Set up MIDI

Pedals and pads in, program changes and clock out — and the Stream Deck.

MIDI goes both ways. In: a footswitch, a pad controller, a fader or a keyboard runs any command of the app. Out: program changes, notes and controllers from a song's action markers go to a keyboard or a lighting desk, and the show's MIDI Clock and MTC can drive other gear.

Which devices control the app

BarBeatCue ▸ Settings…, the MIDI page, Control from: a menu with a check for each MIDI source on the Mac. It stays open while you flip checks, and a device plugged in later is listed at once. Only the checked devices run commands.

A source that shares a device with the show's MIDI out starts unchecked: the app's own messages would come back in and answer themselves. Check it only if you mean to.

Chords from (same page) is a different job: the keyboard whose chords Song ▸ Lanes ▸ Record Chords from MIDI writes into the song's chord track. Keyboard sound lets that keyboard sound as an electric piano while you record.

Teach it a footswitch, a pad or a fader

1. BarBeatCue ▸ Key Commands… (⌥K) lists every command with its key and its MIDI message.
2. Click the command's MIDI cell, then press the pedal, the pad or the button — or move the fader. That message, from that device and channel, now runs the command. ⎋ cancels.
3. A footswitch acts on its press. The right-click on the cell makes a latching pedal act on each change, and picks the device or any channel.

The top of the window chooses This Mac or Show: this Mac's mappings belong to this Mac (its pedal board); the show's are saved in the show file and win where both use the same message. A command that two things share shows an orange dot. Print makes the cheat sheet for the stage; Export writes the mappings as a .bbckeys file for another Mac.

A device that will not stop talking

Some controllers (a remote with a knob that streams its position, for instance) send the same message hundreds of times a second. A Learn only takes a controller that really moves, and never from a repeat, so a streaming device is passed over instead of grabbing the Learn. If a Learn hears nothing, look at the Listening line in the Key Commands window: it names the devices the Learn hears, and None in red means no device is checked — MIDI Settings… opens the page.

Out: actions and sync

A song's action markers can send MIDI — a program change to a keyboard, a note to a lighting desk. The destination is set in the show's settings: Setlist ▸ Show Settings…, Timecode & Sync, under the MIDI header:

• Sends — the port the show's sync (MIDI Clock and MTC) goes to. It also always goes to the app's own virtual source, which any other app on this Mac can read.
• Actions out — the port for the MIDI actions. An action's own "on PORT" overrides it. If you leave it alone, actions ride the sync's port.
• MTC from — where incoming MTC is read when a song follows it (timecode and sync).

The ports are this Mac's. A show saved with a port this Mac does not have opens fine; the preflight names the missing port. Rescan Ports at the end of a port menu reads the devices again.

Transport ▸ MIDI Panic silences the MIDI outputs — All Sound Off, All Notes Off and Sustain Off on all 16 channels — when a keyboard is left holding a note. The song plays on. (Bind a pedal to it in Key Commands.)

A Stream Deck

Ready-made profiles for the Stream Deck Classic, Mini and XL — Play / Stop, songs, parts, vamp, click, Stop All — are on the Stream Deck page. The keys press BarBeatCue's default key commands, so BarBeatCue must be the app in front (on the stage page it always is), and a key you change in Key Commands needs the same change on the deck.