Midiplex

History

As my live MIDI setup became more elaborate, I developed a greater hunger for knobs and buttons.  So I looked around at various devices that I can buy that would allow me to send continuous controller messages to my synths, and didn't find what I was looking for.  Most of the MIDI control surfaces were either too big or too expensive.

Then it dawned on me: why not use a joystick?  A joystick has buttons and a continuous control interface, and is small and inexpensive.  Unfortunately my search for joystick-to-MIDI utilities didn't turn up a lot either.  The utilities I found were either unstable or limited.  So I gave up my search decided to write Midiplex.

What does it do?

• Midiplex sends MIDI continuous controller messages when a joystick button is pressed or released.
• All controller numbers (0-127) and values (0-127) are supported.
• Unlimited number of events per button.
• Events that have multiple controllers act like a toggle.  Each time the event is triggered, it sends the next controller message in its list.
  
• The MIDI port and channel are specified globally, but can be overridden by events and controllers.
• Multiple configuration files can be used (run midiplex <myconfigfile.xml>).

What does it not do?

• Midiplex does not have a UI.  I'm not a UI developer (yet?), so I chose function over form for the first release.
• Only one joystick is supported.
• Only buttons 1-4 are supported.  This one is also next on my list.  For some reason I couldn't get the joyGetPosEx() Win32 API to work right off the bat.
  
• Analog joystick controllers cannot be mapped to a CC.  This one's next on the feature list.
• The only MIDI messages that are currently supported are continuous controllers.

Requirements

• One joystick.
• At least one MIDI out port.
• The Microsoft .NET 1.1 Framework Redistributable package.  Chances are that you already have this on your machine.
  

Downloads

• Download Midiplex 1.0

Links

• MIDI Yoke is a great free utility that allows a program such as Midiplex to send MIDI messages to softsynths, sequencers, and other MIDI applications
  

Examples

<midiplex>
  <midiOutDefaults portName="MIDI Yoke NT:  1" channel="5"/>

  <joystickButton name="button1" number="1" sendDown="true" sendUp="false"/>
  <joystickButton name="button2" number="2" sendDown="true" sendUp="true"/>

  <midiEvent name="test1">
    <controller number="20" value="20"/>
    <controller number="20" value="67"/>
  </midiEvent>

  <midiEvent name="test2" portName="MIDI Yoke NT:  2">
    <controller number="15" channel="3" value="12"/>
  </midiEvent>

  <eventMap>
    <event source="button1" destination="test1"/>
    <event source="button1" destination="test2"/>
    <event source="button2" destination="test2"/>
  </eventMap>
</midiplex>

c:/home/Midiplex $ midiplex.exe 
Detected MIDI Ports:
* Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
* MIDI Yoke NT:  1
* MIDI Yoke NT:  2
* MIDI Yoke NT:  3
* MIDI Yoke NT:  4
* MIDI Yoke NT:  5
* MIDI Yoke NT:  6
* MIDI Yoke NT:  7
* MIDI Yoke NT:  8
Midiplex starting up.

Reading configuration from midiplex.xml.
Found 2 joystickButton elements.
Found 2 midiEvent elements.
Found 2 controllers for event test1
Found 1 controllers for event test2
[MidiOutDefaults port=1, channel=5]
Mapping: [JoystickButton name='button1', number=1, sendDown=True, sendUp=False]->[MidiEvent name='test1', port=1, channel=5, controllers=[Controller port=1, channel=5, number=20, value=20], [Controller port=1, channel=5, number=20, value=67]], [MidiEvent name='test2', port=2, channel=5, controllers=[Controller port=2, channel=3, number=15, value=12]]
Mapping: [JoystickButton name='button2', number=2, sendDown=True, sendUp=True]->[MidiEvent name='test2', port=2, channel=5, controllers=[Controller port=2, channel=3, number=15, value=12]]
Triggering [Controller port=1, channel=5, number=20, value=20].
Triggering [Controller port=2, channel=3, number=15, value=12].
Triggering [Controller port=2, channel=3, number=15, value=12].
Triggering [Controller port=2, channel=3, number=15, value=12].

Boris
boris@burtin.net