Send bank select + program change with note on

[brett]

I’ve been experimenting a bit with the MIDI Expression IO and also a MIDI controller, both controlling a master keyboard.

Would it be feasible to add the option to send Bank Select and Program Change messages along with a Note On/Off? This would allow you to specify not just what note to play, but what voice to use as well.

[Rob]

Possibly via the MIDI transformer. I've been meaning to allow the message type to be transformed, but haven't gotten around to implementing it yet. It's on my list of things to do. I'm busy working on the next version of eDRUMin software, but when that's done, I'll turn my attention back to MIDI Expression and hopefully implement that.

[brett]

Thanks for the reply; that sounds like it might work.

I think it would be good for this case to be a hard coded option for note on/off messages, since it’s a pretty common thing to want to do. Also that would mean it is not using up multiple transformers.

Another approach — which the MAUDIO Oxygen controller I’m using takes — is to be able to specify ‘special’ control messages which aren’t actual MIDI messages but translate into multiple messages. For example the MAUDIO Oxygen uses 145 then 3 bytes (bank select LSB, bank select MSB, program change) as a “voice change” message, but what actually gets transmitted are the individual MIDI messages for bank select and PC. This might mean that you would only need one transformer for these three messages.

[Rob]

I just want to be clear on the functionality you're after. Before the note on message, it would send Bank Select and Program Change, but nothing before the Note Off. Is that correct?

[brett]

That's right. I want to be able to select the voice to use before playing the note -- and this is done sending the bank select + program change messages before the note on. (Some users might just want to send the program change, so the bank select could probably be optional too.)

I think the current transformers send duplicate messages *after* the original message? So even if it were possible to send a different message type with a transformer, at the moment that might not quite work.