Midi settings
Found under: Settings > MIDI
MIDI Devices
OpenSongApp will communicate with various MIDI devices such as MIDI keyboards, BeatBuddy, sound modules, DAWs, guitar effect processors, MIDI footswitches, etc.
These are normally connected to the device running OpenSongApp using a USB cable (often requiring an additional OTG/On-the-go cable), or by connecting to a BluetoothLE enabled MIDI device, which is obviously the neatest solution!
If you want to go wireless, but your MIDI device doesn't have built in BluetoothLE, you can often plug in a relatively cheap Bluetooth dongle to the MIDI device to let OpenSongApp communicate with it.
To search for connected USB MIDI devices, click on 'SEARCH'. To find MIDI over BluetoothLE devices, switch on the 'Connect Bluetooth devices option' (this may check for permissions and request them if required), then click on 'SEARCH'. Any devices found will be shown to you and you can select them to make the connection to the app.
Once a device has been discovered and connected, you will see options to send test data (some MIDI notes, program changes and some drum notes). If your device is connected you will likely see or hear something and will see the Ok message. If there is a problem with the connection, you will see an error message.
When the app is closed, MIDI devices are disconnected and will need to be reconnected manually when the app is reopened.
Receiving MIDI messages
OpenSongApp will only listen for MIDI notes (sent using Note on/off) from another device - this is used to listen for MIDI foot pedals. The actions you can assign for different notes received are set on the foot pedal settings page.
Autosend MIDI
MIDI messages saved with the song (song messages) can be triggered when you load a song. This can be useful if you want to change settings on a device whenever a song is loaded in OpenSongApp. This option does not apply to BeatBuddy automatic messages which have a separate option.
MIDI Delay
When sending multiple MIDI messages, you may find that connected devices do not always respond to all messages, particularly if a message takes a short period of time to be acted up (e.g. loading a song or setting). This may mean that following messages get ignores. You can increase the MIDI delay to allow a short pause between each message. Most devices will work with a delay of 100ms, meaning that if you send 10 messages in a row, the total time taken would only be 1 second.
Connection options
To use a MIDI device, you must first connect it. This must be done once you have started OpenSongApp. If you wish to use a MIDI Bluetooth foot pedal, you will need to connect it on this page before the app will listen for it.
I highly recommend that you use a BluetoothLE MIDI dongle. This does not rely on USB device drivers, etc. that can cause issues with USB MIDI devices. It also gives freedom of movement! Most BLE MIDI dongles self power via the MIDI out connection from the device they plug into.
Requirements
Device requirements:
Android 6+ (Marshmallow or later) with built in MIDI hardware
BluetoothLE if requiring connection to MIDI devices over BluetoothLE.
Android Permissions required (only if using MIDI over Bluetooth):
Android Tiramasu (and above): BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH_SCAN (no location required), BLUETOOTH_CONNECT
Android S: BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH_SCAN, BLUETOOTH_CONNECT, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
Android R or lower: BLUETOOTH, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION