App inventor MIDI bluetooth controller

[Pierfrancesco Pan]

Hi guys , with this tutorial ( http://ovinophobia.blogspot.it/2012/12/arduino-lego-midi-controller-note.html ) is possible to use any arduino like a MIDI controller, I've seen that may be possible to use Android device with bluetooth instead arduino.

Like tutorial you need to install LoopBe and run Hairless MIDI serial Bridge.

On your PC you need to add a COM port by "bluetooth other options" and use it in Hairless MIDI serial Bridge.

With App Inventor is possible to send message to Hairless by bluetooth... but NOW there is the BIG problem. Which messages? We need to study the MIDI protocol, and the MIDI library for arduino in the Hairless folder.

Anyone expert in MIDI and arduino libraries can help me for this BIG project?

Thanks a lot. 

[Abraham Getzler]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/mitappinventortest/MIDI%7Csort:date

You're a pioneer here.

ABG

[Pierfrancesco Pan]

Thanks a lot, I'm seeing the last MIDI discussion, very interesting, but in the end someone managed to use App Inventor like a MIDI controller for music softwares?

[Larry Deack]

I am looking at using AI to send MIDI to an ESP32 with BLE. The ESP32 has a MIDI port wired to it so it can send the commands to the device. I wrote a little AI app for a friend that permutes 4 note combination that he can play back but the MIDI support in AI is poor at best for this and I have a MIDI keyboard so I thought it would be fun to "program" it from my cell phone and it would give him an option for better sound. There is also a new audio lib for the ESP chips that can send out sound to a good DAC or even play it using the internal Sigma-Delta and a small speaker for fun IoT projects.

I was hoping AI hasd better support for MIDI (it's very good in the Android API) considering it is an "educational" tool and MIDI is such a great tool for music education. Sad that there are no musicians at MIT who understand the potential for music educators. I also want to write an app to teach SolFa that can play and display the notes and hand symbols for a large number of public domain tunes so they can look them up and sing along with the app, but... time... sigh...

Anyway, if you are doing anything with MIDI and AI I'd love to see it. I did find a better way to play the MIDI note files in AI by using just one sound component and swapping out the file it uses but AI does not handle the first file load well so every note needs to be played once slowly before I can play fast notes and there is a click between notes. It's all a hack compared to good MIDI that I should be able to get from the ESP32 with MIDI port, when I get time.

[Larry Deack]

  Here's what I wrote for playing MIDI note files (guitar, piano, flute) as individual notes ( and "recording" it) but it has some issues because AI is not really set up to do this. It fails to load the .mid files if you play notes too fast, THE FIRST TIME ONLY, after that they play fine but if the app has to reload it has to reload all the files so same problem all over. Would be nice to preload the files in memory so this does not happen but, issue number 2: It clicks between notes so it's kinda hard to get enthusiastic about using MIDI on the app itself which is why I thought of using my esp32 to send MIDI to it via BLE and plug the ESP32/MIDI port into my MIDI keyboard.