OSCulator FAQ

1.  General

Is there a Windows version and if not, is there plans to make one?

Unfortunately, no there OSCulator is only available on Mac OS X (10.4 and higher). There are no plans to write a Windows version.

2.  Wiimote specific

How do I connnect the Wiimote to OSCulator?

In OSCulator, use Devices Tab in Preferences to set the preference for discovery to begin immediately upon launch. Quit and save. Then, each time you launch OSCulator: Simultaneously press and hold buttons 1 & 2 on the wiimote

What configurations have been tested? (computer, OS, other peripherals, etc)

Tested Configurations

How do i switch the Wiimote on & off?

off works (the powerknob) but it never switches on again other than i open it and press the little red button under the batteries... but still, Osculator seems not to read it anymore until I restart the software. Am I doing something very unsensitiv????

You can press the on button and hold it for 3 seconds until the lights go out.

To reconnect:

1. Open the drawer in OSCulator, if closed
2. Click the "Start discovery" button
3. Simultaneously press and hold buttons 1 & 2 on the wiimote

What are Pitch, Yaw, and Roll?

Originally nautical terms(?) A boat pitches (nose going up and down) and rolls (tipping left or right so you might fall off the deck) and yaws (nose oscillating left and right). Though I prefer to think of a space ship!

How to use the Infrared (IR) Sensor?

The glissando Sound uses the infrared sensor bar which is a cool addition but requires that you slice off the end of the cord and solder a connector on it so you can use a DC adapter (wall wart).

Oh, I had not realized that another piece of hardware was required. So I just ordered a sensor bar and a stand for it. I don't mind hacking into the cable. It sounds like it's only a 2 connector DC voltage supply. In reading through those online discussions I couldn't see any mention of what DC voltage was required to drive the sensor bar. Would you happen to know?

We have one of those Radio Shack DC voltage supplies where you can select the voltage and polarity and we have ours set to 7.5 V. (One of the interesting things about the sensor bar is that you cannot see the infrared LEDs with your eyes, but you *can* see them through a digital camera!)

The internal wires have some kind of colored enamel coating that you have to burn off by heating with the iron and tinning them before you can solder them.

Here are some online descriptions: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=754430 http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/29/mod-your-wii-sensor-bar-to-go-wireless-for-8/

using a 9V battery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZ8Gd06Kqg&mode=related&search=

or made their own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryy7oPMZ2gU

My Mac does not have Bluetooth. Can I use a USB-Bluetooth adapter dongle?

One of the beta testers has been successfully using the Kensington Model 33348. Here is a list of dongles that should work in theory (if you use one of these successfully, please make a note of it here, Thanks!). http://wiibrew.org/index.php?title=List_of_Working_Bluetooth_Devices

Everything's working great for me except the YAW feature. Rather than work as described in the diagram, it's mimicking ROLL but with increased sensitivity... Not sure how that could be corrected? Any ideas?

That's the laws of physics! Each Pitch, Roll and Yaw parameters are calculated as a combination of two linear accelerations. For example Pitch, is the combination of Y and Z. Roll is X and Z, and Yaw is X and Y.

Back to your problem, as you can the Z axis is not used to calculate the value of Yaw, which means that if you hold the wiimote flat on a table, you can't measure Yaw. The same applies to Pitch if you hold the wiimote facing right, flat on the table.

In order to measure Yaw, you must make X & Y axes sensible to gravity, meaning you have to hold the wiimote facing yourself, pointing up, then rotate the wiimote on an axis that traverses your arm: you will see that the Yaw changes as expected.

To summarize, Yaw is most accurate when you hold the Wiimote close to (or on) the vertical. Roll is most accurate when you hold the Wiimote close to (or on) the horizontal. For Sound design, it might be better to use only two out of the three attitude angles. For the way most people hold the Wiimote, (Pitch and Yaw) or (Pitch and Roll) are the best choices for two angles.

3.  Kyma specific

What kinds of Sounds are possible?

Some new Sounds and a global map are attached. For fun, here is a link to a video showing some of the ways you can use the Wiimote in Kyma:

Don't miss Matteo Milani's Jedi Sword!

There is an awesome Moog Phatty video down here:

How do I use the Wiimote inside Kyma?

Check out this tutorial on Using the Wiimote OSCulator in Kyma

I thought that when using the Wiimote with Kyma, the actions would be automatically configured to Kyma Extended Controls (eg. !WiiPitch), but the default bindings are MIDI Control Changes. What happens?

If OSCulator automatically binds your Wiimote actions to MIDI Control Changes that means that OSCulator has not detected a Flame interface yet. If you want OSCulator to use Kyma bindings instead of default MIDI bindings, you should first connect and turn on you Flame, OSCulator will then create a preference to remember that you have a Flame interface and that it should use it. The next document you will create will automatically bind your Wiimote to Kyma controls. You can still revert to MIDI controls by manually specifying which MIDI CC you want to use.

4.  MIDI

I have an external synthesizer that I would like to control from OSCulator. How is it possible?

I recommend that you use MIDI Patchbay, as described here (cf. first section).

Is it possible to use Osc with apple's IAC Driver, so that i can send midi information internally on my mac from Osc to another app.

Actually what happens with OSCulator is that you have a virtual MIDI output that automatically appears when OSCulator is launched. You can then use that virtual MIDI port in any application that is CoreMIDI compliant (most of DAWs and software on Mac OS X are). This is like IAC, but simpler in use. I think IAC was designed for applications that could not handle that kind of virtual ports, before Mac OS X existed.

If you really need to use the IAC driver you might need an application that will make the bridge between OSCulator's virtual output and the IAC driver, meaning that it will forward OSCulator's output to the IAC driver's input. But as I said, it should not be needed to do so.