Software Midi Dispatcher for several coils

[jeanrenaud]

Hi guys,

I currently have two OneTesla coils, and i got a Midi Controller Keyboard. The issue i had is that software will generally get the input (the Midi controller keyboard) and send all notes to one output. So if we press 4 keys at once, the software will send all four notes so the same coil.

Since OneTesla coils can handle a maximum of two concurrent notes (two slots), this is an issue.

So i needed some software that does the following :

• Wait for "Note Incoming"
• When a note is received, send the note to an empty slot on one of the tesla coils. So if the first tesla coil is not playing anything, send the note to this one.
• If a second note is received (and the first note is still playing on the first coil), send this second note to the first coil (since it can handle two notes).
• If a third note is received (and the other two notes are still playing), send the third note to the second coil.
• A fourth concurrent note goes on the second coil.
• The fifth concurrent note has nowhere to go, so it will overwrite the oldest received note (in the first coil).

So i was unable to get a software that does this, so i built my own software.

My software can handle up to 4 tesla coils, so you are able to play 8 notes at the same time with OneTesla coils. The software can be configured to send a maximum of four notes to the same coil (if somebody made a coil that handles this, my software can do it).

You have to configure an input, and at least one output. There is a visual keyboard that is always functional with mouse clicks (but not really practical).

Little "lights" at the right shows the status of each output slot. If the software is configured to send a maximum of two notes on some output, there will be two colored slots (red = playing a note, green = not playing a note). The grey color means "not usable", since you configured the software to handle only two notes at a time on this output.

There is also a midi file player on the bottom.

The software is configured to block duplicate notes - for example, if the midi file has two tracks, and on both tracks there is a "F# on octave 5" playing at the same time, then that would be a waste of "note slots" because two identical notes just can't be distinguished. So my software will merge these two notes in one, leaving a free slot for other notes.

midi dispatcher.png

Software ScreenShot

(31.74 KiB) Not downloaded yet

You can download the software from my OneDrive.
Software download (MSI package)

Please note that any Midi USB device must be connected BEFORE lauching the application, since the USB devices listing is made only at the startup. This is something i have to work out.

Please do not disconnect MIDI usb devices when the software is running, there could be some unhandled errors raised by the software. This is also something i have to work out.

[jeanrenaud]

.NET Framework 4.6.1 is needed for this software. The MSI package will probably trigger the download of the .NET framework, unless you already have the framework installed.

[Bayley]

Ooh, this is pretty cool, thanks for sharing!

[jeanrenaud]

If you have some Midi files that are "not optimized for Tesla coils", i found that a minimum of changes can be done to render them quite acceptable for Tesla Coils AND my software, especially if you got two tesla coils.

I use "Sekaiju" Midi Sequencer Software to edit the midi files. Generally, just suppressing percussion track makes it acceptable for two tesla coils (and after that, play the midi file on my software).

In the past, i was using "Sekaiju" to extensively edit the midi files - i was suppressing a lot of notes manually (there is a lot of overlapping notes sometimes), up to the point that there was no more than four notes at the same time. Then, I was splitting the notes in two tracks (two notes per track) and then configuring Sekaiju to play each track on a separate coil. This was taking a lot of time, at least half an hour, and sometimes more that one hour.

With my software, i suppress the percussion track (5 seconds) and generally, it's enough, the file is more than acceptable in my software.

[decidium]

Can you please fix the link. I need this program urgently for an upcoming performance and it would be extremely useful. I'm trying to build the same thing at the moment in a limited timeframe.

[helmarw]

good luck, that post is from 2014 and in general here is not much (re)action on any posts

sounds interesting though, but i could not find it elsewhere.
what i found was this.
dont know if it does what you want, but looks interesting