This was originally built for the MC8, but with the recent release of the MC6 Pro (featuring some nice color displays) I have updated it to work with the MC6 and MC6 Pro as well. (Hereafter referred to as MCx.)
Reasonably detailed documentation is provided in the GitHub repository in PDF/PowerPoint form.
I love GigPerformer, love my Morningstar MC8 and MC6 Pro, but I am never keen on having to keep Rackspace/Setlist changes coordinated across multiple apps or devices to keep a controller working in sync with a Gigfile.
This extension is designed to take control of the MCx displays and always keep them synced up to what you’ve designed into your Rackspaces/Variations/Songs/Songparts. It requires installing the appropriate MCx template into one bank on your controller, and activating that bank before starting up GigPerformer with the extension.
While this MCx extension will not write to any of your banks, I recommend backing up all other banks from your MCx before utilizing this extension.
A demo Gigfile (guitar based, using TH-U) is included in the downloads.
Very nice, well done! I’ve been eyeing off the MC6 Pro.
The next challenge will be to do a video with the MCx overlaid/split with the GP window, to see this in action
I am not sure to which degree this will help me for my use case, but in any case thank you for what you have done. I don’t know if it will be better for me the MC6Pro with the very powerful Morningstar Web Editor. On the other hand I am used to use Gig Performer as my main MIDI Command Center and I use it all the time to send Program Changes mainly to my Quad Cortex and my RJM Mastermind Switchers PBC6 and PBC10. I have ordered today the MC6 Pro because I would like to use it to have an additional foot control over my Mastermind PBC6+10 Switchers which are more in the background of my studio because as I said I send mainly MIDI Program Changes via the Gig Performer in order to change Presets on both units which works very good. But in order to have an additional immediate stompbox like access to both units and the pedals which are connected to them I would like to use the MC6 Pro.
The PBC6 has only a DIN MIDI OUT Port and you need an Y MIDI Cable if you want to have a MIDI IN and OUT functionality. The PBC10 has DIN MIDI IN and OUT Ports. So if I want to control both devices with the MC6 Pro via MIDI right now I wonder what would be the best way to set this up? Maybe your Gig Performer Extension could be something like a missing link in this scenario?
Hi Vindes, really appreciate the work you’ve done on this. I’m trying to get this extension working in Gig Performer 4.8 with MC6 Pro. I imported MC6PRO_Bank_GigPerformer Extension.json in the controller Bank 3, I installed the extension and loaded it in GP (thanks for updating it so that it works in 4.8).
I am trying to check out the demo gig file provided but I can’t get MC6 Pro to show any changes. I have also updated the custom labels of widgets for MIDI IN/OUT in the global rackspace (see below).
Any idea how to troubleshoot this? Thanks
you may still have the Morningstar Editor connected to your MC6
you might not have the ports enabled in GP
Going through those in order, show us what your GP “Options->Midi Ports” settings window looks like. On Windows mine looks like this:
Notice for the MC8 there are four Midi In (and also four Midi Out) ports for the controller. It doesn’t work on the first one. This seems to be a Morningstar design decision. You have to use the second port (both in and out) and uncheck the others in GigPerformer just to avoid other potential issues.
A second quirk of the MC controllers (at least on Windows) is that if you still have a web browser open that you’ve connected to your controller using the Morningstar Editor you will not be able to send MIDI to the device reliably.
For debugging purposes I’d go in this order:
make sure all your web browsers are closed
power off and then power back on (or disconnect/reconnect) your MC6 Pro
start GigPerformer
The third guess I listed above was about having the ports enabled in GP, which you do from the same midi port settings window I pasted above.
Along those same lines, I assume the extension is enabled, which will be obvious if it shows up as an option under the “Extensions” menu at the top of GP
Thanks for the reply. I just tried again on Port 2 (in/out), making sure the Morningstar Editor is not open, but there is still no change on the controller.
Open the Log Window by selecting “Window → Log Window”. You should see something like this:
At the bottom of my example you see the lines “MCX: Using midi in …” and a similar one for midi out. That will tell us whether the extension is able to find the midi port in the text boxes.
Also check that the those text widgets in the global rackspace have the correct GP Script Handles on them. Click on one of the ones where you have “Morningstar MC6 Pro Port 2” and then click on the “Advanced” tab of the widget and make sure the handle is “mcx_midiin”.
That demo gigfile that I provided may have had the wrong handle saved there. On Windows I know what the midi port names should be, so if that “mcx_midiin” widget doesn’t exist it will try to connect automatically by looking for the right port name. I was testing that functionality at some point and changed the name of the widget intentionally so that the extension wouldn’t find the widget, and it would thus search for the default midi ports. I may have forgotten to change it back. I haven’t looked at that demo gigfile in a very long time.
If that’s the problem, which I’m now thinking is likely, then I’ll update the code to look for the default Mac names as well (since your screenshot tells me what they should be).
Yup, seems like the handles were set to “mcx_midiinx” and “mcx_midioutx”. I set the to “mcx_midiin” and “mcx_midiout”, saved the gig file, restarted GP, and still no joy, but I see the logs now with the MIDI ports.
Good that we’ve got it connecting to the right ports…
If you open the Morningstar Editor and go to the Controller Settings tab make sure you have the USB virtual MIDI ports active. Mine looks like:
Also, open up the “Window → Global MIDI Monitor” window and see if there’s any activity there when you switch to different Rackspaces. Every time you switch rackspaces the extension should send data to the MC6 Pro.
Ah, that was it, my USB virtual MIDI ports were set to 1. I changed it to 3 and now I see the green lights changing on the controller when I change the rackspaces.
I still need to do a good reading of the instructions you’ve provided (I haven’t had a chance to make time). Just to confirm, in that demo file there’s only colors changing on the MC6 Pro, there’s no labels, correct? This is what I see:
It should be displaying names in the boxes as well. Check the firmware version, which the MC6 Pro will display during its boot sequence.
I’ll have to check the demo gigfile again. It should be displaying text in the boxes by default. It’s been a long time since I looked at that demo, and GP has had a few version changes since I created that.
I also updated the extension on GitHub to fix a couple small bugs and add the Mac midi port name for the MC6 Pro so that the extension should automatically find it.
Please give these a try and see if you get better results.
Thanks so much Vindes. The variation names show up on the MC6 Pro with the new demo gig file. Looks great!! I still had to change the labels for mcx_midiin / out to “Morningstar MC6 Pro Port 2” in the global rackspace in order to make it work though, didn’t work without doing that.
But thanks a lot for this extension, it is extremely useful.
Quick question, was there a technical reason why changing pages happens on Long Press Release and not on Long Press?
It’s a bit disorienting because I never know if I kept the button pressed enough or not.
Is there a way I can change that or is that hardcoded in the code (I haven’t looked too deep into it yet).
When I put it together there was a reason, but I can’t remember why.
You can change it to whatever you want by editing the bank with the Morningstar editor.
The extension takes actions based on the midi codes sent from the MC. You can edit each preset on there and change the Long Press Release conditions to Long Press and see how it goes. Just don’t change the midi messages it sends
Let me know how it goes. I remember originally having it that way but then having to change it.
