Thank you. I think I did the right thing but it still doesn’t work. I also tried with the SL MkIII plugged into a powered USB hub (which is plugged into the Mac) and I got the same error so it could be an issue with hubs and the SL MkIII. I have emailed Novation, let’s see what they say
Bruno
I don’t think you have it right. Please use MT Pro or something to show me the port names they use when plugged directly into your Mac.
I think you will have 3 outs to outs (from BomeBox to your Mac) and 3 ins to ins
From you Mac to BomeBox). This would be on top of the routing that is done automatically by BomeBox.
The port names that you see by your Mac should not show the name Virtual Anywhere, that is only within Bome Network Pro.
Steve
Something like this
OUT: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [1] Virtual Out -> OUT: (Port 1 Name as shown by Mac)
OUT: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [2] Virtual Out -> OUT: (Port 2 Name as shown by Mac)
OUT: BomeBOX:Novation SL MkIII [3] Virtual Out -> OUT: (Port 3 Name as shown by Mac)
IN: (Port 1 Name as shown by Mac) -> IN: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [1] Virtual In
IN: (Port 2 Name as shown by Mac) -> IN: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [2] Virtual In
IN: (Port 3 Name as shown by Mac) -> IN: BomeBOX:Novation SL MkIII [3] Virtual In
In the above example You will see Virtual In and Virtual Out Appended to what the Mac reports
Don’t add any other routes for this controller. Just the 6.
The SL MkIII has 3 IN ports and 5 OUT ports (actually two of the OUT ports are OUT only). This is what it looks like when connected on the Bomebox:
As a result 2 of the ports (4 and 5) do not get an automatically created Virtual port to connect to.
These are the ports as they show in MIDI translator pro when the SL is plugged straight into the Mac:
I think the MIDI port maps to [1], InControl to [2], From/To DIN 1 to [3], To DIN 2 to [4], and To CV/Gate to [5]. That’s the order given in the SL documentation and is correct as far as the IN ports when tested using the MIDI Translator Log window
Bruno
So Leaving the DIN ports alone:
OUT: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [1] Virtual Out -> OUT: Novation SL MkIII SL MkII InControl Virtual Out
OUT: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [2] Virtual Out -> OUT: Novation SL MkIII SL MkII MIDI Virtual Out
OUT: BomeBOX:Novation SL MkIII [3] Virtual Out -> OUT: Novation SL MkIII SL MkII To CV/Gate Virtual Out
IN: Novation SL MkIII SL MkII InControl Virtual In -> IN: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [1] Virtual In
IN: Novation SL MkIII SL MkII MIDI Virtual In -> IN: BomeBox:Novation SL MkIII [2] Virtual In
IN: Novation SL MkIII SL MkII To CV/Gate Virtual In -> IN: BomeBOX:Novation SL MkIII [3] Virtual In
And of course, when you create the virtual port names, enter them exactly as shown in MT Pro (without the Virtual Designators)
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
I might have port 1 and port 2 reversed. Generally port 2 is the “InControl” port.
Steve
Thank you for all the ideas. I do believe port 2 is InControl (tested it using the MIDI monitor).
I tried with port 3 mapping both to DIN 1 and to CV/Gate. Both keep on giving me an error when trying to transfer data. Here are the configurations:
I also tried bypassing the USB hub attached to the Bomebox and plugged the SL straight into the Bomebox. It also didn’t work 
Must be some weird stuff with the SL MkIII
Bruno
Again, pay close attention to IN: and OUT:
You need to map OUT: from the BomeBox to OUT: on your computer
You need to map IN : from the Computer to IN: On your Bomebox.
It still looks wrong.
Actually I was just looking at the red ones which look wrong. Those should be deleted. The others look OK.
I would disconnect all ports, then reboot your BomeBox and Mac and try again.
Sometimes adding and deleting ports has strange side affects.
Steve
Tried unchecking the red routes (they cannot be deleted as the ports are OUT only). Disconnected all ports, disconnected Bomebox, rebooted Mac and Bomebox, reconnected only the SL MkIII ports. Sadly still not working
I’m blaming Novation
Bruno
Yes, too bad Novation Components doesn’t have an option to pick the ports.
There may be other things at play here too. Maybe the SL uses more than MIDI to configure it.
Let’s see what they come back with.
Maybe you cannot delete the red routes but you should be able to uncheck them.
I got an answer from Novation. Relatively scarce but they confirm the SL mk3 and components interact using complex sysex handshaking.
They also recommended to clear any “ghost” SL mk3 images in AppleAudio MIDI setup. Doing this allowed me to do data transfers when the SL is plugged in a USB hub (which were failing before in the same way as with the Bomebox). Unfortunately it’s still not working with the Bomebox. I’m going to try different combinations of virtual ports now that I know the “ghost clearing trick”.
But I’m wondering whether there’s a way to use MIDI Translator Pro as a 2 way MIDI stream monitor to spy on the sysex exchanges and try to debug things.
Yes, you could always set a MIDI Thru path in MT Pro and monitor the path between the Remote MIDI direct ports on one side and your Unlimited Virtual ports on the other.
Are you saying it also doesn’t work if you are plugging in a USB hub directly on your Mac instead of a direct connection? There must certainly be something else going on here. If they use pure MIDI for communications, there should be no reason why it shouldn’t work as I confirmed this with my Launchpad MIDI MK3.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Yes there was definitely something else going on with the way the SL interacts with MacOS and USB that messed up the various tests. Novation support told me how to deal with that by clearing the Mac’s USB MIDI “cache” (so to speak) so it now works when plugged into a USB hub, whereas it was not before (of which I was not aware).
Now that I know that I’m going to try again from scratch and see how I fare.
Well, after “clearing the cache”, deleting and recreating all the Virtual Ports and Routings, it sort of works - I was able to send and receive single sessions and templates from the SL MkIII, although unreliably. Transferring a whole pack of 64 sessions+templates failed after transfer of one or two sessions.
So the initial connection is fine now, it sounds like the issue is now something to do with bandwidth or timing of the subsequent handshakes, which is going to be much harder to sort out. I think I’m just going to give up and resort to swapping cables when doing bulk dumps (and not forgetting to “clear the cache” afterwards).
Thank you for all your help! Sorry for being a pain but it’s a steep learning curve, especially getting my head around the new paradigm of virtual ports and having routings in multiple places (in Bome Network Tool, in MIDI Translator projects and in the Web config).
Do I understand correctly that if I create a project with routings in MTP then upload it to the Bomebox these routings are going to replace the existing routings in the Web config?
And I’ve asked before… Is there a set of MTP projects that I can download and study to understand how to build my own projects? I’m especially interested in MIDI channel-dependent routings (“if on channel 4 send only to Port mio 10 [2], changing the channel to 2”) and MIDI message filtering (“remove MIDI clock Start signals from Port mio 10 [5]”)
Bruno
Hi Bruno,
Yes if you look at our tutorials you will find examples of most of what you are looking for. The descriptions have links to the project files used in the tutorials.
And yes, the active project file will override the routing on your BomeBox when loaded.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Got it, thank you! Successfully built my first test project, routing MIDI channel 9 to my Evolver. I had to create separate translators for Note On, Note Off, Control Changes, Pitchbend and aftertouch. I take that’s the way to do it, there’s no shortcut to do it all in one translator?
Bruno
Yes, you can use a single translator for multiple functions. For instance for 3 byte MIDI message you can have an incoming message as raw oo pp qq .
Then use rules to determine what 3 byte message type it is
Pitch Bend
Note On
Note Off
CC message
For instance, I use these rules to determine if it a note (on or off message)
incoming: oo pp qq
Rules
// Check for note message if rr=0x80 then it is a note message (either on or off)
rr=oo&0xe0
if rr==0x80 then goto “Note Message”
// check for CC message
rr=oo&0xf0
if rr== 0xb0 then goto “CC Message”
// check for pitch bend
rr=oo&0xf0
if rr=0xe0 then goto “Pitch Bend Message”
Note off can be tricky because it can be either 0x8n with any velocity or 0x9n with velocity 0. The n means MIDI CH Number 0-F (MIDI CH 1- 16)
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Great, thank you! I promise I’ll be quiet for a bit now and go watch all your videos.
Bruno
No worries. I’m always happy to help! The tutorials are primarily there for the most common questions and having them available to users keeps support costs down. I often times re-answer questions here which I don’t mind but it is always more efficient if users spend more time with previous posts as they tend to internalize the fundamentals much better by some self study.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
