Sending MIDI wirelessly to your computer
There are multiple ways to turn your MIDI Madness Maker into a Bluetooth MIDI keyboard! The code used for the different examples is the same (MIDI-madness-BLE-keyboard.ino). Here the focus is on sending MIDI wirelessly to computers.
Libraries (this part you only need to do once)
You need to start by installing the BLE-MIDI library by Lathoub. Make sure you do NOT install the other suggested libraries; if you have additional BLE libraries compilation may fail so uninstall those if you have them :)
boards:
| esp32 by Espressif Systems | 3.1.3 |
libraries:
| BLE-MIDI by lathoub | 2.2 |
| MIDI Library by Francois Best, lathoub | 5.0.2 |
To make it work with ESP32, you need to change line 116 in BLEMIDI_ESP32.h (Arduino/libraries/BLE-MIDI/src/hardware/BLEMIDI_ESP32.h). Add .c_str() at the end of the line, so it looks like this: std::string rxValue = characteristic->getValue().c_str();. What you can also do is just replace the entire BLE-MIDI library with this BLE-MIDI folder, there it’s already implemented (just unzip into your Arduino/libraries folder).
MidiMadnessMaker library by Bart Jakobs
Programming genius Bart Jakobs also made a nice library to use with the MIDI Madness Maker that sends MIDI notes and CC info wirelessly to your phone apps. Check it out here; there is also a code example.
Alternatively, you can use the BLE keyboard code in the Arduino (Code) folder.
Sending MIDI wirelessly to your computer
Usually you need to connect a MIDI keyboard via USB when you want to connect it to your computer, but you can also do this wirelessly! With this functionality, you can send MIDI to browser-based apps like https://midi.city/ (works best on Chrome/Safari). Make sure Bluetooth is turned on.
Steps (Windows)
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Install BLE-MIDI Connect. You can download the free trial, it has no restrictions (but if you will use it a lot, you can buy it, since it’s only the price of a cup of coffee and the developers deserve coffee). This software is used to connect to the BLE device. You need to log in with a Microsoft account to download it.
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Install LoopMIDI. This software is used to connect the BLE device to a virtual port, so that (web) apps on your computer can easily recognize it as a MIDI keyboard.
Steps (Mac) Audio MIDI setup (pre installed on Mac): enable Bluetooth MIDI in the audio/MIDI setup
Now you can go to
This also works with Ableton. In Ableton select your MIDI device (loopMIDI port) here:
