Midi Designer Reference Manual

Question

THE MIDI DESIGNER MANUAL!

I have been working on a new midi designer templete for a couple of days now and although I am impressed by MD's huge functionality by now. It surely has become almost unusable, or lets better say, unlearnable without a comprehensive searchable reference manual. And I am an IT guy.

I am contemplating giving up on Mididesigner just for that very reason. This may work for the folks who were born as Midi Sysex or other Hacker folks, but not for the average technical guy like me.

I like to say, that IMHO, a comprehensive all including reference manual is an ABSOLUTE MUST before anything else.

just my 2 cts

Answer 1

Thanks Novelistus, we finally did manage a full user manual. It was a huge undertaking but we're quite proud of it.

 

***** Link *****

 

Answer 2

Thanks Novelistus, we finally did manage a full user manual. It was a huge undertaking but we're quite proud of it.

 

***** Link *****

 

Answer 3

Thanks for your comment. A comprehensive user manual would be a great thing, but it's also a massive undertaking. We've had several starts and fails on that front, and we're still considering how to do it well (several considerations/complications there).

 

For the time being, the starting points are:

1. http://midiDR.com/help (I'm updating this right this second)
2. Google + http://midiDR.com/qa
3. Intro video
   
   
   
    
4. If you feel like it, please help the cause by asking and answering questions on the Q&A site (and elsewhere if you see them). 

Surprisingly, our strongest and most vocal users didn't know anything about MIDI before using MIDI Designer, and most are not hackers. They're just curious musicians who were willing to overlook missing basics in MD -- and there are several -- because they found it a valid tool.

 

In any case, I appreciate your concern and understand it's not an ideal way of discovering a product/app for you. However, the direct interaction with the dev team via Config -> Actions -> Email Us will usually get you where you need to go when stuck. Hopefully, intuition and trying stuff out will do the rest.

 

I hope you'll carry on with MD!

Thank you,
Dan

Dan Rosenstark
Author & CEO
dream | create | play

Comments

Thanks Dan, but you know MD Pro is a bit like the Plutionian Spaceship found floating in space. It sure looked to be parsecs ahead in technology, just nobody knew which lever was doing what ;-). So all they were able to do was to make it roll and smile ;-).

Look, the key problem of Midi is that there are many different midi implementations out there, some pretty well documented, others not. My Korg M3 OpG is some 250 pgs, the reference manual 670 pages, Kontakt5 another ton, but the Midi implimentation is well represented. Others are not so good like the Fishman. You are always dealing with multiple devices, Ports, Channels, often differences in how CC's are handled, different midi functionality in different modes, timing/syncronizing tasks and decisions.
This is NOT MUSICIAN STAFF. Very clearly not. Maybe if you just want to change patches n 2 banks with volume and a few effects and just between two devices.
Most people these days are pretty good working with manuals. I have all of them open (or open at request) in Preview in the background. Searchable.

That's not the same as having to guess in which of the MD demo videos and tutorial this subject can be found. Its very disruptive too when you have to watch 2 videos about a subject where all you need is 1% of the info.

I know how much creative people hate to document instead of being creative. I always hated it when I still was programming and the time of code docs and user docs came up. But its very good for the product because this is the first time the creator has to commit to how he thinks the user will get to the cherries.

Anyhow, I can just encourage you to get this reference manual going as soon as possible.

For users like me this is simply about time. Every two years I come back to try if I can get it set up as it would be really great for the studio. We'll see, I'll have two more days until the end of the year then I need to attend some other priorities. Been on this for too long already and then usually I flick the switch and hug my acoustic.

---

Thanks so much for your honest comment and the encouragement.

Regarding having a greppable resource, the general answer for MD is to Google "MIDI Designer Named Ticks" or "MIDI Designer Accelerometer" and you'll find the page you're looking for. The first hit for "MIDI Designer Named Ticks" is an explanation and video about Named Ticks. The second hit for MIDI Designer Accelerometer is "Accelerometer, How Does It Work?"....

While this will help you get your stuff done (and does show our love for documentation as a general idea), it does not invalidate your point. You're VERY correct that there's no one, single, definitive PDF resource that you can have open without having to wade through documentation and videos and without having to use the Web. That would be very useful!

Thanks again for spending some time with MIDI Designer. For the next two days, if you'd like, let's try to figure out what your sticking points on and work through them. Please ask questions here on Q&A (especially if they are atomic questions that can be useful to other people), or via Config -> Actions -> Email Us if you suspect they are personal.

Thanks again for the encouragement on the manual project.

Answer 4

Thanks for your comment. A comprehensive user manual would be a great thing, but it's also a massive undertaking. We've had several starts and fails on that front, and we're still considering how to do it well (several considerations/complications there).

 

For the time being, the starting points are:

1. http://midiDR.com/help (I'm updating this right this second)
2. Google + http://midiDR.com/qa
3. Intro video
   
   
   
    
4. If you feel like it, please help the cause by asking and answering questions on the Q&A site (and elsewhere if you see them). 

Surprisingly, our strongest and most vocal users didn't know anything about MIDI before using MIDI Designer, and most are not hackers. They're just curious musicians who were willing to overlook missing basics in MD -- and there are several -- because they found it a valid tool.

 

In any case, I appreciate your concern and understand it's not an ideal way of discovering a product/app for you. However, the direct interaction with the dev team via Config -> Actions -> Email Us will usually get you where you need to go when stuck. Hopefully, intuition and trying stuff out will do the rest.

 

I hope you'll carry on with MD!

Thank you,
Dan

Dan Rosenstark
Author & CEO
dream | create | play