As some of you may know, I created an interface using GlovePIE so that I could use an Xbox 360 control pad with Ableton Live in live sets. However when I upgraded to Windows 8 a little while back, the solution didn’t work so well so I’ve been looking for a new way to do the same thing ever since. Happily, as you can see from the video bellow, I’ve managed to create something very similar with Pure Data so I thought that I would share the results.

Download the script (with sample Ableton sets) from GitHub

Prequisites

• Xbox 360 control pad + wireless adapter
• Pure Data extended
• Ableton Live (examples created using Live 9 suite)
• LoopMIDI

Although I used an Xbox 360 pad, in theory the same principle could be used for other pads (e.g. Xbox One, PS3/4, generic USB pads maybe?) so I would be really interested to see if anyone gives it a go. A HUGE thanks to Sebastian at the  Emily Carr University of Art and Design for creating the original controller to Pure Data script that mine is based on.