Control Relackout with OSC

If you have an OSC app like TouchOSC on your phone, you can connect it to Relackout and fire scenes, cues, MASTER and blackout remotely. This guide walks through the Relackout side end to end: turning on OSC, resolving a port conflict, testing the connection with the OSC Monitor, mapping a control to a target by learning or by hand, and trying your mapping out in Live Control.

What OSC is

OSC, or Open Sound Control, is a common language that music and show software use to talk over a network. Every message has an address — for example /1/fader1 — and usually a value between zero and one. Relackout listens for these messages and uses the address to fire a scene, cue, MASTER, or blackout.

Turn on OSC

1. 1

   Open Settings from the home screen.

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2. 2

   Scroll past the account card, click MIDI Settings.

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3. 3

   Scroll to the OSC section; click OSC enabled.

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This setting belongs to the workspace — each venue keeps its own OSC setup. For safety, OSC is off by default.

The port and port conflicts

The port is the door OSC messages come in through. The default, 9000, is also the default in many OSC apps. If another program is already using that port, Relackout shows it as an error.

1. 1

   Type a busy port (9100) into Port, press Enter.

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2. 2

   Type 9000 back in, press Enter, then click OSC enabled again.

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Whatever port you choose, you’ll enter the same one in the app on your phone.

Connect the OSC app on your phone

In an OSC app like TouchOSC, open the connection settings. In the host or target field, enter your computer’s IP address; you’ll find it in your computer’s network settings. Set the send port to the port you turned on in Relackout, 9000 here. Your phone and computer must be on the same network. Relackout only receives messages and doesn’t send anything back to the app, so you can leave the receive port empty.

Test with the OSC Monitor

1. 1

   Press a button and move a fader in the app; check the OSC Monitor box.

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Map a target by learning

The Targets list has Master, blackout, cues, and scenes. The learn button’s label says MIDI, but it also catches the first OSC message that comes in.

1. 1

   Under Scenes, click Bind MIDI next to the “Warm White” row.

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2. 2

   Press the first button in the app; the learn capture catches it.

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To remove a wrong mapping, use Clear.

Bind an address manually

If you already know the address, you don’t need to learn it.

1. 1

   Click Manual add next to the Targets heading.

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2. 2

   Choose OSC under Protocol; type /1/toggle4 into OSC address; pick “Blackout” for Action and “Momentary” for Mode.

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3. 3

   Click Save.

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The mode matters: a push button sends one when pressed and zero when released, so pick Toggle for it. For a switch that stays on, pick Momentary: blackout is on while the switch is on and off when it’s off.

Try it in Live Control

1. 1

   Go back to the home screen, click Live Control.

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2. 2

   Press the first button in the app.

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3. 3

   Turn on the switch in the app.

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The first button fires the scene, and the switch turns blackout on and off. The same learn method maps Master to a fader, or a cue to another button. If your MIDI controller is connected too, both work together.

Security: no PIN

What’s next

Turn on OSC, enter the port in your app, test it in the monitor, and map your controls. For another way to connect from your phone, take a look at the guide to Relackout’s own remote control panel.