Anyone familiar with how Midi Pad 2 does WiFi ?

mmediaman

Anyone familiar with how to get MidiPad2 by midipadapp.com to send via WiFi?

• Sending to Windows PC running rtpMIDI
• Used other app to send MIDI data to PC, but nothing is seen in rtpMIDI when MidiPad 2 is online
• Running MidiPad2 from iPhone 4.

Thanks for any help.

wim

Even though most apps show "Network Connection" as an output option, not many actually work with it. You might have to route it through an app like MidiFire that does support Network Connection.

mmediaman

@wim said:
You might have to route it through an app like MidiFire that does support Network Connection.

Not sure I follow your recommendation. The question is how do I ensure MidiPad2 is sending Midi over the WiFi network? Does it just automatically scan the network for Bonjour points and make an auto rtpMIDI connection? The only controls I see in MidiPad2 is page setup an pad setup. Nothing about communications per se....

wim

nvm. I see it does specifically have network wiFi support. I thought it might be like many other apps that list the "Network Session" as a midi destination, but don't actually support it.

I don't own the app, so I won't be of any help.

hes

I set up Midi Pad 2 a week or two ago with connection to a Raspberry Pi 4 running an rtpmidi host. I used a free utility app called "Midi Network": https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midi-network/id1102428729 I was surprised how seamlessly it all worked; I had already used the rtp connection from AUM, so had that part working.

I don't think I did anything special in MidiPad, just made sure midi was sent to 'network session'. When I had the rtpmidi server started on the Raspberry Pi, the connection to ipad was not automatically created. However, "Raspberry Pi" would show up in the "Found on the network" list on the ipad in the Midi Network app. Click on it and you get option to 'connect', after which it will be moved to the 'Connections' list and be a network destination that Midi Pad automatically sends midi to. At least I think that's how it worked for me; I haven't done it again since.

With the Raspberry Pi rtpmidi server, I believe there was a command I could have issued that would have initiated the connection from the Raspberry Pi, without needing the Midi Network app on my ipad. I didn't test this, though. I expect rtpMidi on Windows has similar functionality.

mmediaman

Thanks for the replies.
Once you activate a session in rtpMIDI on Windows, broadcasting Midi sources show up in the directory box. In the case with MidiPad2, nothing appears in the box. I have used another DMX app from an Android device that send Midi over RTP and that shows up just fine in the rtpMIDI directory box.... so I know rtpMIDI is ready to receive a session. Just can't figure out why the MidiPad2 is not being seen by rtpMIDI.

wim

You have "Network Session" selected for the midi output in MidiPad2, I assume?

mmediaman

@wim said:
You have "Network Session" selected for the midi output in MidiPad2, I assume?

Thats just it, where is Network Session found in MidiPad2? I don't see it anywhere.....

hes

@mmediaman: Yeah, sorry, checking back there is nowhere to set midi destination in Midi Pad. So I just assumed it was automatically sending to network session. Don't have my Raspberry Pi going now to check, but it definitely worked. But that Midi Network app was crucial to making sure there was an actual rtp connection to send to. It sounds like you may be initiating the connection from the Windows machine, but I would load that Midi Network app on the ios device to confirm; if it's not showing the Windows machine as 'connected' then there's a problem.

Also, taking note that I don't know much about this stuff, I wonder why you were expecting to see 'Midi Pad 2' as a broadcasting midi source? Seems to me it would more likely be just the ios device itself advertising the network session. Then whatever gets sent to 'network session' on the ios device goes to all apps connected to that session. Or the midi sent from any app on ios device to network session gets routed to connected rtp device.

If I recall, I think the rtp connection on the pi device was to "Herbert's iPad", which is the name of my machine. I'm pretty sure it showed that name on the Pi even when there was no an actual connection, just the available device to connect to. Which, as I said, I did using the Midi Network app on the ipad.

mmediaman

Thanks for the tips @hes !
I'll try using the Midi Network utility on the iPhone tomorrow to troubleshoot & report back.

hes

If it doesn't seem to be working, you might want to first confirm your rtp connection is working in something that does explicitly send to 'network session', like in AUM. Ultimately I think there's no difference, but psychologically easier to debug if you're certain your ios is sending to network session.

mmediaman

Good news @hes .
Appreciate your responses! Turns out my problem was that my iOS device was connected via my guest WiFi network rather than my internal network. Once I connected to the right network, the MidiPad2 showed up in my rtpMIDI app directory on the Windows machine. I was able to then connect the session and see MIDI messages from MidiPad2.

Incidentally, the application is to trigger keystrokes on the Windows machine which in turn triggers scene changes in Open Broadcaster Software. I ultimately wanted something that listens to audio and randomly sends triggers based on music measures. Looked at DMX apps since those generate lighting signals based on the music beat, but could never get the random action (It was more of a steady trigger based on beat). So since I haven't been able to do that, for now I am settling with triggering manually with the MidiPad2 app.

hes

Glad you got it going. I've run across mentions of OBS a few times over the last month, I guess it's getting exposure in our coronavirus lockdowns.

On the scene changing, sounds cool. Not sure exactly what you wanted, but if you have a beat sensing app that sends midi it would be trivial to route the midi commands through Mozaic and add whatever randomness you want within Mozaic. E.g., these lines of code in Mozaic would block all midi, but would send a command through roughly 1/10 of the time:

@OnMidiInput
   random_number = Random 1, 100     // generate random number between 1 and 100
   if random_number <= 10 
     SendMidiThru
   endif
@END

mmediaman

Haven't had much luck finding a beat sensing app that sends MIDI. and not familiar wih Mozaic. Sounds interesting. The code seems to suggest random_number and SendMidiThru are built in commands? Where can I find more information about it?

hes

'Random 1, 100' is built in function. I just named variable 'random_number' for readability. If you know any coding you could easily do very complex things in Mozaic. If you don't know coding, you could easily learn enough to do interesting things. Here's product web page: http://ruismaker.com/mozaic/
Here's programming/user manual: http://ruismaker.com/wp-content/uploads/Mozaic.pdf

mmediaman

Thank you. I'll check it out.
Foound the following little item too which looks interesting; https://github.com/Deep-Symmetry/beat-link-trigger

wim

@mmediaman said:
Haven't had much luck finding a beat sensing app that sends MIDI...

FAC Envolver might be a possibility: https://apps.apple.com/app/fac-envolver/id1378195291

mmediaman

Very interesting. Thanks!

mmediaman

@wim said:

FAC Envolver might be a possibility: https://apps.apple.com/app/fac-envolver/id1378195291

Very interesting. Thanks!

hes

It sounds like if you had a beat tracking solution on Windows, that you don't have much need for an iOS device. That MidiPad was just going to serve as a way for you to remotely send the scene change signals, but that you could do that entirely on the PC if you found the right solution. A few are mentioned in thread on this page: https://magicmusicvisuals.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1200 I haven't done much on Windows, routing midi seemed not very flexible, but I used loopMidi utility (mentioned in that thread) to get around issues.

mmediaman

@hes said:
It sounds like if you had a beat tracking solution on Windows, that you don't have much need for an iOS device. That MidiPad was just going to serve as a way for you to remotely send the scene change signals, but that you could do that entirely on the PC if you found the right solution.

Exactly right --^ @hes . And the twist (complication) is to be able to send the scene change command with some amount of randomness. The theory here and maybe a trade secret in film, is that scene changes are more effective when they happen in sync with sound . Or at least it adds an element to keep audience attention when done in that way. I'll have a look at that thread and see if there is something useful there. Thanks so much!

mmediaman

Sorry to awaken this thread again, but does anyone know if MidiPad2 supports USB connectivity? Turns out it's WiFi connectivity is unreliable because if anything goes south with the connection, even for a second, all connection is lost and its too much hassle to get reconnected.

mmediaman

@mmediaman said:
Sorry to awaken this thread again, but does anyone know if MidiPad2 supports USB connectivity? Turns out it's WiFi connectivity is unreliable because if anything goes south with the connection, even for a second, all connection is lost and its too much hassle to get reconnected.

Think I got this sorted. Didn't notice the Trust this device prompt upon initial connection of the iOS device via the USB cable. Tried again much later and saw the prompt. Answered yes to trust and then the iOS device appeared in my OSx Midi Setup directory.