As stated previously in other threads, the new Windows 11 MIDI stack is the most significant upgrade to how Windows does MIDI since Windows 95 came out. I have real world need for many of the new features and I’ve already talked about how the new system level MIDI implementation allows one MIDI device to be used with multiple pieces of software simultaneously, virtual MIDI ports than can allow different software to communicate with each other where I needed extra physical MIDI ports before, and the new Windows MIDI and Musician Settings App which gives you detailed information on all MIDI devices and how those devices interact with Windows.
Here is a new, little quality-of-life feature I found useful and I thought I’d share.
I have two Line 6 Catalyst 200 Amps (one lead guitar, one rhythm guitar). I have two identical Nektar Pacer MIDI pedalboards to control the amps on stage. The Nektar Pacer has an HTML based editor that allows you to control what your Pacer does and how it does it. Once it is loaded you have to select the Pacer from all connected MIDI devices (via USB). Before with both Pacers hooked up to Windows the HTML editor would only see one of the Pacers since they were reporting the exact same name. It was random which Pacer that would be as well (likely the first one Windows saw), so in order to program the MIDI pedalboard or make changes you could only have one Pacer on at a time.
In the new MIDI App I was able to go to MIDI Devices and Endpoints, select the second Pacer, click Personalize, and then give the second Pacer a new name (PACER2 in this case), and voila, the HTML editor could see both Pacers in the MIDI device tab. I can have two tabs open to both Pacers at the same time. This makes it easy to make quick changes that I make on one onto the other and quickly reference what I had done before. A small quirk of the HTML editor is that while the two can be open in two different tabs, and the different Pacer is selected for each tab, when I load the current settings for a Pacer in one tab it’ll duplicate it in the other. This is not a big deal as all I have to do is click Read Current Settings from Pacer when I switch tabs which takes only a few seconds. This has greatly improved my workflow.
It is little quality of life differences that add up to a much better MIDI experience in Windows. It’s a long time coming, but I’m glad Microsoft is making the effort. I’ll share more (good and bad) as I encounter them.