I am using the MC4pro to steer the band helper app (bandhelper.com) via bluetooth midi. Prior I was using a CME bluetooth midi device which was connecting automatically with the iPad.
With the Morningstar this does not work. After powering on the Morningstar the bluetooth midi connection has to be manually initiated in Bandhelper.
Is this a bug? Or intentional? Anyone else having this kind of issue?
This is intentional rather than a bug.
The MC4 Pro operates as a Bluetooth MIDI peripheral. When it powers on, it advertises itself and waits for a host (such as your iPad) to initiate the connection.
Some devices, such as the CME WIDI series, implement additional connection management that can automatically reconnect to previously paired hosts. While this can be convenient, it can also lead to situations where the device silently reconnects to a different host (for example, an iPhone or computer that was used previously). In those cases, the device no longer appears as available on the iPad, which can make it difficult to determine why it isn’t advertising.
For this reason, we chose a more predictable approach where the host initiates the Bluetooth MIDI connection. This makes it clear which device the MC4 Pro is connected to and avoids unexpected connections to another nearby device.
We understand that automatic reconnection can be a nice convenience, especially when using a dedicated iPad with BandHelper, and we’ll certainly keep this feedback in mind as we continue to improve the Bluetooth experience.
Thanks for taking the time to let us know your workflow.
WIDI’s also have the ability to autoconnect to a previously selected set of devices. IIRC they call it a group. This allows you to get autoconnect with only a few devices (and Widi’s can attach to more than one at a time).
One minor annoyance I have encountered repeatedly when using the WIDI products is that when turn it on, then I open my Mac’s BT MIDI connection intending to connect to it, but I can’t find it in the list because I connected it to my phone (or another computer) previously and it auto-connected to it, and I’ve got to find out what it is connected to.
Worse if it auto-connects to my MCx PRO bluetooth and I don’t know which one.
I’ve had this happen with a WIDI device during a gig i.e. for some weird reason, it disconnected from the devices in its configured WIDI Group and I only realised at the end of the gig - 2 very stressful hours later with virtually all of my hair ripped out - that it had connected to the iPhone in my pocket during the gig instead. I’d done firmware updates of multiple WIDI devices a couple of weeks prior and although I normally delete the Bluetooth pairings on my iPhone after performing WIDI updates, I’d obviously forgotten that particular pairing. That gig was not a fun experience and I learnt some very important lessons about WIDI devices.
James, thank you very much for the extensive explanation.
Yours,
KaDe
WIDI always works best for me if I treat every pair or group as if it was a cable. This one to this one. No other connections, just the one.
Also, I’ve started setting my phone to airplane mode before all gigs. lol.