How to control 2 synth modules from Midi Maestro?

Midi Maestro
1

Hi,

I have some vintage gear that I need to control from Midi Maestro.

My guitar synth is a Roland GK-2A/GI-10. I also have a Roland GS-64 set to channel 1 M-SE1 set to channel 2. I think I can:
Midi Maestro > GI-10 midi in > GI-10 midi out > GS-64 midi in > GS-64 midi thru > M-SE1 midi in? Then, I should be able to program the Midi Maestro to assign a button to toggling between channel 1 & 2, then make some channel/patch/bank presets for other buttons on the Maestro?

2

Yes that should be possible :blush:

(Although I don’t have knowledge of your synth modules)

Typically midi devices have thru option between their in and out :relieved:

This works.

This also works. Note that you have 10*6 buttons if you want to use different pages :wink:

Just note that if the bank select is similar to BeatBuddy song select (consists of three commands) and you have three devices. In total that requires 9 midi commands which is more than 8 (the limit of midi commands per button on MM)

3

Thanks! I only have 2 modules to control, so I don’t think I’ll exceed 8 commands.

I have absolutely no idea how to program the Maestro. The examples don’t address my use case.

I am actually hoping to make a simple UI for it that abstracts away the MIDI implementation details.

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4

That is exactly what you will have at the end by using the MIDI Maestro :smiling_face:

But in order to reach that goal you need to know all the commands etc. Do it once and forget it all later :yum:

You’ll want to check the manual for the custom mode. Try something simple first and then incrementally go towards the goal :blush:

5

This is where some howto guides would be of merciful value. I bought the Maestro in the hopes that I wouldn’t have to re-learn MIDI (haven’t studied it for over 20 years, and never needed to know all the complexities. This really is just begging for an abstraction so people can program the Maestro without needing to know MIDI implementation details, don’t you think?

6

I think the MM was designed that in mind for the BeatBuddy and Aeros :thinking:

But it’s not possible to have the same level of support/abstraction for all devices made by other companies :sweat_smile:

Midi itself is already a great protocol, abstracting away most of the binary stuff :yum:

First you need to read the manuals of the other devices on what midi commands are required to trigger the actions you want. Once you know that then you just need to learn how to make a custom mode in Maestro :smiling_face:

This is most likely a control change command.

This is bank select and/or program change :thinking:

The command types, numbers and values are what you need to dig from the manuals :yum:

7

Thanks.

I looked up what I did back in the day with Sonar & Cubase. The term is ‘patch map’. So, in those DAWs, you can simply import the patch map and it gives you a UI with the patch/bank names so you can easily select. Roland also has a patch script builder for some of its gear: Roland - Support - Patch Script Builder

There’s lots of patch maps out there for various vendors and synth modules.

It seems quite feasible to have a laptop-based UI that could offer this level of abstraction to make programming the Maestro simple for people who want that kind of experience.

I guess this isn’t a direction Singular Sound wants to go, which is 100% legit. You have to stay focused on where your product/market fit is.

Thanks for your advice!

8

That’s actually quite smart, didn’t think of it. Sounds like it requires either a big company or a tight connection between the company and community :thinking:

Is the patch map protocol open source or just something that companies have to develop separately of each other? :upside_down_face:

9

Actually, I offered to make a simple version of the UI myself (am software engineer among other things). I’d just need the APIs.

Some patch maps are open source, others proprietary. I’ve never had a problem getting them for a DAW.

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10

So basically if you would know how to upload settings to Maestro with a code then you could make such UI :thinking:

@BeatBuddy_Support is it possible to make the API public or share it with @Dreculah? :yum:

11

More or less. It doesn’t look too hard to do a basic version. I sent a message to Singular Sound’s CEO but haven’t heard back yet.

The ‘full version’ of the UI would be able to import patch maps and have simple way to assign channel/bank/patch to a button, and almost certainly the Maestro could display the patch name.

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