First Send Broken in MD 2.5! #fixed

Question

Email from user yesterday

Hello, for heavens sake, what did you do???  Today I updated MD to version 2.5.0 and now all of my Programm Change buttons (and there are a lot of them) don't work properly any more. After loading the App all of the Prog Change Buttons do not send any message by the first touch, I have to touch the button a second time.  After doing so the button then turns back to its "normal" funktion, meaning that from then on a PC message is sent by a single touch. This I did with all of my PC buttons and everything behaved as expected. However closing the MD and starting the app again, I got the faulty behaviour again.  This makes MD totally unusable!!! Do something!

Answer 1

2017-01-04 11:22 Update
2.5.2 fixes this issue for automatic send-on only controls (momentary program change buttons, for instance).  See the Change Log

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2016-12-15 10:59 Update
Fixed and pushed with 2.5.1

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2016-12-14 10:39 Update
Fix is now in review for App Store release for MDP2! See the Change Log entry here.

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2016-12-12 14:09 Update
First fix sent to Beta today.

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2.5 includes a fix to avoid the first send (on start) of all controls. However, judging from your message, there's a mistake in the fix. What you've said makes sense given the implementation details of the fix (all controls get marked as "don't send next" and then they all get unmarked on first send, which apparently never happens to your controls)

(Side note: All PC buttons are automatically (and forcibly) send-on only.)

We're working on a fix that should be out by Friday. In the meantime, you've got these workarounds:

1. Tap Config -> MIDI -> Send All
2. You can make a regular button on your layout that does this, too (subtype)

These are just workarounds. A fix is coming soon.

Comments

Hi Dan,

The fix in 2.5.1 for this seems to work for solitary Prog Change events, but still seems broken for some other situations I have in my layout.

I have supercontrol buttons that each fire 2 subcontrols. The first is a CC0 (value of 0) as a bank selection, and the second is a Prog Change. The CC0 subcontrols are set to "Send On Only" (and of course, the subsequent PC subcontrol is also forced to "Send On Only").

What I see (monitoring with MIDIOX) when pressing the supercontrol button is:
- The CC0 value is sent the first time *but the Prog Change is NOT sent the first time*
- Subsequent presses of the supercontrol button yield what we'd expect - both the CC0 and the PC are sent

Perhaps the fix fails to work for subcontrols, or for subcontrols that are not first in the list?

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Okay, what about the workaround? Does that work temporarily? Also: are you on the Beta team? Thanks for reporting.

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The workaround (Config/MIDI/Send All) doesn't work either. Same behavior after doing that.

Im not on the beta team, but maybe I should be. I've been quietly using MDP to control my iPad + Ableton setup for a couple of years now and I love it. Should I get on the beta team?

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Workaround doesn't work? Wow. Yes, you should be on the beta team. We use a separate app for Beta, so it never interferes with your production version of MIDI Designer. I'll add you to the beta team... accept the email from TestFlight that comes now. Then, in the next few days, I'll move to solving this problem. I *think* I have enough information to solve it without your layout, but if it comes to that, I'll request. Thanks and welcome to the Community!
Dan

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Just re-confirmed that the workaround doesn't work for this case. I even tried setting the batch send rate to "vintage" and did Send All Values again. The supercontrols still have to be pressed twice to send the PC message in the second subcontrol slot.

I accepted and setup MD Next, so ready to test if you do something with it there. Happy to send you my layout if needed. Thanks!

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Thanks, will do.

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and now I try to replicate! BRB

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I'm unable to replicate, which doesn't mean much, but... here's my tester.

http://mididesigner.com/blah/QA-5416-Tester.mididesignerpage

Load it into your layout and tell me what's different, please.

By the way, i don't think the PC is forced to send-on-only when it's a subcontrol...

Anyway... help, please?

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Also dig65: please report ANY discrepancies b/t the MD log and MIDIOX... that's very unlikely. I tried with both.

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Hi Dan!

Thanks for trying to get there. Here's what I can report (and I'm attaching my layout for further research):

I took your page and made some slight modifications to make it as close to my setup as possible. Even after those changes, somehow your buttons send the right info on the first press, but mine don't. I looked pretty carefully at the differences, and beyond cosmetics, I don't see any. In MIDIOX I can confirm that your page/buttons send a CC0 value 0, and then send a PC, on the first press. Mine still only send the CC0 value 0 on the first press.

Here's my layout. The buttons in question are on the "Voices" page on the right hand side, any of the buttons in the "Thumbjam 1st Vx" or "2nd Vx" sections. You'll see that each of them have a subcontrol for CC0 and for the PC. The buttons were created well before 2.5.1, in case that has anything to do with it.

http://www.infinitebucket.com/md/2016-12-19-LoopingSetup.mididesigner

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It's a boy! This page is just those broken controls extracted from your layout:  http://mididesigner.com/blah/QA-5416-again.mididesignerpage

I still don't know what's up, but I'll see what I can find. I might have to actually look at the code if this black-box stuff fails, but I'll try not to.

Thanks!
Dan

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Okay, so if you make the PC button a toggle instead of a momentary, it works. Please confirm that this "fix" works in your layout, too. Thank you.

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Yep, that works! Because of the toggle status of the PC button, I get a PC0 when each previous supercontrol button is "unpressed" in the array, but the subsequent CC0 + PC then goes through (on the first button press). It causes the receiving app (Thumbjam in this case) to load the first preset in between each PC message (because it receives what it sees as a "PC 0" command). Luckily, Thumbjam doesn't pop or squeak as it changes presets, so this isn't a problem. Just FYI, it could be a problem for situations where that PC0 message causes the receiving app/hardware to do something weird.

Thanks for the help!

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Thank you. I'm going to put this on the "maybe fix someday" side... The problem with making a platform -- which this has become, but the idea was to just make a MIDI controller back in 2011 -- is that fixing one person's use-case might break another. But this might have an obvious fix, but at least: 1) you're up and running and 2) the fix is definitely not urgent (because it doesn't affect too many users, methinks).

Remember to CONSIDER leaving an amazing review for 2.5.1, but most importantly, enjoy and happy holidays!

Thanks!
Dan

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Doh, toggling "Send On Only" on the PC buttons stops the extraneous "PC0" messages as each previous button toggles off. As you mentioned, the PC buttons didn't default to "Send On Only", so I needed to change them all

Answer 2

2017-01-04 11:22 Update
2.5.2 fixes this issue for automatic send-on only controls (momentary program change buttons, for instance).  See the Change Log

---

2016-12-15 10:59 Update
Fixed and pushed with 2.5.1

---

2016-12-14 10:39 Update
Fix is now in review for App Store release for MDP2! See the Change Log entry here.

---

2016-12-12 14:09 Update
First fix sent to Beta today.

---

2.5 includes a fix to avoid the first send (on start) of all controls. However, judging from your message, there's a mistake in the fix. What you've said makes sense given the implementation details of the fix (all controls get marked as "don't send next" and then they all get unmarked on first send, which apparently never happens to your controls)

(Side note: All PC buttons are automatically (and forcibly) send-on only.)

We're working on a fix that should be out by Friday. In the meantime, you've got these workarounds:

1. Tap Config -> MIDI -> Send All
2. You can make a regular button on your layout that does this, too (subtype)

These are just workarounds. A fix is coming soon.