[PD] max midi in devices

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

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On 2014-08-25 12:00, Ingo wrote:
[...]
> 
> Now that many manufacturers are building MIDI controllers (apart
> from keyboards, MIDI guitars, wind controllers, etc.) like a single
> foot pedal, a single foot switch or gesture control using a full
> MIDI interface over USB the number will be growing again. I'm
> pretty sure of that.
> 
> Instead of connecting one arduino that can handle 30-40 sensors
> each controller uses its own MIDI interface.
> 

agreed to all of it.

my question was somewhat different: is it necessary to have Pd provide
MIDI-ports for each device, or is it better/simpler/... to have all
those devices appear on a *few* ports.

let's have an example, connecting a footswitch, a keyboard and a
BCF2000 (in some 3-input mode).

if we have each of these assigned to a separate port, the
MIDI-messages will appear in Pd as:
- - footswitch: channels 1..16
- - keyboard: channels 17..32
- - BCF2000: channels 33..80
obviously this only works if we get the device order correct (that is:
persistent across reboots).

using a MIDI-merger and proper device setup we might as well have all
of them come through a single port:
- - footswitch: channel 1; CC 64
- - keyboard: channels 1..16; noteon/off
- - BCF2000: channels 1; CC1..16; channels 17..32 for other ports
this will work regardless of whether Pd (or the system) is able to
keep the device order consistent.

i do think that the 2nd method is superior.
obviously, it is easy to construct use cases where this setup is not
enough.
but i think these are edge-case, and we should not reserve too much
screen estate for things that will hardly ever be used. (however, it
should/must be possible to handle these things in an *advanced* mode
(e.g. via cmdline args)


fgmad
IOhannes
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