Hello Steve,
after having used the standalone Bome Box for a couple of months, I want to change MIDI processing and therefore I enabled the Wifi connection and closed the project residing on the Bome Box itself. I opened the exact same project with MIDI Translator but the program cannot see my MIDI devices.
Any clue of what’s happening?
Alex
Split Keyboard - Drawbar Organ - Ignore 79 7B - change program - V8.bmtp (26.6 KB)
Bome Box Configuration before eliminating Midihub.pdf (352.1 KB)
How are your devices connected to your computer?
If they are still connected to your BomeBox, you will need to to create routing on your BomeBox from BomeBox DIN to your network port and set up your aliases on your computer to point to your network port. In this example, Steve-Gaming is my computer.
Alternatively you can use Remote MIDI Direct on your computer to access your BomeBox DIN port directly.
In my case, BomeBoxB is my BomeBox and this is the view of aliases assigned within the project file
I’m curious about the function of your note timer.
I’m also wondering what you are using Bome Virtual Port 1 for as it would not exist on the BomeBox.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Thank you, Steve.
I send you my flow chart. There you can see how the Bome box is working.
I must admit that I have never really understood this device in regards of connections. Even when I’m watching the video about Aliases, I don’t understand it. What I would need is a simple example, without Aliases, and how it is set up from scratch for an easy system with 2 or three hardware devices and one virtual port, not with tens of Aliases already there. Most devices appear with their names so for a simple system why complicate things with Aliases?
What I have done is a project that worked, then transferred it to the Bome Box, and since then it works perfectly, and now when I get back to remote control with the Translator it doesn’t work anymore. When I would understand the basics of the device then I probably would see problem.
To your questions:
The timer works perfectly. The project senses what I play on the keyboard and in some cases sends a program change. The check includes a measurement of how fast the keys are stroke in succession. That’s why I need the timer.
The Virtual Ports are not used.
MIDI Audio Connections V1.pdf (1.0 MB)
Just set up BomeBox routing from MIDI DIN IN to your network computer and network computer to MIDI DIN OUT.
Then on your computer project file set up your project to look for BomeBox for input and BomeBox for output.
Aliases are set up for your convenience so that you can use the same names across devices that might report them differently. If the port name doesn’t exist, it will think it is an alias and prompt you for what physical device the name should point to.
For instance, your DIN ports on your BomeBox would be called ‘BomeBox DIN’, but when you open the project file on the computer you will not find a port called ‘BomeBox DIN’. So it will assume it is an alias and prompt you for the port name which in this case would be the name of your BomeBox after you have set up routing on your BomeBox.
So assuming both controllers are coming from BomeBox DIN (In) and your synths are also BomeBox DIN (Out), MT Pro would create these aliases and you would point them to your BomeBox Network port as shown here except your BomeBox Name would be different.
My BomeBox MIDI routing looks like this. Of course, your computer name will also be different.
Here is the project file with no aliases. Of course it will create aliases called ‘BomeBox DIN’ since these port names would not exist on your computer.
Split Keyboard - Drawbar Organ - Ignore 79 7B - change program - V8 -noalias.bmtp (26.6 KB)
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
I assume that your Numa Organ MIDI IN does not create a MIDI loop back out to your Numa Organ out. Otherwise, you might have a problem here.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Thank you very much for your penultimate reply. I will work on that this evening.
To your latest comment: This apparent loop back is intentional and worked well all the time. It carries back the program change initiated by the Boom Box to the Numa.
The real reason why I’m going back to revising my Translator project is that I want to get rid of the Midihub altogether and do everything in the Bome Box, in a manner that I have outlined in the attached chart. So I first want to achieve a state where everything works through the open Translator Program as before, and then work on the new design without the Midihub and possibly without any MIDI DIN connections at all.
In principle, would it be possible to use just the USB port of the Bome Box, or is it mandatory to use the MIDI DIN ports?
New Configuration.pdf (268.4 KB)
For me, I prefer to use USB when possible. I’m not sure which devices in your diagram have USB capabilities. But USB with a powered hub into the BomeBox USB host port would be a good idea. Again, when you move things between BomeBox and and MT Pro, the names reported by BomeBox and your computer may end up being different which is the key reasons for using MIDI aliases. You just assign the alias to the physical device name on that platform and then you are done. You don’t have to weed through all devices (if you have many) and change anything else in your project file.
Since the latest project file I supported called out ‘BomeBox DIN’, if you move to USB, it will no longer work as that would not be an alias. Rather call it ‘Numa Organ’ and point the alias to BomeBox DIN if it is on the MIDI DIN port or point it to the USB reported alias if if is connected via USB.
Aliases are useful if you move things around to avoid a lot of rework. They also make it easier in the project file to what you are doing in the project.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Looking further down your picture. It looks like you are using a host adapter for your iPad as well. A MIDI host cannot talk to another MIDI host so your configuration would not work. For USB one end needs to be a device and the other end a host.
Rather, maybe you should connect your iPad through an ethernet adapter and use Bome Network on your iPad to talk to your BomeBox. Then the BomeBox would be the host for all connected devices. You could also use WiFi for your iPad instead of ethernet if you have a well controlled WiFi environment.
I see. Good. The only device that has no USB MIDI is the Ketron Sound Module. But for that I can use the MIDI DIN Out or my iConnectivity Mio XC Usb to MIDI DIN Converter.
In order to understand fully: With USB MIDI, it is always bidirectional, if I want it to be?
For instance, what I want to happen in this setup is the following:
Numa Piano playing MIDI is sent to the iPad to drive that Pianoteq 8 Steinberg Grand. Back comes USB Audio into the Numa.
At the same time, Cubasis 3 runs on the iPad to generate backing tracks, some are MIDI tracks and some are USB Audio tracks. These are sent to the UBS input of the Numa. The audio is sent by the Numa to it’s Audio output.
Organ playing at the Numa is mixed with the USB Audio from the iPad within the Numa.
The Bome Box processes the MIDI that comes in from the Numa and from the iPad and sends part of the MIDI back to the Numa (mainly program changes) and most of it to the Ketron Sound Box.
The only problem I can see with this setup is that the USB Hub outlets are USB-A and the outlet of the Bome Box is also USB-A, indicating that the Bome Box is kind of an USB Host. But I already have an USB Host, namely the iPad. But to avoid this problem, I could use the MIDI DIN ports of the Bome Box and connect it to the MIDI Hub via the iConnecticite Mio converter.
This depends on the implementation of the device and whether it includes both input and output ports.
Depends on the iPad driver whether it is bidirectional.
Depends on Cubasis MIDI implimentation.
The BomeBox USB ports are MIDI only so you would need to figure a different path for audio or uses MIDI port or BomeNetwork for MIDI and USB for Audio directly into the iPad. If there is a network audio interface for iPad, you might be able to use that.
You could also use network MIDI for all MIDI data and USB for all audio data. In this case you would not use the BomeBox USB host port.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
OK thank you very much, Steve.
Just a last question. In our conversation, you used two expressions that do not appear in the Bome Manual when I search for it, namely ‘network port’ and ‘network MIDI’. What do you mean by that?
Network MIDI is shown on BomeBox and refers to the host names your BomeBox is connected to.
A network port is simply a MIDI port attached to the network.
They can be found on BomeBox on the MIDI Ports page.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
I have now found the simple answer to my initial problem:
When I close my project residing on the Bome Box in the Configurator, the most obvious of all routes, namely the MIDI DIN IN as source and the MIDI DIN OUT as destination, is NOT automatically restored. That was the reason the MIDI did not arrive at the Translator Pro ALTHOUGH the LED on the BOX indicated that MIDI was coming in.
Anyway, it would be even more logical to give back the communication authority to the Translator Pro whenever no project is activated within the Bome Box itself. But this is not the case for whatever reason.
This is the most confusing device I’ve ever seen, but very useful.
I will look into restoring the last known (non project related) routing state when all projects are unloaded.
Thanks for reporting this!
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Did you know that there is a BomeBox manual? It does have a section for Network MIDI:
Sorry to read that! We do care a lot about usability and put a lot of thought into a logical behavior and an easy-to-use user interface. But sometimes, what we think is logical, is still confusing for some users.
For example, you wrote:
Of course, for you, it is the most obvious (and useful) MIDI route. But for many other users, who connect one device via MIDI IN and OUT to have bidirectional control, this routing would not make sense.
So it really depends on the specific use case what the best default behavior would look like.
When I close my project residing on the Bome Box(…) the routes are NOT automatically restored.
Incidentally, internally we have started discussing the best behavior a few weeks ago.
What should happen if I close a MIDI Translator project:
Technically, 3. can be implemented in a firmware update, but could be confusing for some users, too. For example, if someone has a project running for months, and then, when they close it, they’re confronted with a set of routes which they used months ago.
Anyway, thanks for all your input. We’ll also discuss internally and report back here.
You can always save your favorite route set and then recall if needed. The route set recall will restore all of your routes under that set.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
