I want to share a project I've been working on: RICO, a Windows application that acts as a central hub for real-time multimedia protocols — the kind of glue layer that VJs, installation artists, and creative technologists usually end up hand-rolling or patching together in Max/MSP or TouchDesigner.
What it does
RICO bridges together:
MIDI — routing, learn mode, remapping
OSC — send/receive to multiple destinations at once
Spout — real-time texture sharing between DirectX apps
NDI — video streaming over a network
DMX/Art-Net — lighting control
MQTT — IoT/custom hardware
Audio analysis — FFT-based reactivity with beat detection
Guitar-to-MIDI — live audio-to-MIDI conversion
Ableton Link — tempo sync across devices
Virtual MIDI — software MIDI ports via teVirtualMIDI
Why
Anyone who's tried to connect a MIDI controller to a generative visuals engine, then also route DMX to a lighting rig, then sync it all to Ableton's tempo, knows there's no single lightweight tool that does all of this without a ton of setup. RICO tries to be that tool — plug in, open the app, route signals, done.
Stack
Built in C++ with DirectX 11 and ImGui for the UI, and leans on some solid libraries under the hood: RtMidi, oscpack, Spout, the NDI SDK, paho-mqtt, miniaudio, pffft, and Ableton Link.
Status
It's in public beta (v2.2.0), Windows 10/11 x64 only. Closed source for now, with a public source release planned for later. There are demo videos in the repo showing it driving audio-reactive projection in TouchDesigner and running as a live video switcher.
If you work in real-time visuals, interactive installations, or live performance tooling, I'd love feedback on what protocols or workflows are missing.
Top comments (5)
Appreciate it — let me know what breaks or what's confusing in setup, still ironing out the install flow.
How is this different from Max/MSP, Bome, or a TouchDesigner patch?
Those are all great and RICO isn't trying to replace TouchDesigner's own routing. The idea is a lightweight standalone hub for people who don't want to build a patch every time — for stuff like bridging a MIDI controller straight to OSC/DMX/NDI without opening a full patching environment. If you're already deep in TD or Max, you might not need it; it's more for quick setup or non-programmer performers.
Hey — built a tool called RICO that bridges MIDI/OSC/NDI/Spout/DMX for live visual work, thought it might be relevant to what you do. Would love if you tried it and told me honestly what's broken or missing. I can provide my link.
This is a really interesting project. Bringing MIDI, OSC, Spout, NDI, DMX/Art-Net, MQTT, audio analysis, and Ableton Link together in one lightweight Windows application solves a very real problem for creative technologists. The combination of real-time multimedia routing and synchronization is especially impressive. I’ll definitely be checking out RICO.
This is exactly the kind of tool that can make real-time creative workflows much easier. I really like the idea of having one hub for MIDI, OSC, video, lighting, audio, and tempo synchronization instead of stitching everything together across multiple applications. RICO looks very promising, especially for VJs and interactive installations.