Soundflow took over my midi controller, I can no longer get it to work.
Soundflow took over my midi controller, I can no longer get it to work.
System Information
SoundFlow 4.2.3
OS: darwin 18.7.0
ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.14.6
BuildVersion: 18G8022
Steps to Reproduce
- I opened a midi instrument with my axiom pro 25 connected as usual
- I was playing midi for about 1 minute
- My midi controller was re-routed to soundflow in pro tools.
Expected Result
I would expect not to have soundflow automatically re-route midi in my session.
Actual Result
I have no idea how to get my midi controller working and I now am unable to work.
Workaround
No
Other Notes
Please do not allow soundflow to automatically take over midi. This is ridiculous and I have to spend who knows how long trying to fix this so I can work again.
Links
User UID: juyh4p3uF8aYDwtcag4CYm0n4nC3
Feedback Key: sffeedback:juyh4p3uF8aYDwtcag4CYm0n4nC3:-MXAGZM644qX-oTfEa4G
Linked from:
- Kitch Membery @Kitch2021-04-01 02:55:35.486Z
Thanks for postin here @Heath_Ripplinger
And again sorry for the situation.
Can I get you to take a screenshot of the MIDI Input Enable window, that can be opened from;
"Setup" => "MIDI" => "MIDI Input Devices..."
- In reply toHeath_Ripplinger⬆:Kitch Membery @Kitch2021-04-01 03:19:55.063Z
Are you using MIDI in SoundFlow for anything else? Eg. are you triggering SoundFlow commands from MIDI devices?
The easiest solution right now might be to turn off the SoundFlow MIDI feature completely until we can work out what is going on.
If you know how to edit a json file, you'll need to add this key/value pair to your appSettings.json:
"disableMidiInterface": true,
For example, after adding it, your
appSettings.json
could look like this:{"debugAppState":false,"disableMidiInterface":true,"channel":"stable","enableAudioEngine":false,"useStreamDeckHid":false,"flags":{},"disableIcon":false,"autoLaunch":true,"firstRunCompleted":true}
appSettings.json is found in
~/Library/Application Support/SoundFlow/v2/appSettings.json
Note: You can't edit the json file with TextEdit, as TextEdit inserts invalid characters into json files and renders them unusable (which means SoundFlow will overwrite your changes on next start).
You'll need to use a code editor like Visual Studio Code.If you would prefer not to do this let me know and I'll send you an edited version of your
appSettings.json
settings. - In reply toHeath_Ripplinger⬆:Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 11:53:22.430Z
@Heath_Ripplinger - just chiming in here. Please let us know if the above steps make any difference / or if you need help implementing them.
It would be very helpful for us to see the screenshots Kitch requested above, if you're still seeing issues.
Just to clear some things up:
- SoundFlow doesn't have code that instructs Pro Tools which MIDI device to use. Third party scripts you install from the Store could potentially do that, but in SoundFlow's built-in commands that we provide, there are no such code that has that ability. I should also mention, I've not seen anybody make such a script. This indicates that if there's some functionality in Pro Tools that automatically switches your routing, it's more likely to be a bug in Pro Tools.
- SoundFlow doesn't install any drivers, MIDI or otherwise. This also means, when you quit SoundFlow, no SoundFlow-related code is running on your system. To uninstall it, simply quit it and drag it to the Trash. If you're still seeing issues when SoundFlow is not running, again, the issue is more likely to be between Pro Tools and your MIDI device, as SoundFlow has no influence or control over how they communicate with each other.
- The way SoundFlow integrates with MIDI is using macOS' standard APIs for how to communicate with MIDI devices. We don't send any information or messages to MIDI devices unless instructed to do so by a macro or script. So this is also not a likely cause for the issue you're seeing.
To further investigate and help sort out what's happening, can you elaborate on this?
My midi controller was re-routed to soundflow in pro tools.
Can you show us a screenshot of this so I understand more directly what you mean by being re-routed?
- HHeath Ripplinger @Heath_Ripplinger
I've yet to run a single macro in soundflow at this point. I do hope to eventually but I haven't had the need yet. It's purely been a hinderance at this point. Turning it off so I can have my regular pro tools keyboard shortcuts back and now this weird midi re-routing. I did install some free packages from the sound flow store. It changed the midi device to soundflow. I don't recall what the paths were called. Do the soundflow physical decks run via midi? I have no idea how to set the corrupted midi in that session back to anything that will allow my controller to work again. It's still stuck not working ever since soundflow switched it to some sort of non existent controller.
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 22:56:53.016Z
Hi Heath,
Please see my comments above wrt switching routing on tracks - this is not something SoundFlow has control over or instructs PT to do unless you run a script that is designed to do that.
In terms of your PT shortcuts, I would highly recommend watching out Learning SoundFlow tutorials on how to set it up so you can have exactly those shortcuts you want:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKWpZOwx5Z3jxnpNo_dQPhDQNRwp7DCNj
It changed the midi device to soundflow
This is still the part we're not understanding fully - please send us a screenshot as mentioned above if you want our help in addressing this.
SoundFlow has virtual MIDI devices that get created when you launch SoundFlow and they only live for the duration of the period it's running, as I also noted above. There's nothing special about these devices - these are regular macOS features we're using. If Pro Tools has switched to some other form of input, you should be perfectly able to just switch back to some other MIDI input (regardless of why it switched in the first place).
- HHeath Ripplinger @Heath_Ripplinger
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 23:16:55.920Z
Hi Heath.
Thank you. This shows SoundFlow's virtual MIDI devices running alongside your Axiom device. All here looks normal. This doesn't show that SoundFlow has overwritten anything or changed anything in Pro Tools. It just shows that those devices are available because SoundFlow is running - just like any other app with virtual or physical MIDI devices would show up here :)
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 23:18:44.818Z
If I can see your track correctly, then your input for that track is set to "All" - this means your track will receive MIDI input from any of the MIDI devices on your computer - including SoundFlow's.
This means Pro Tools should listen to MIDI coming in from any of your devices, including the Axiom. Again, nothing out of the ordinary in that setup - that's exactly how things should look.
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 23:20:39.607Z
As mentioned above, if you don't want SoundFlow's MIDI features or want to disable them completely, that's doable by following the steps Kitch outlined here:
Soundflow took over my midi controller, I can no longer get it to work. #post-3You can also quit SoundFlow entirely (click the SF icon up by your clock and choose Quit SoundFlow). This way, it's not running at all. Note that it's perfectly possible to have SF play well with MIDI - we have tons of composers & musicians using SF. Just mentioning this, since it appears you may not want to be using it.
By doing either of those things, SF would then not show up as a MIDI device in Pro Tools or any other app.
- In reply tochrscheuer⬆:HHeath Ripplinger @Heath_Ripplinger
I had just opened a new untitled session to demonstrate that it had midi settings in a screenshot. It did re-route to soundflow in 2 different sessions. Once yesterday, completely stalling my work. And again about 4 days ago.
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 23:28:57.170Z
It did re-route to soundflow in 2 different sessions.
Ok. If you need our help with this, please send us a screenshot of that re-routing so we can understand what you mean, as requested. We'd love to help you untangle this, but we'll need to understand exactly what you mean by re-routing.
- HIn reply toHeath_Ripplinger⬆:Heath Ripplinger @Heath_Ripplinger
After creating the blank untitled session to get a screenshot for you. I went back to the original corrupted controller session and it works again. I have no idea why. I feel dumb. It remains to be seen if it will do this again as it has already happened twice. But last night, it had definitely re-routed to one of those soundflow midi devices that you see in the screenshot. It did it all by itself after about 1 minute using midi on an instrument track. If there's one thing soundflow has accomplished for me at this point, it would be making me look stupid. 😂
- HHeath Ripplinger @Heath_Ripplinger
Also, just to be clear. I went to great lengths last night to switch everything back to the axiom controller and it didn't matter. It still would not play. I nearly set fire to the studio.
- In reply toHeath_Ripplinger⬆:
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2021-04-01 23:37:23.868Z
Haha, I'm sorry if anything I said made you feel that. But in any event, we're happy to help and also to find if there is a bug we need to fix.
If it happens again, can I get you to make a screen recording where you show the issue (even better with the mic turned on so you can tell me what you're experiencing). Most of the time a screen recording helps communicate a lot quicker what's going on :)
- HHeath Ripplinger @Heath_Ripplinger
I appreciate the help and I will make a detailed archive of it if the problem happens again.