CoolSoft MIDIMapper Release Candidate 2 released

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Posts: 3
Joined: November 9, 2016 - 12:56
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released

Yes I remember reading that post on managing midi ports many years ago. Even then :

"Because too many programmers wrote MIDI applications that hog the inputs/outputs, some manufacturers of sound cards and MIDI interfaces started shipping multiclient drivers with their products.

A multiclient (sometimes called multi-instance) driver is one which allows more than one application to open a MIDI input or output (ie, more than one call to midiOutOpen or midiInOpen to succeed). In essense, the driver lets two or more applications simultaneously open a MIDI input/output, unbeknowst to each other, and the driver itself tries to manage (ie, mix) their MIDI output, and also provides the applications separate copies of each incoming MIDI message.

I think most (reliable) MIDI interfaces nowadays are in fact multi-client and perhaps MS Midi Mapper was sophisticated enough to share an output port in this way.

To answer your questions though:

Pre Win8 I could run my in-app MidiFile player through the same output port as my apps' patch editor. The Midifile player used the Multimedia API MCI sequencer and it's output device was set to the MIDI Mapper.

Post Win8 I can either use the output port for patch editing or I can play a midifile but as you say midiOutOpen is single client. This applies to any output device including Coolsoft MIDI Mapper.

The link on managing ports goes on to describe how to implement MIDI port "sharing" between apps. But it isn't really sharing as it just describes one way of signalling when app A needs the port so that appB can close it and A then has exclusive access.

Until a better solution come along though I'm pretty much resigned to this fudge.

Perhaps the new universal windows app MIDI API will eventually provide a way of making MIDI devices properly usable as Multi Client.

Thanks for spending time on this issue - it helped me clarify my thinking

 

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released
jonrmorgan wrote:
Post Win8 I can either use the output port for patch editing or I can play a midifile but as you say midiOutOpen is single client. This applies to any output device including Coolsoft MIDI Mapper.

If you can switch to a software-based synth, well, CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.x has a multidevice feature: you can enable up to 4 virtual devices each with its own configuration.
In your case you can enable 2 devices with the same soundfont set, lower latency near to 0ms and have both of your softwares run together... just a thought ;)

Posts: 1
Joined: December 8, 2016 - 06:47
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released

Can Coolsoft MIDI Mapper let me do the following? Map the input from an external MIDI controller to Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth installed on my computer, so I can play the MIDI controller and hear the audio output from VirtualMIDISynth without any other application running? If so, can it do that with low latency?

Posts: 18
Joined: June 12, 2016 - 04:29
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released
Steve Brown wrote:

Can Coolsoft MIDI Mapper let me do the following? Map the input from an external MIDI controller to Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth installed on my computer, so I can play the MIDI controller and hear the audio output from VirtualMIDISynth without any other application running? If so, can it do that with low latency?

No, that's not what it's for. You need something like MIDI-OX to route inputs to outputs.

Posts: 1
Joined: February 18, 2017 - 23:56
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released

Running Windows 10 Home 64-bit.  Using Cubase LE (V1.0.8).  Has SoundBlaster Audigy card installed.  Also has VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-RC2 installed.  Clean reboot after installing CoolSoft MIDIMapper.
Tried both CoolSoft MIDIMapper Beta4 and Beta5.  Identical observations except where noted.

Observations:

1)  In Cubase, the MIDI output device dropdown sees the MIDIMapper, as well as the original list of software and hardware synths.

2) CoolSoft MIDIMapper's configuration dropdown sees all software and hardware synths.

3) Through the CoolSoft MIDIMapper, it can only successfully play to software synth (MS GS Wavetable and VirtualMIDISynth), not the SoundBlaster hardware synth.  And even for the software synths, have to quit and restart Cubase each time after a change in synth selection  is made in CoolSoft MIDIMapper.

4) The difference between Beta4 and Beta5 is only in what shows up in VirtualMIDISynth's own MIDIMapper Configuration tab.  In Beta4, the full list of software and hardware synths is shown in the dropdown.  In Beta5, the VirtualMIDISynth's MIDIMapper dropdown is greyed out (not accessible).

5) When setting the Windows Media Player default device from the VirtualMIDISynth MIDIMapper tab, on selecting "CoolSoft MIDIMapper" (beta5), a warning pops up indicating "WARNING: the selected device doesn't have an x64 version. ......", and the dialog will not save the selction but reverts back to the original.  The CoolSoft MIDIMapper is mapped to VirtualMIDISynth #1 at the time.  But regardless of which synth the CoolSoft MIDIMapper is configured to map to, the same warning shows up to prevent its selection as the default Windows Media Player device.  Did not try this in beta4.

Thank you for creating both the VirtualMIDISynth and the MIDIMapper.
 

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released
t_s_a_n wrote:
3) Through the CoolSoft MIDIMapper, it can only successfully play to software synth (MS GS Wavetable and VirtualMIDISynth), not the SoundBlaster hardware synth.

That could be because the hardware synth is installed as a DirectX device.
Could you please install VanBasco Player and check which devices are shown into its setup dialog?

t_s_a_n wrote:
And even for the software synths, have to quit and restart Cubase each time after a change in synth selection  is made in CoolSoft MIDIMapper.

That's because Cubase keeps the device opened (and loaded) forever.
Doesn't it have an option like "release device on pause" or "reinitialize device on play"?

t_s_a_n wrote:

4) The difference between Beta4 and Beta5 is only in what shows up in VirtualMIDISynth's own MIDIMapper Configuration tab.  In Beta4, the full list of software and hardware synths is shown in the dropdown.  In Beta5, the VirtualMIDISynth's MIDIMapper dropdown is greyed out (not accessible).

5) When setting the Windows Media Player default device from the VirtualMIDISynth MIDIMapper tab, on selecting "CoolSoft MIDIMapper" (beta5), a warning pops up indicating "WARNING: the selected device doesn't have an x64 version. ......", and the dialog will not save the selction but reverts back to the original.  The CoolSoft MIDIMapper is mapped to VirtualMIDISynth #1 at the time.  But regardless of which synth the CoolSoft MIDIMapper is configured to map to, the same warning shows up to prevent its selection as the default Windows Media Player device.  Did not try this in beta4.

These are fixed in the unreleased RC3 of VirtualMIDISynth.
It was unreleased because I'd like to skip RC3 and go straight (and finally) to the final version.

Posts: 41
Joined: November 6, 2015 - 12:32
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released

I installed today bassmididriver (i was curious) and Coolsoft midimapper. From VMS2 I cannot access to the midimapper configuration. Is that normal? (I include screenshot).
And in VMS2 when I change the Windows Media Player default device I get a message error saying "Warning, the selected device doesn't have a x64 version, whatever I choose.
 

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Posts: 8
Joined: March 10, 2017 - 05:55
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released

Hopefully this works, I have a bunch of old games where all I really need is volume control for Midi on windows 10.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released
retrue wrote:

I installed today bassmididriver (i was curious) and Coolsoft midimapper. From VMS2 I cannot access to the midimapper configuration. Is that normal? (I include screenshot).
And in VMS2 when I change the Windows Media Player default device I get a message error saying "Warning, the selected device doesn't have a x64 version, whatever I choose.

Latest RC of VMS2.0 had a bug in detecting both MIDIMapper and devices bitness.
I've just fixed it, it will be released in final version (or next RC...), stay tuned.

Anonymous user
Re: CoolSoft MIDIMapper beta5 released

Our church has all its hymns and liturgies as MIDI files on a PC. These are sequenced with MediaShout, output through a MAudio MIDIsport 1x1 interface, and played by our MIDI-capable organ. When we upgraded the PC, it came with Windows 10 and it could no longer find the MIDI interface. After days of worrying we'd wasted our money on a PC for nothing, I found this MIDImapper applet. It worked perfectly! Easy to install, easy to configure, and no problems whatsoever. Thank you for saving the day! When is final release? Will it be able to set my MIDI organ as the primary device and fall back to VirtualMIDISynth as a second choice? That would be sweet!

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