Apple

On Jan 19, 2009, at 10:54 AM, Helena Ju wrote:

And another note from the same engineer:

Oh, and if you are intent on posing as a control surface, the documentation for Apple's Logic Pro (version 7) has the documentation for the Logic Control embedded in it, and the Logic Control only differs from the Mackie Control in some handshaking it does and the device ID it presents; see Appendices B and C (pp. 239-254) of the following "Logic Pro Control Surfaces Support" document from Apple's public website:
<http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Logic_Pro_Control_Surfaces_Support.pdf>

But of course we would discourage the use of the control surface "hook" for anything but control surfaces... Still, since there really isn't another way... :-)

Cheers,
Helena

On Jan 19, 2009, at 10:53 AM, Helena Ju wrote:

Hi JongAm,

I've spoken to the engineer who implemented the IMI stuff and here's what he says:

We don't support MIDI, other than as a transport for the Mackie Control support. So the only way to remotely control (or get feedback from) our app via MIDI is by posing as a control surface. We do not (unfortunately) offer any form of generic MIDI control support.

Best Luck,
Helena

From: JongAm Park <email@hidden>
Date: January 16, 2009 1:22:35 PM PST
To: Charles Meyer <email@hidden>
Cc: email@hidden
Subject: Re: [Q] Interacting with FCP?

Hello, Charlie.

I'm aware of other things except for the midi and the mackie control protocol option.
Actually, the control surface is related to midi device driver as far as I understand it. So, I thought there could be an option with midi manipulation. However, I couldn't find any document from Apple's web site about the midi and the surface control.

However, you provided me two good search terms, so I will search further with those.

Thank you very much, and my question is still open. :)
JongAm

Charles Meyer wrote:
Hello JongAm,

I am not a developer so I will let people that know what they are talking about shed the details but the kind of questions you have could find at least partial answers using one or more of these technologies we support in relation to FCP.

XML - This lets you see or define pretty much all of the setting found in a saved sequence or a clip.

Applescript/Apple Event - You can trigger a XML dump from FCP regarding the current sequence in FCP or trigger a push of XML information into FCP from AppleEvents triggered by your Application or an AppleScript.

Midi - The timecode playing from the FCP sequence can play out to Midi, some other developers have captured the Midi loop internally for use in their apps.

Mackie Control Protocol - Control Surface vendors other than Mackie have used that protocol to interact with FCP. I do not know if there are licensing or other usage restrictions or if there are some software capabilities of interactions if these have to interface externally to the system but it might be worth researching.

At least part of the XML capabilites should be documented on developer.apple.com

Happy hunting

Charles

--
Charles Meyer
Apple, Inc.
Product Marketing Manager - Motion Graphics

On Jan 16, 2009, at 11:05 AM, JongAm Park wrote:

Hello.

I am trying to figure out how to make my program interact with the FCP.
What I want to do is to get time position of a video clip being played currently.
If it is possible to communicated in both ways, i.e. from my app to FCP and FCP to my app, it would be better. It would be also great if it can grab some clip information like playing speed, and so on, to sync displaying of some data with the FCP.

Is it possible?

Also, I found out that external controllers, so called control surfaces, could interact with the FCP. Then is it two-way? And is there any document for buiding surface controller plugin for the FCP?
Because it is communication between apps not h/w<->FCP, I think control surface plugin or driver should use my program a kind of virtual device.
So, probably using this kind of psudo-control surface can bridge my app to the FCP.
Is there some sample code for this purpose?

I'm sorry to ask lots of questions, but I would greatly appreciate if I can find answer here.

Thank you.
JongAm