BomeBox upcoming OSC features

Bome Products
28

Hi, we have no updates on progress.

Below are my personal comments and not representing Bome.

I have been monitoring these requests for some time now and am curious as to the specific vision of the users that have been requesting OSC capabilities and issues that are trying to be resolved. I ask this primarily because OSC is now becoming more common with DAWs which of course usually run on a host operating system and there are some tools available on computers to handle OSC messages already.

Iā€™m curious if this request is primarily to be able to attach a MIDI controller to BomeBox and have it convert MIDI to OSC and OSC to MIDI or for some other reason.

Of course MIDI 1.0 resolution is 7 or 14 bit and OSC is 32 bit so there would likely be some resolution lost in the conversion. Also the nature of of OSC is pretty free form so there are no ā€˜standardā€™ OSC messages. Most vendors have their own implementation and users can even define their own OSC message types (within the OSC framework).

I would be interested in understanding more from a user perspective their expected use case so that whenever OSC is implemented on BomeBox, the implementation has a chance of meeting the majority of use cases. Iā€™m also interested because in some cases, I believe there may be other solutions other than putting OSC on BomeBox. If you using one of these other solutions and would like to offload to BomeBox some OSC functionality, I will like to understand that as well.

Also as MIDI 2.0 development continues (which has higher resolution and maybe higher than OSC), Iā€™m interested to understand if any future use cases for MIDI 2.0 conversion to and from OSC would be necessary.

Again, this is not Bome Corporation speaking. Just a curious support guy who have watched this OSC requests come in and have not seen any real world examples of given use cases that could not be solved by other means.

A few OSC tools available that I have played with are listed below. For MIDI to OSC conversion and visa versa, I usually use one of these and the application is usually a host that is running a DAW of some sorts. I have not run into a use case yet that requires an OSC hardware controller to convert to MIDI without the need of a host. (Maybe I am running a sheltered life).

Mac - OSCulator
Windows - OSCII-bot, Central Control Pro, Pd (Pure data)

Steve Caldwell

P.S. I continue to ensure these requests are passed along for consideration.

31

I didnā€™t see any responses to this so hereā€™s my personal use case -

ETC EOS has very lacking midi control, faders are barely useable since EOS mostly responds to midi notes instead of control values. EOS does however have very robust OSC support, including over network. Using BOME to take my midi fader values (and other button presses and stuff) and convert them to OSC to send over the network to add additional faders to my console is what Iā€™m looking for

There used to be software that took care of that, but itā€™s no longer available and the only other software that does it is pretty unstable and not good for a show environment.

32

Hi and welcome to the Bome community!

Bome can convert CC values to MIDI-Notes if you wish. We do it all the time using GrandMA2 which also requires MIDI notes.

This is on the development roadmap, hopefully sooner than later but we cannot provide a date.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
34

Hi Ian, thanks from me, too! If you donā€™t mind, I will notify you for possible beta testing. We want to make sure that all relevant use cases will be covered.

35

Is there any update on having OSC features on the BomeBox? Iā€™m also very interested in using OSC features.

37

Hi @danny2,
welcome to the Bome community :slight_smile: And thank you for posting your interest in OSC.

We at Bome have been talking about OSC support in the BomeBox for years (and even presented a running prototype), but finalizing it and making it universally useful for all relevant flavors of OSC, proved to be difficult.

Now weā€™ve managed to develop and implement the necessary technology. We still need to integrate it into the BomeBox and create an editor for the Bome Network software. We never disclose internal planning, but 2025 should really be the year for universal OSC support in the BomeBox. Iā€™ll post back in this forum any news.

So, thanks everyone for not giving up hopeā€¦

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38

Encouraging to hear that things are progressing with OSC development. Just wanted to outline another intended OSC use case: to use Launchcontrol XL controllers to fully control Behringer X Air mixers (as only very limited parameters can currently be controlled via midi). Ideally with LED feedback. Iā€™d be happy to test any beta versions.

39

Thanks! Indeed, this use case also applies to other digital mixers. Iā€™ve added you to the OSC beta notification list.

40

5 years ago OSC was advertised as an upcoming feature in Bomebox.
Still no news, no beta, nothing.

I think you owe all Bomebox owners a free copy of MIDI translator pro and Bome Network.

Thanks for sending me the licence key!
Jelle

42

Hi, thank you for expressing your interest (and frustration) about the announced OSC feature. We are still committed to bringing OSC into the BomeBox. I am very sorry that it takes much longer than ever anticipated. We had been working on other features which you did get as free firmware updates (and more coming up).

On the other hand, as said above, we have continued OSC development nonetheless and I will report back here any news.

I also said this:

Additionally, it is very rare, that we publicly commit to a feature at all, and I guess we shouldnā€™t have done it, here, either. Is it better to communicate transparently, or hide as much as possible from the customers? Risk frustrating users, or let them participate?

Again, I am very sorry that the long road to the OSC firmware update causes frustration. We always communicated in best faith.

43

Florian, you indeed never promised to have features on a particular date.

In 2017 you mentioned Bome is working on OSC support and in april 2020 you asked for pre-release testers yourself.
From 2016 until 2023 there were updates every few months, at least once a year. The last firmware update was more than 2 years agoā€¦

45

Youā€™re absolutely correct, these are the facts. But what do we learn from that?

Yes, we shouldnā€™t have announced OSC support so early. We have been over-optimistic and we havenā€™t fully understood the complexity of making it a usable feature. Weā€™re also very excited about OSC support! I wish this was going faster, too. Meanwhile, we have talked with many customers and stage techs how ā€˜OSCā€™ will make sense to them. There are very different expectations what ā€˜OSCā€™ in the BomeBox should do.

Yes, we have delivered many firmware updates since introduction of the BomeBox. Todayā€™s BomeBox is much more powerful than what you got in 2016. Most other companies will not provide firmware updates, but release a MK2 of the hardware, so their customers are left with the choice of either purchasing the new MK2, or sticking with the old feature set. Weā€™ve delivered all updates free of charge. But do we owe it to our customers? No. Itā€™s just how we like it.

Yes, we usually have a yearly update cycle, but for the current developments of MT Pro, Bome Network, and BomeBox firmware, there are some big features that take longer to be 100% robust and up to our standards. The current versions are free of known bugs, so there is no particular rush for us. There will be updates. Our planning covers at least the next 10 years :slight_smile:

Thank you again for bringing this up. Sorry again for not being able to provide a better answer at this time (or for handing out freebies).

46

Hi,

Just came here to say that Iā€™m also still very much waiting for the OSC support to come to BomeBox. I really have lost hope already, and had to change my setup plans, as this honestly didnā€™t seem to be happening.

And in all fairness, I did ask about this feature prior to my BomeBox purchase, and never expected this to take more than 5 years to be implemented. I truly hope that ā€œOur planning covers at least the next 10 yearā€ doesnā€™t actually mean that it might still take 10 more years for OSC support to realise.
I would still very much benefit from OSC on BomeBox, and it would streamline my setup management and updating a lot. For now my setup feels more like a collection of different brands of building blocks and software taped together with bandage, that sometimes holds together, sometimes not, if you know what I mean..

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