DjHands 👋🎧

DjHands is a program that lets you mix on Ableton Live 12 using your two hands!

This program works by implementing Google Mediapipe Hand Landmarker and AbletonOSC with Python!

Table of Contents

1. Features
2. Set Up
3. Usage
4. Feedback

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Features 🎼

• Control 10 separate clips/audios/midis with your fingers
• Use OSC to toggle clips
• Live beat building with hand movements

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Set Up 🏗

Required Software 🎯

• Python 3.10+
• mediapipe
• opencv-python
• python-osc
• rtmidi
• Ableton Live 11 or 12 (You can get a 30 day free trial version with full capabilities)

On Ableton

1. Make sure you have Ableton Live 11 or 12.

2. Install AbletonOSC and follow the instructions given on their GitHub repo.

3. Make sure you are in Session view on ableton. Which should have the following icon toggled in orange in the top right corner:

4. Organise up to 10 tracks each with 1 clip on the first clip slot (Should look something like this)

• tracks can be any length of any type of sound.
• Tracks 1-4 will belong to your right hand starting with your index for 1 and moving towards your pinky for 4.
• Similarly, tracks 5-9 belong to your left hand and move in the same way.

Tip: If you would like a shorter track to continue loopng while your finger is held up make sure to enable that by clicking on the track in the clip slot and find the loop button under clip properties at the bottom of the screen:

7. Once you've played around with all your sounds and everything is set up you can move to the next step.

Program Setup

1. Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/masa-2a/DjHands.git
cd DjHands

2. Create a virtual environment

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows

3. Install dependencies. Might be prompted to install a more recent version, which should work unless otherwise stated.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage 🧚🏽‍♀️

Run the app/main.py file and a seperate camera window should open up. Move your fingers and create some music. To end your session hit q.

Here are a few tips:

• If you prefer that everytime you lift your finger the clip starts instantly (rather to waiting for the next quantised bar) then set quantisation to 0 from edit->record quantization->No quantisation. Alternatively, you can set custom quantisaion for each track if you're more musically skilled.
• Instead of using it to mix beats you can also use it to assemble songs (vocals on one hand and instruments on another).
• Play around with how it detects a closed fist/ unraised fingers to find the sweet spot. Check out this video for a quick demo!

Feedback 📈

You can message on linkedin @ masaarja for feedback!