Helix sending wrong MIDI notes

[Thurston9]

Anyone else have an issue with command center and Helix sending the wrong MIDI notes?  I set a button to send E0 on channel 10 and instead it's sending E-1.

 

I could be doing something else wrong, but other MIDI devices aren't having this issues.

[rd2rk]

How are you monitoring the Helix output? Using two different monitors, one being MIDIOX, both my Helix and HXS are sending the correct octave.

However, there's this to consider:

 

There is one, nagging discrepancy that has crept up between various models of MIDI devices and software programs, and that concerns the octave numbers for note names. If your MIDI software/device considers octave 0 as being the lowest octave of the MIDI note range (which it ideally should), then middle C's note name is C5. The lowest note name is then C0 (note number 0), and the highest possible note name is G10 (note number 127).

Some software/devices instead consider the third octave of the MIDI note range (ie, 2 octaves below middle C) as octave 0. (They do this because they may be designed to better conform to a keyboard controller that has a more limited range; one which perhaps doesn't have the two lowest octaves of keys which a 128 key controller would theoretically have. So they pretend that the third octave is octave 0, because the first two octaves are physically "missing" on the keyboard). In that case, the first 2 octaves (that are physically missing) are referred to as -2 and -1. So, middle C's note name is C3, the lowest note name is C-2, and the highest note name is G8. This discrepancy is purely in the way that the software/device displays the note name to you.

 

SOURCE: MIDI Note Numbers and Names (teragonaudio.com)

[Thurston9]

I think you nailed it.  I'm using Ableton Live and the 0 notes are in between the -1 and 1 notes.  Everything is off by an octave between the Helix and Ableton so I think you have it right.  Thanks so much!

[soundog]

So much for a MIDI "standard" huh? Its maddening. I think Yamaha was the first manufacturer to decide to use C4 as middle C rather than the usual C3. So call them if you get p*ssed.

[datacommando]

4 hours ago, soundog said:

So much for a MIDI "standard" huh? Its maddening.

Let’s hope MIDI 2 improves the “standard”. Only taken a little less than 40 years to update. ;-)

[soundog]

Ya know, even though its been out there for 40 years, MIDI still amazes me. Its so useful for composing in the studio for those of us who aren't keyboard players; MIDI-based virtual instruments (pianos, synths, drums, etc) are getting better every year, and MIDI as a controller has expanded the abilities of all sorts of stage lighting and music hardware like Helix. We've only started to choke the limits of MIDI's serial data flow

[rd2rk]

2 hours ago, datacommando said:

Let’s hope MIDI 2 improves the “standard”. Only taken a little less than 40 years to update. ;-)

 

I wonder how long it will take for the improvements in MIDI 2.0 (such as two way communications) to be considered important enough to enough non MIDI geeks to be widely enough implemented to matter....did I use enough enough in that sentence?

[datacommando]

6 hours ago, rd2rk said:

did I use enough enough in that sentence?

Not nearly enough. Enough said. 
:)

[datacommando]

7 hours ago, soundog said:

Ya know, even though its been out there for 40 years, MIDI still amazes me.

I still sometimes refer to it as MIDI magic. When it first arrived I was amazed, IIRC the Yamaha DX7 was the first to implement it, but I had a Roland JX3P which was the first from them. Great fun being able to have the JX3P talk to my Yamaha CX5MII computer - remember them.

[soundog]

Ha! As long as we're hijacking this thread and revealing our shady past .... I first got into MIDI with an Amiga 500, Bars and Pipes sequencer software, and a Casio CZ-101 (I still have the Casio, and am refurbishing it). The fun never stops...

[datacommando]

1 hour ago, soundog said:

Ha! As long as we're hijacking this thread and revealing our shady past .... I first got into MIDI with an Amiga 500, Bars and Pipes sequencer software, and a Casio CZ-101 (I still have the Casio, and am refurbishing it). The fun never stops...

Ha ha ha, The Casio CZ- 101 is still a collectible item. I cheated and replaced all the old synths with software versions that are in the Arturia V Collection of 28 classics, and yes, it does have a Casio in there. Also in there are the CMI Fairlight and Emulator sampling synths, which when they first arrived were insane prices. These toys stop us from going mad.

 

[soundog]

I picked up that Arturia collection during a Black Friday sale; its great.

 

But I still went mad!!