ampOSC by JTAP

ampOSC manual

Getting started

ampOSC sits in your menu bar, connects to an Allen & Heath console over the network, and re-publishes every parameter it can reach as a bidirectional OSC server. There is no main window and nothing to configure beyond two addresses.

What it does

Allen & Heath consoles speak MIDI over TCP. Almost nothing else does. ampOSC translates between that and OSC, which QLab, TouchOSC, Version T, Max, a Stream Deck and anything with a UDP socket already speak.

The translation is not just a rename. Values arrive and leave in engineering units — a fader is dB, a filter is hertz, pan is −100 to +100 — so a cue that says -6.0 means six decibels down on any supported console, regardless of how that desk encodes a fader internally. ampOSC converts and clamps at the wire.

It is a bridge and nothing more. It stores no show, holds no cue list, and has no opinion about your mix. Close it and the console is exactly as you left it.

What you need

  • A Mac running macOS 26 or later.
  • An Allen & Heath dLive, Avantis, SQ, SQ+, Qu or CQ, with MIDI over TCP enabled in its own settings — it is not on by default on every desk. Four of the six are beta.
  • Both machines on the same network, and the console's IP address.
  • An OSC client, if you want anything to talk to it.

Installing

ampOSC is a Mac app, coming to the Mac App Store. It needs macOS 26 or later and runs as a menu bar item: there is no dock icon and no main window, and quitting is ⌘Q from the panel.

The first launch

On first launch macOS asks for permission to find devices on your local network. That is how ampOSC reaches the console, and declining it leaves the app with nothing to connect to. If you dismissed it by accident, it is in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network.

The OSC server starts by itself on port 8765. The console does not — you have to give it an address.

The order to do things in

Console first, then clients. The inventory is built from what the console reports, and until that has happened there is nothing for a client to address.

  1. Connect the console — address, family and MIDI channel base.
  2. Watch the Inventory count climb. It settles at however many channels your desk actually has.
  3. Point a client at the OSC server, and decide whether you want flood or subscription mode.
  4. Open the log if anything is not behaving. It shows every message in both directions.

The full address list — every path, type and unit — is the OSC reference, which is a specification rather than a manual. This manual is about the app; that is about the protocol.