Magic Music Visuals

Trying to correlate notes output by software with midi output ...with midi in magic. There seems to be different scales. I thought all Midi scales where standardized. Can anyone shed any light on midi scales and how to correlate input with output notes? If this is a very stupid question excuse my ignorance but I thought midi was a standardized keyboard.

No worries, it's a good question. Here's a useful page I found: http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tsc ... ctaves.htm

Unfortunately MIDI note names aren't fully standardized. As that page describes, some software uses C0 as note 0 (with middle C being C5), but some uses C-2 as note 0 (with middle C being C3). Magic uses the latter approach.

The best way to correlate things is to just use the note number (0-127). That will always be the same across all software.

Does that help?

p.s.: In our next release of Magic (1.51), we will have some basic MIDI Learn functionality, so you won't have to worry about the specific MIDI note names; Magic will auto-detect them for you.

Thanks for the reply. Using just the note number was the conclusion I came to but still things don't quite add up. Will do new design and try and correlate the notes which are supposedly the same again and see if I did not just do something stupid somewhere. Will look at your references. regards

Thanks for the info, am trying to use a novation launchpad mini, I'll post what I find!

Hi Eric
Here's the interesting part. With the new 1.51 version it can see the note and visual response is there (in this case it was axis rotation).. but no sound.
It picked up the note with midi learn beautifully. Note 60, sees it as C3. The midi output from source program uses Key C, Instrument 15 : Tubular Bells, Pentatonic Major Scale, note 60, Volume 12, Both channels. Any thoughts as to no note but does cause the animation?

It seems like the problem might be that MIDI needs to be sent to two places simultaneously: one for Magic, and one for your audio device (to make sounds with the MIDI notes).

Does your MIDI output program allow you to send MIDI to two devices?

If not, you may need to use some kind of software utility to "route" the MIDI. I'm not sure what's available for this purpose but I'll try to have a look.

Edit: maybe try this one: http://www.bewaryprods.com/software/pro ... sMIDIfier/

Eric

Copperlan - http://www.copperlan.org/index.php/copp ... -end-users
A very powerful midi routing/virtual ports/network application.
Beware it grabs new devices that are plugged in, so if you are expecting something to work and it doesn't check the midi setup and connections in Copperlan.
It's a graphical environment similar to Magic in that you make connections between modules with "wires"
It's outputs can be used by multiple applications at once. For Mac and Windows.

loopMIDI - http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html
only one virtual port, but it's output can also be used by multiple applications. Just tested with PureData taking input from Maschine controller and sending it to Magic and Ableton Live at the same time. For Windows only.

both are free.

Thanks for the replies..will definitely check it out and give feedback. What a pleasure to use software where there is an active forum as well as developer who keeps an eye open and responds quickly!