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MIDI

Arcane Desktop supports integrating with MIDI in a number of different ways:

• MIDI Outputs: Control other applications and devices (such as light consoles), by sending Note or CC values assigned to Output Groups.

• MIDI Inputs: Receive input from MIDI devices (such as controllers) to interact and remotely control elements of Arcane Desktop.

  We plan on expanding the ways in which you can use MIDI inputs with Arcane, (for example to connect to live band MIDI instruments), but for now the focus has been on MIDI controller support for operators to use themselves.

Both inputs & outputs can be configured by going to Settings -> MIDI.

Connected vs Virtual Devices

Both inputs and outputs can be configured to connect to either:

• A Connected Device - a MIDI device that already exists on your system, for example:

  • A physical MIDI device
  • A loopback MIDI driver (e.g. IAC on MacOS, or loopMIDI)
  • A networked MIDI Device (e.g. RTP-MIDI)

• An Arcane Virtual MIDI Device - a virtual MIDI device that Arcane Desktop will create, and which can be accessed by other software on your system. It will be given the name you specify when configuring it.

In most cases, you will probably want to use a Connected Device, however Arcane Virtual MIDI Device provides a convenient alternative for MacOS users who want to avoid having to configure their IAC drivers, and allow for customization of the MIDI device name.

Note: when using Arcane Virtual MIDI Device:

• The device will only exist & be visible to software while Arcane Desktop is running.
• This option is only available on MacOS. On windows, inter-app MIDI communication requires something like loopMIDI instead.

Monitoring Messages

To help you configure your MIDI settings, both inputs and outputs have a Monitor Messages button that you can click to see all incoming & outgoing messages in real-time. This will open a new dedicated window that you can move around as you like.

For outputs, only outgoing messages are displayed, whereas for inputs, both incoming and outgoing messages are displayed, depending on whether you have Feedback enabled or not.