Reading MIDI sent by a device - MIDI Medic

[johnh]

After getting to 'Base Camp' with the Miditzer the next logical step is adding a console of some sort, either a stack of discrete MIDI keyboards or an electronic organ with MIDI outputs. If you don't have a user's guide or manual for the keyboard/organ you'll need to determine what MIDI channels the device is sending MIDI note data on. There is a lot of information on this forum describing the use of MIDI-OX and it truly is the 'Swiss Army Knife' of MIDI utilities. The only drawback is a slightly steep learning curve.

MIDI Medic is another diagnostic tool that is simpler to set up and use for this type of detective work. It is available via free download from the Classic Organ Works website. (Note that you do have to register with the site).

Once downloaded and installed, start the MIDI Medic application. You'll see a screen similar to this:

midimedic.JPG

In the upper left there is a drop down list box containing all the MIDI interfaces recognized by Windows at the time the application was started. If the box isn't displaying the MIDI Interface that your keyboard/organ is connected to select the appropriate interface from the list. If you don't see your interface or there are no interfaces listed then there is an issue with your MIDI device that must be solved before proceeding further.

After selecting the proper MIDI input device press middle C on the organ/keyboard. Here's an example of what you might see:

midimedic2.JPG

Each MIDI event is displayed in HEX notation, with the channel identified and a textual description of the event. There are also options for saving the display to a text file (you could upload it to the forum if you have further questions), etc.

I recommend MIDI Medic as a slightly simpler MIDI diagnostic for the beginner.

[johnb]

John,
Thanks very much for letting us know about MIDI Medic. In another recent post, Grockel (Gerald) was trying to find out what MIDI settings his console pistons were set to. I made him aware of your post and I think he pretty much has his settings all worked out now - thanks to you alerting us to this easy to use program.

[johnh]

Thanks very much for letting us know about MIDI Medic.

Glad it helped!

---john.

[NeilICoy]

When I connect MidiMedic to my Yamaha EZ-200 thru the UX16-1 interface, I get a continous stream of data with a 'F8' status and a 'system real time' event. I do not get it when connecting to my Roland PC-300. Is this normal or is there something wrong with my UX16-1 interface or the Yamaha? I will be replacing the Yamaha with another PC-300 but would like to use UX16-1 to interface from PedScan for my pedalboard and expression pedal. Am I looking for a non-existant problem?

Neil Coy

[Jim Henry]

F8 is a timing message. There may be something in MIDI Medic that will allow you to suppress display of System message so that you can see the messages you are interested in without having the continuous F8s scroll the others off the screen. If not, MIDI-OX does have such a filter.

[NeilICoy]

Thanks Jim,

You are right as usual. There is a filter to remove system real time events. It's a lot easier to read now.

Neil Coy