TRAXX 3 Won’t send midi…..

Rcurylo

I’m using traxx3 to send midi notes to a maestro DMX lighting controller. It’s configured to send midi note at time 00:00:01 in the lyrics via Bluetooth connection to graviton M1 midi controller. It’s been working fantastic and just quit working one show. It’s got to be a setting in TRAXX but for the life of me cannot figure it out.

I know the Bluetooth connection in TRAXX is working because I can send a “next song” to advance tracks command via my footpedal that communicates to graviton M1 then to TRAXX via the Bluetooth connection. Works fine. I can advance tracks no problem….

It’s like TRAXX is no longer recognizing the midi notes in the lyrics section and sending them because the Bluetooth connection is confirmed to be working properly.

Any ideas???

AnthonyB

It would help immensely if you could copy & paste the MIDI commands of a lyric sheet here, otherwise we're just guessing 🙂

peter

Without posting the midi commands from your lyrics, we will not be able to help.

Rcurylo

The midi command is [midi@00:00:01:N43.1@16]……… (or some variations of notes#) but this command isnt the issue. It was working fine. It’s as if traxx is only recieving midi now and not sending. Like i said i can send notes to traxx to advance songs but it wont send the commands in the lyrics section. @AnthonyB @peter

peter

Multiple errors in your statment: The time format is mm:ss.SSS, so minutes colon seconds period(!) milliseconds. And then leave a blank after the colon at the end of the timestamp.

Rcurylo

peter I’ll give it a go…. But it did absolutely work as-is for 8+ months flawlessly. Now suddenly nothing…. TRAXX Will receive - Won’t send the midi commands.

AnthonyB

Rcurylo I get what you're saying, we've all been there. But in it's current form, what you have shared could never have worked. Maybe you did a search and replace edit that changed something inadvertently? Maybe you just made manual edits and accidently used colon instead of period.
Also, space after the colon that separates the timestamp and MIDI event.

As Peter said above, change
[midi@00:00:01:N43.1@16]
to
[midi@00:00.01: N43.1@16]
and it becomes a valid command.

If it still doesn't work, do make sure to triple-check the device can receive on MIDI Ch 16.

SmoothMoodProject

I my self have the same problem.

It is sending to a wolf mix light controller (via a CME WiFi on the Wolf Mix).

It is working 99% of the time.

But in two shows it just stopped sending over BT the commands.

The BT pedal I use still was connected and ST3 was accepting the midi commands.

Both times the issue resolved by terminating the app and restarting it.

When I am programming the light shows at home I can work for hours without a single problem.

First time it happened I started trouble shooting while performing and tried:
Turning iPads BT off - on.
Disconnecting WiDi from the WM.
Restarting the WM.
Unpairing and pairing again the device.

While all this was happening the ST3 was playing music and did not send the midi commands.

5 seconds to restart it between songs and bam, working again for the rest of the show.

Second time it happened I did the same and again worked after restart of the app.

AnthonyB

SmoothMoodProject I suspect Peter will ask you to grab logs (https://stagetraxx.com/user-guide/faq/#what-can-i-do-if-the-app-crashed) when it next occurs, while it is in a 'broken' state and prior to resolving (yes, always the last thing you remember mid-gig when there is a tech failure! ;-) )

AnthonyB

peter Logs will not help in this case as the bluetooth connection to the paddle is handled transparently by iOS

Bugger. I thought that might be the case.

Honestly, this is part of the reason why I avoid using the iOS BT stack.

SmoothMoodProject

If you have a CME WIDI device on the Wolf Mix, I would highly recommend going full CME WIDI and put a USB connected CME WIDI device on your iPad (e.g. WIDI Bud Pro, or if you want a mix of USB/WIDI/physical connection, a WIDI Thru6 BT) and that way you bypass the iOS BT stack. If you still need page turner pedals or whatever to connect to the iPad, you can still leave iOS BT on for that, but bypass it for the more critical parts of the setup.

peter

Logs will not help in this case as the bluetooth connection to the paddle is handled transparently by iOS. ST3 does not get informed if a bluetooth midi device disconnects. It just receives no more messages from it.

Most likely you experienced some wireless interference from other devices. The 2.4GHz band is very crowded. Only thing you can do is try to keep the distance at a minimum and keep line of sight.

SmoothMoodProject

AnthonyB been searching how to connect it it to WM wired. Tried with just a usb a to c but did not work.

I found a doremidi DUH-10 that maybe could make it work.

Can you explain your proposed method with the WIDI Thru6 BT more?

I see it has a lot of 5pin midi in and outs.

Also my iPad, currently, is using the usb C port to send the audio. It doesn't have a dedicated 3.5mm jack.

SmoothMoodProject

I did indeed troubleshoot it.

The distance is minimal (next to eachother) and the iPad was receiving midi commands over Bluetooth by another device as well the whole time.

Song after song the WM was not receiving anything and after I power cycled the WM, CME WiFi, BT on iPad, unpairing and pairing everything back still no joy. So I paused the show for few seconds restarted the app and instantly the WM was again receiving for the remainder of the show.

I am a power user of the app. Doing 160 shows / year and working with it daily. I have more chances to fall into such things I believe.

AnthonyB

SmoothMoodProject

On my iPad (9th Gen with Lightning interface) running ST3 I have a Lightning-to-2x Female USB-A + 1x Female Lightning (something like this - https://www.amazon.com.au/Certified-Lightning-Converter-Charging-Splitter/dp/B08THGX7G2).
If your iPad is newer and has USB-C interface, you'll find similar.

So that lets me connect as follows:

USB-A #1 - connects to USB-B input on my Behringer X32 mixer for all the audio.
USB-A #2 - connects to USB-C input on my CME H4MIDI WC (with WIDI chip option) for all MIDI In and Out.
Lightning - standard power to keep iPad powered 100% of the time

With the CME H4MIDI WC+WIDI, I have that box talking to:

via WIDI - 1 x WIDI Master on a Line6 Helix LT and 1 x WIDI Master on a Roland SPD-SX PRO
via physical MIDI cable - 1 x Hotone Ampero II Stage and 1 x Behringer X32 rack mixer.

on the MIDI side of things, I'm:

sending MIDI info from ST3 to the Helix, Hotone, X32 and Roland SPD (e.g. patch/bank/scene/preset changes)
receiving MIDI info from the Roland SPD. I have Remote Actions setup to that our drummer has pads configured to send MIDI events to trigger ST3 Start/Stop, Next Song, Previous Song.

I actually have Bluetooth turned off on my iPad, and all the wireless MIDI is handled by the CME devices.

Feel free to hit me with any follow up questions, or things that need clarification. Happy to help.

I wish I got sponsored by CME ;-) But I simply rate their products very highly, and I found their support awesome. When I was first designing my band's wireless MIDI architecture, and laid it all out in a PowerPoint slide, with all the relevant details (devices, connection types, what needed to talk in what direction, etc.) and sent it through to them. The CTO replied within hours, and added comments to my PPT slide on any changes he recommended! That is customer service, and so rare to see (present company excluded of course ;-) ) from suppliers.

SmoothMoodProject

AnthonyB thank you for your help and very detailed information.

In my case I believe that the issue still lies within the app.

When this happens next time do any of you have any ideas to test whilst the app is allegedly not sending midi messages but only receives?

AnthonyB

SmoothMoodProject If @peter feels the problem is outside the app (efffectively the iOS Bluetooth stack), then there isn't really much more you can do beyond eliminating 'things' using that BT stack.

While gigging, don't let anything remain paired and connected via Bluetooth that isn't necessary for performance (e.g. Phone? Watch? Keyboard?)
Any devices that you do deem 'necessary' to remain connected, try and not use them for a gig, or replace with alternatives to see if it makes any difference.
You haven't mentioned anywhere how old the device is, and what version of iOS it is running. Try updating to the latest available iOS version for your device. If your device isn't running iOS 18.6.x, then it is already on the 'no longer being updated' list of hardware and maybe time to update to a newer model that is able to run the current iOS version.
Use all CME WIDI devices and bypass the iOS BT stack entirely (as mentioned previously)

Others in the community might be able to suggest other options.

peter

There is really not much regarding bluetooth connectivity that I can influence from within ST3. Even connecting to bluetooth midi devices is encapsulated within a standard iOS dialog. That's why this dialog looks identical on any app that offers this functionality.

Each midi device is a separate connection. If one device is disconnected, all other devices still keep running and can send and receive midi data to/from Stage Traxx. So it is really not surprising that you can receive midi data from another device when the WM disconnects.