Just got my MC8 Pro, and excited to upgrade from the 6! Settings things up now and I have a question about Bluetooth.
Can I use the BLE MIDI capability in the MC8 Pro to send MIDI commands to other wireless MIDI devices (e.g., to a CME WIDI jack), or is the BLE just for pairing with a computer or mobile device?
If I can use it to send commands, how do I map it to the MIDI channels? I’m looking in the controller settings menu in the Morningstar Editor, but I don’t see a way to map MIDI channels (or MIDI thru settings) to the BLE “port.”
Yes, sending to a BLE device like a WIDI jack works (and IIRC there is a newer WIDI firmware to fix some issues with this). The WIDI’s can be harder to setup since they have no display. If your MC8 connects to a phone or laptop first, it won’t connect to the WIDI. And multiple BLE devices on a WIDI can’t talk to each other, only to the hardware on the jacks.
Midi channel numbers have nothing to do with the port used to send them. The channel choice is on each command that you end. There is config for BLE Midi Thru routing on the General Config of the Controller settings.
Thanks. The behavior you’re describing is what I was expecting, but I just don’t see it in the Editor. For instance, if I go to the General Config section of the Controller Settings, the only reference to Bluetooth is under the MIDI Clock Port Settings. There are no BLE MIDI options under MIDI Thru Settings.
You may have misunderstood what I meant by channel mapping, because there definitely is a utility to map MIDI Channels to Output Ports. It’s under Edit MIDI Channel Settings in the Controller Settings menu. Every port type is listed here except BLE outputs, which caused me to question whether the MC8 Pro actually supports sending MIDI commands over BLE.
Connection can be a bit challenging with devices that don’t have screens or controls (e.g. WIDI devices) because you can’t see what’s happening unless/until the connection is actually successful. However, with WIDI devices, you simply use the WIDI app to create a group (using group auto-learn) and once this is successful, the MC8P and the WIDI device will auto-connect each time. Your WIDI Jack needs to be the central WIDI device and the MC8P is the peripheral.
Thanks. Can confirm all is now working as expected. I forgot I had to put my master WIDI Jack back into auto-learn mode to re-learn the group with the new peripheral. Once I did that, I was easily able to send commands from the MC8 Pro. Appreciate the help.
One final update on this topic… I read in another post that the web editor is kept more up-to-date than the app editor. I didn’t realize they were on different versions. When I open up the web editor and look at Controller Settings, I do actually see all the new Bluetooth settings and port routing options I was looking for.
I’m getting my MC8 pro next week. I have a quick question about BLE. Can I send commands to my IMac and a widi jack simultaneously? Or does ble only work with one device at a time?
