MIDI Program Change Action & Midi to External Device

[noisneil]

Keyboard Maestro doesn't natively send Program Changes, so I made this little group which outputs PC messages as hex. Set the desired Channel and Program Numbers in the purple and green actions respectively. Credit to @Nige_S for his help converting the channel number.

MIDI Program Change.kmmacros (21 KB)

Macro screenshot

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Keyboard Maestro can't specify output ports, so this is what I'm using for sending MIDI to external devices:

• Download and install SendMidi via Homebrew.
• Execute a shell script with parameters according to the instructions on the Sendmidi site.

For example, this sends program change 15 on channel 12 to the port "IAC Driver Bus 1":

[FLTR]

Wow! This is even more than I expected! I'll dive into it, thank you!!!

[Nige_S]

@noisneil

There's probably a more efficient method than using Switch/Case to convert the Program Number to hex, but it works.

"Set Variable "ChannelCode" to Text "C%Hex1%MidiChannel - 1%"?

[noisneil]

Brilliant! Replaced above. Thanks!

[Ravez]

Hi!
wondering if it's possible to have 2 commands to increment/decrement the program change value

[noisneil]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Yes, this is totally possible. I'm away for the weekend so perhaps someone else can step in?

[Ravez]

thanks!
no rush

[noisneil]

Hmm. I'm actually not sure how to do this.

There's no increment/decrement command, so you'd need to detect the current program number in order to increment it. I'm not sure how to do that.

[Ravez]

right, that's where i got stuck as well, so what about an iterative command?
i'm thinking something like cmd+1 which would give me program change =1 but if i keep cmd pressed i can iterate pressing 1, effectively triggering program change =2 the second time, 3 the third time and so on.
This would let me cycle through the program changes, always starting from zero
just an idea

[noisneil]

Run the Initialize macro first, which will send Program Number 1. Then Run the Increment macro to send 2,3,4,5....

MIDI Program Change - Initialize.kmmacros (21 KB)

Macro screenshot

Increment Program Number.kmmacros (20 KB)

Macro screenshot

These could be easily condensed into a single macro, but I didn't want to do that without knowing how you'd like to trigger each function.

[Ravez]

This is perfect! thanks so much, it works great
I ended up using 2 commands, one to increment and one to decrement, no need for the initialize.
It's exactly what i was hoping to have, a quick way to cycle through a limited (less than 10) program changes to trigger articulations.
Thanks for your help!

[Ravez]

Hi!
I was wondering if this could be done using midi notes instead of program changes
So the initialize would set the note to c-2 and then the other 2 commands would increase/decrease the note

[noisneil]

Give this a try:

Increment Midi Note.kmmacros (45 KB)

Macro screenshot

It comes set to use ⇧⌃⌥⌘N as a hotkey trigger.

• Tapping the trigger will play the note, incremented up a semitone for each subsequent tap.
• Pressing and holding the trigger will reset to whichever Midi note you set in the green action by its note number. It comes set to C1.

[Ravez]

Thanks!
that got me started and now i understand better the basics, so I managed to customize it to do exactly what i needed, works great

If anyone needs it I attach my macro:

Inc:Dec midi note Macros.kmmacros (128.0 KB)