Multiple key.exe running simultaneously, timing problems, touchscreen displays and Keykit

[Tony]

I want to share 3 ideas in this posting:

 

 

1.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see if we can run multiple Keykits ( key.exe ) simultaneously. I tried it and it seems to work, even if they are all set to the same midi output port. This is an interesting fact.

 

If it would be possible to synchronize the running tools in each of those key.exe, e.g. if we would have loaded in each a Kboom tool, that would be cool beginning setup for a "live performance". Then you could see each individual key.exe as a component of the live setup, or like a "midi dj deck" if you want. I tried it with four key.exe and they still run nicely in looped mode. But I am not sure if it would be possible to synchronize keykit tools of different instances of key.exe.

 

 

2.

Another behaviour I recognized is if we minimize other windows in our system (Windows XP) it can have some negative side effects on the timing of Keykit. Would it help or how much would it help timingwise if we could start each key.exe with the highest possible priority in Windows?

 

Btw. my current tests I am doing just on a normal laptop with a stupid soundcard.

 

 

3.

I have the feeling Keykit would be much cooler to use with a touchscreen display as we can not control all the GUI possibilities using the pc keyboard, only mouse use is possible. But on the other hand a touchscreen and the way Keykits menues appear seem to fit perfectly complement each other. Has anybody experience already with Keykit on a touchscreen display?

 

 

    ...Tony...

[Tim Thompson]

 > If it would be possible to synchronize the running tools in each of those key.exe, e.g. if we would have loaded in each a Kboom
tool, that would be cool beginning setup for a "live performance".

I can't think of any advantage to running multiple instances of key.exe. It's much easier and better (for timing and
synchronization) to run the multiple tools in a single instance of keykit. As an example, I did a performance back in 2000 where I
had 8 instances of the expresso tool running - here's a description and pictures:

http://nosuch.com/tjt/wsh2000.html

...Tim...