In this article, you will learn how to distinguish among multiple identical MIDI devices that are attached to your computer or USB hub.
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Suppose that you have multiple identical MIDI devices attached to your computer or USB hub. For example, in this article, you can see that Gig Performer co-founder Dr David Jameson was touring with three Roland A800 Pro keyboards for one of his bands, each connected to a USB hub.
In this case, you may have the problem that your operating system changes the names of your MIDI devices. As a result, Gig Performer (or any VST plugin host, in general) will not know which keyboard corresponds with which MIDI In block. That depends on the order in which you powered up your controllers, or which keyboard you connected to which input on your USB hub.
Particularly, USB MIDI Port names can keep changing on your Windows computer when you attach your MIDI controller. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a well-known issue on Windows, all the way back to Windows XP.
In this scenario, you can experience all sorts of issues. For example, no sound or wrong sounds, and moving knobs on your controller doesn’t move widgets.
So, what is the solution here?
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The solution is the Rig Manager. If you are currently not using the Rig Manager, the best possible practice is to start using it. It will add more resilience to your set-up and pay off in the long run. Among other functionality, the Rig Manager allows you to:
To find out more about the Rig Manager and how this feature works, please see this blog article, or review this YouTube video:
Note: there are also community video contributions for the Rig Manager in German and in Portuguese.
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For this article, we will create an example setup where the Rig Manager has not yet been used. We will connect two identical Arturia Keylab controllers to a Windows computer. Suppose that there are no problems with USB cables and drivers for these MIDI devices. In that case, Gig Performer will list them in the MIDI Ports Options window:
To open the Rig Manager, click on the Window menu and then on the Rig Manager menu item:
You can see that the two Arturia controllers appear on the left side of the window along with a comment (no alias) which means that an alias has not yet been defined for the device.
An alias is simply a name you can designate to represent a physical device (see “MIDI Device Aliases”, on the left) or a control (a knob, slider, button, etc.) associated with some device (see “MIDI Control Aliases”).
Next, define MIDI Device aliases for these two MIDI devices. To define an alias, click on the “…” menu and then click Define alias for this MIDI device…
Let’s say that “Arturia Keylab MkII” is the Top keyboard and that “1- Arturia Keylab MkII” is the Bottom keyboard. Create the desired MIDI Control aliases (NB: check this user manual chapter to learn how to create MIDI Device and MIDI control aliases). This is the example screenshot:
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Now, when you create your plugin routings in the Wiring view, make sure to use the “Top keyboard” and “Bottom keyboard” aliases when inserting MIDI In blocks. (NB: check this user manual chapter to learn how to use MIDI Device and MIDI Control aliases that you created)
You can also adjust MIDI inputs in your existing gig files; right click on the desired MIDI input, select Change MIDI Input Device and then select the desired alias.
You will be prompted if you want to make adjustments in all the rackspaces in the gig file and to choose whether you want to use the name or the device information to find other matching blocks. (click Yes in the first prompt, and you will generally want to select Use current device in the second prompt)
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Uh, Oh! After changing cables, USB ports (on a computer or a USB hub), after an operating system update, or MIDI devices firmware or driver update, this can happen:
In the MIDI Ports Options window, you can see new names for your MIDI devices, and the Rig Manager window shows your MIDI devices as “missing” and the entries are greyed out. This is a problem, because your gig files will not work.
No worries, now that you are using the Rig Manager, the solution is simple: simply re-learn the devices for the defined MIDI device aliases. You need 5 seconds to do this.
So, double-click on the “Top keyboard” MIDI Device alias. You can see that it is now in learning mode (indicated by the red rectangle). Press any key on your MIDI controller that is placed on top. The new MIDI device will be automatically learned and its name will flash in the Rig Manager window (indicated with the blue rectangle).
Let’s quickly learn the Bottom Keyboard MIDI device alias. Double-click it to enter Learn mode and press any button or move a knob on your MIDI controller on the bottom.
That’s it. Your gig files will work as expected.
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Although you have identical MIDI controllers, you may still have to re-learn all the MIDI Control aliases. Let’s consider the following scenarios.
First, if you came to the Gig Performer world from another VST host, you might have used different MIDI channels for the other keyboards to distinguish among them.
What is also likely to happen if you use a rented or back-lined MIDI controller is that a previous user has configured the controls (i.e. knobs, buttons, and sliders) to send different MIDI values.
The solution is also very easy in the Rig Manager — simply re-learn the defined MIDI control aliases and you’re good to go. (double-click the configured MIDI Control aliases and move the corresponding physical controls on your controller. Click here to learn more.)
In any case, after you have relearned the controller, you should check the knobs and slider aliases to make sure they are correct.
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When you use the Rig manager and configure aliases for your controllers and knobs, you will be able to use different controllers by just re-learning the MIDI port associated with the controller.
NB: If you don’t use the Rig Manager, you could change MIDI input devices for all rackspaces in a gig file. (This legacy mechanism is still available) However, you would still have to relearn every single widget to new controllers.
To see more tips and tricks about the Rig Manager, or you want to share your feedback, please visit this community thread.
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Nemanja Pudar
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Related topics:
– Best practices for a rock-solid software-based setup
– Dealing with back-lined or rented keyboards
– Why Gig Performer? Because!
– Gig Performer as an ultimate enhancer
– All Gig Performer tutorials