ‘external’ for MAX/Msp (requires Cycling74 Max/MSP)
other ideas:
mec-pd , Given my recent pure data focus.
mec-sc , Ive been getting very interested in SuperCollider recently, as a performance environment with live-coding… not sure if this has been done before?! (anyone?)
platforms
- Linux Arm - rPI, BBB, BBB+Bela, Organelle. (main priority)
- macOS High Sierra (10.13+) (used for development)
- Linux x86 (64 bit)
- Windows 10 (64 bit)- early experimental build for some parts