Try before you buy - a virtual web-based Striso

Striso
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TLDR; Here is a virtual web-based striso, it lacks velocity and haptic feedback, but includes tilt, bent, accelerometer and gyroscope, as well as the dcompose note layout and the onboard synth.

I don’t own a Striso yet, but I had a few questions before I want to buy:

  1. Does the DCompose layout make sense to me?
  2. How does the Striso sound? How does it respond to various touches?
  3. What MPE instruments are there? Do I like the sound? Do I like how it translates touch into this sound?

The virtual web-based striso can answer 1 and 2 a bit. I plan to add midi support (output) so I can try out MPE-enabled synths as well to answer question 3.

For Striso Board owners, future ideas could include:

  • Synth editor (based on the Faust IDE) to edit the onboard synth. Bonus points if I can recompile the firmware on the server and save it directly on the Striso.
  • MIDI input, use the real Striso when editing the synth.
  • Upgrade Piers’ configuration editor, which is still work in progress.
  • Add a “Guitar Hero”-like game, where you can play a midi file and try to hit the right notes. (Bonus points if it can also give feedback on tilt/bent/velocity and not only correct notes)

Curious to hear what things the community would like?

8 Likes
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Thank you so much for your effort. It is great to have a “hands on” look at the Striso layout. It suits me, since I play Hayden duet concertina in the acoustic world, and it is about the same layout. Are you familiar with the Musix Pro app, which is a MIDI-compatible isomorphic layout like this, for the iPad and iPhone, and who knows what else? It’s kind of you to provide yours to the community, gratis.

Thanks again, and regards,

David

1 Like
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Hi Mark,

This is really cool, thank you for sharing it. I’d love to see any of the bullet points you put forward. For myself particularly #1.

What did you code this in? Are you planning on making it open source?

Thanks for the great work,
Frank

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Hi Frank,

Great to see such a quick and encouraging response.

I’ve created this web-application using Nuxt, which uses the Vue framework.

The original onboard synthesizer is created in Faust, and Faust supports compiling to many architectures, including web (with WebAssembly and WebAudio). The synthesizer is therefore not a port but simply a compilation.

In fact, Faust offers a web-based IDE which allows for dynaming recompiling inside the browser. With a few modifications, it should be easy to include both the Virtual Striso as input device (and to visualize input), as well as link the MPE output of the Striso to the knobs and faders of the synth. I would fork the IDE and extend it with a few Vue components.

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Didn’t know that Musix app, thanks for the tip.

I find it surprisingly hard to find MIDI controllers with either Wicki-Hayden of dcompose as layout! I think a proper dcompose midi controller would serve it’s own purpose.

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It seems as if you are about to go quite a bit beyond MusixPro in terms of MPE integration, which will be very interesting. As a “newbie” to this electronica, some of what you describe is beyond my comprehension. I do know that, meanwhile, the MusixPro lets a very responsive iPad or iPhone app control the beautiful sounds that come with ThumbJam (and no doubt others) so while saving for a Striso I can play lovely music in the Wicki-Hayden way, for prep. Or perhaps performance. I play on an older iPad Air 2, with the combined 20 USD MusixPro and ThumbJam, through the headset so no disturbing herself while I play in the same room. All magic! I am happy to have found this forum!

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I have added a TONNE of new features, cleaned up the code, and make it available open source.

These things are now possible:

  • virtual striso to DAW (using MIDI) to test MPE-enabled synths
  • MIDI input to visualize and hear notes on the virtual striso
  • live edit the onboard synth (highly experimental)
  • connect tablet (running virtual striso) to desktop (allows you to play the virtual striso on your tablet, but use the desktop DAW to hear and MPE-enabled VST)
  • Visualize and hear MIDI files being played on the Striso
  • Build your own Striso Web Apps

New home: https://strisostudio.web.app/
Code: GitHub - markmarijnissen/strisostudio (note: this is modern webdevelopment using Vue and modern tooling and can be overwhelming for those who are only familiar with basic html/js/css/jQuery)

I have created a few new topics to discuss the updated features for those who are interested.

2 Likes
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@markmarijnissen I’m impressed! These are some things I’ve been wanting for a long time - a virtual Striso and visualize MIDI files - and I see a lot of potential for further development!

One issue with MIDI is that it impossible to distinguish enharmonic notes. In the example it plays sharps where it should play flats for example. Some simple key detection algorithm will help with the simple cases, but it would also be nice to support for example MusicXML or Lilypond.

Anyway, I’m impressed, let’s meet up soon!

1 Like
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I made little algorithm that guesses sharp or flat based on the average x position; but this is suboptimal at best. In the exampe, when playing flats, it should play the MIDI file in flats a well.

I’m not familiar with MusicXML or Lilypond but there is probably a javascript library to parse it, and then integration should be easy.

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@markmarijnissen This is fantastic! Thank you so much for making this.

Make sure that the size of your virtual board is the same as the real thing, or certain chord shapes won’t feel right. Major chords felt fine, but I couldn’t understand why minor chords felt so off until I zoomed in to 125% (on my Chromebook) and then it felt much more like my physical Striso.

But seriously, this as awesome.

1 Like
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I configured the board to be the real size, unless your screen is smaller. However, I’m not sure the browsers knows the physical screen size, or the pixels per inch. I’ll try and see if I can find some documentation about this.