Send Midi Program Change

Software
1

Hi everybody.
Is there a way to send MIDI Bank/Program changes for external devices, like other synths or plugins and per USB/DIN/RTPMidi port when we load a snapshot or any other way of presetting it?
This way we could have a “no” computer setup.

Edit: Of course Key Range, Transpose, etc… would also be needed if we want Zynthian to be complete as midi router.

2

This is an old proposal … i don’t remember when or who, but it’s! :wink:
Currently, this can’t be done, but it could be implemented quite easily in a zynthianic way:

  • Create a “dummy” (or famly of) engines that only send MIDI commands to external devices. It could include:
    • Bank MSB & LSB (generic)
    • Preset (generic)
    • Transpose (device specific?)
    • Key Range (device specific?) => It should be implemented in zynthian UI too

So, you could create layers assigned to external devices, where zynthian would act as a pure MIDI router.

Regards,

3

Hi José.
Yes, that seems to be what is needed, if i understood correctly your brainstorming.
But that/each device would need to be port directable not only by channel as there are devices that only receive on one channel (My Korg M3 synthesizer is one of those).

EDIT: It would also need MIDI in ports to be specified depending on the command being set-up as the MIDI Controller would have to be connected to Zynthian, otherwise part of the idea of “standalone MIDI performance controller” wouldn’t work.

4

I don’t know how much work each device could take but pizmidi plugins are a good way to give ideas on some of this (I know it is VST not LV2):
https://code.google.com/archive/p/pizmidi/
(It seems to have source code too)

1 Like
5

Perhaps this would be easier if someone has already done the majority of the work… https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/sonar-using-instrument-definition-files .
Although for Sonar/Cakewalk .ins files are around for many old, and new, hardware synths and devices.
Should be adaptable to Zynthian as it is a text file format… :slight_smile:

6

I don’t see how that can be useful in the beginning of this process. At the most it can become useful when this is working and then yes, it will become nice to have patch names.