Trackpad commande OSC

General
1

Hello, how do I assign an OSC command to my Mac trackpad? Thank you.

2

Hey @Daniel_Espinouse,

The thing is, trackpads aren’t MIDI devices, so there’s no MIDI signal for AbleSet (or any DAW/software) to receive and map from them.

That said, depending on what you’re trying to control, here are a few alternatives:

  • Canvas: AbleSet’s Canvas view lets you build custom button layouts that trigger OSC commands — accessible right in the browser on your Mac, fully clickable with your trackpad.
  • Keyboard shortcuts → MIDI: Apps like Keyboard Maestro can translate keyboard shortcuts into MIDI messages, which AbleSet can then map.
  • TouchOSC or similar: If you want a touch-based layout, apps like TouchOSC let you build custom interfaces on a phone or tablet that send OSC/MIDI to AbleSet.

What are you trying to control? That’ll help us point you in the right direction!

I’m looking forward to your reply!

3

Thank you very much for your prompt response. I would like to control the safe mode to enable and disable it. Thank you.

4

Hey @Daniel_Espinouse,

As we mentioned, the trackpad isn’t a MIDI device, so there’s no way to map it directly in AbleSet. But there are easy ways to control Safe Mode.

Option 1 — MIDI Controller

  1. Go to Settings → MIDI Mapping, OSC & Scripting → Edit MIDI Mapping.
  2. Click Add New Mapping and press the button on your controller to assign it.
  3. Set the action to Custom OSC and enter:
/settings/safeMode toggle

Pressing that button will toggle Safe Mode on and off.

Option 2 — Canvas Button (clickable with your trackpad)

Here’s a ready-made Canvas button you can drop straight into your project:
Safe Mode Toggle Button & Setlist.json (691 Bytes)

Here’s how to install it:

  1. Click the AbleSet icon in your menu bar, then click the gear icon :gear: and select Open AbleSet Folder.
  2. Inside that folder, open the Canvases folder.
  3. Drop the attached .json file in there.
  4. Back in AbleSet, click the Canvas tab in the top navigation — your new canvas should appear in the page selector dropdown at the top-left.

The button toggles Safe Mode on and off each time you click it. Since Safe Mode isn’t exposed as a readable value via OSC, the button itself doesn’t show the current state, but I’ve included a Setlist view right next to it so you can see the real feedback directly in the setlist while you’re playing. The actual state is also always visible in Settings → Playback.

Would that work for your use case?

5

Thank you, you’re great!

1 Like
6

Is there a possibility to switch between 2 canvases? THANKS,

7

Hey @Daniel_Espinouse,

There are two ways you could achieve this:

Option 1 — Link Button (from within Canvas)

You can add a button on each canvas that navigates to the other one:

  1. Add a Button element to your canvas.
  2. Set the Button Type to Link.
  3. In the Link field, enter the path of the target canvas. You can find it in your browser’s URL bar when you’re on that canvas — it looks like /canvas/canvas-name.

For example, if your second canvas is called “Safe Mode”, the link would be:

/canvas/safe-mode

You can add a button like this to both canvases so you can go back and forth easily.

Option 2 — MIDI Controller (via Custom OSC)

If you’d like to switch canvases from a MIDI controller, use the /devices/showPage command. Go to Settings → MIDI Mapping, OSC & Scripting → Edit MIDI Mapping, add a new mapping, set the action to Custom OSC, and enter:

/devices/showPage all canvas/canvas-name

Replace canvas-name with the actual name from the URL. This will switch all connected devices to that canvas. If you only want to switch your own Mac, replace all with your device name (visible in Settings → Debug → Device Settings).

Hope that helps!