MIDI (/ˈmɪdi/; an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music. ( Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI)
MIDI allows other computers or other hardware devices, like keyboards, drum pads, tablets, and more, to be able to send ‘notes’ or ‘cues’ to your computer either directly wired or wirelessly over the same network and use those notes to control different functions in EasyWorship. The common functions to control would be Logo on and off, Black screen on and off, Clear screen on and off, Next slide, Previous slide, Slide number, and Schedule number. EasyWorship can receive MIDI cues from another device to control these functions, even automatically if desired, to eliminate the need for someone to be sitting at the computer during the live service.
EasyWorship can work with these other apps or hardware devices by receiving those MIDI cues. I will be talking about two specific apps, Prime from Loop Community and Playback from Multitracks.com, that will send cues to EasyWorship to help automate your service when using EasyWorship. Both of these apps play tracks for your songs and fill out the ‘band’ where your church may be lacking. So if you don’t have an electric guitar player or a drummer, but you have a keyboard player and an acoustic guitar player and a bass player, you can play the tracks through either of these apps to fill in those missing instruments. At the same time, you can set them up to send EasyWorship the MIDI cues to automatically advance the slides for the songs at just the right timing.
Setting up EasyWorship for MIDI
To be able to connect your PC running EasyWorship to an iPad or iPhone or Mac computer wirelessly, you will need to install a couple of utilities on the PC. The first is Bonjour print services. You can download Bonjour HERE and then install it. This is a one time install and there is no setup for it. Once it’s installed you don’t need to do anything else with it.
The second utility needed is rtpMIDI. EasyWorship uses rtpMIDI for Network MIDI support. rtpMIDI can be downloaded HERE. Once you have it installed, there will be a little setup. You will need to create a Session by clicking the plus button under My Sessions and then check the box next to the session. Then, select the mobile device or computer you’re connecting to and click Connect. Once that is done, you can set up a MIDI connection in EasyWorship.
In EasyWorship, click the Remote button on the toolbar and hover over MIDI and click the plus button to create a new MIDI control. Give it a control name at the top. Select the PC you’re using under Input MIDI Device. Select the channel you want to use. If you want to use any channel, leave the setting on Any. Go to the Input Cues tab. This shows the input cues EasyWorship will receive from the other device. If you’re using an app like Prime or Playback or Ableton, you don’t need to change anything on this screen. If you’re using a keyboard, MIDI app. drum pad or any other hardware device, you can click Train MIDI Cues to train them to match your device. Click OK when you’re finished.
Using Ableton Live
If you’re using Ableton Live, you can export the Ableton live set from EasyWorship and import it into Ableton. Once imported, you can drag and drop the cues wherever you want them in your songs. You will need to edit the settings of your track to send the MIDI cues to the PC running EasyWorship.
Using Prime from Loop Community
If you have the Prime app from Loop Community, you can edit the tracks in the app to add MIDI cues. Open the Prime app on your device and add a track to your setlist. Tap the Edit button in the top right corner and select Edit MIDI Cues. From here, you can double-tap on the timeline to add your cues where you want them. You will select the correct MIDI cue, Note, Channel, and Velocity for your cue. Use the settings from the MIDI control window in EasyWorship to find the values you want.
For example, if you want to advance to the next slide, you will set MIDI to Note On, Note will be set to A-2 (for Next Build), Channel will be left on 1 unless you chose a different specific channel in the I/O tab, and Velocity will be left on 1.
Another example, if you want to go directly to slide 4 of the song, set MIDI to Note On, Note will be set to E-1 (for Slide No.), Channel will stay on 1 unless you chose a different specific channel in the I/O tab, and Velocity will be set to the slide number you want which in this case will be 4.
When you’re done adding the cue, tap Save. Finish adding all the cues you want by double-tapping on the track in the timeline where you want them. When you have all the cues you want in the track, tap Done at the top of the app. You will want to also make sure Prime is connected to your computer. If you have installed Bonjour and rtpMIDI and set up the rtpMIDI session on the PC, tap the settings gear in the top right corner of the Prime app and select your computer name from the MIDI cues connections.
Now, when you play that track in Prime, anytime it hits one of the MIDI cues, it will send that signal to the computer and EasyWorship will perform the action you gave it when setting up that cue.
Click HERE to watch the EasyWorship training video on getting this all set up with the Prime app.
Using Playback from Multitracks
If you have the Playback app from Multitracks, you can log in on their website and add MIDI cues to your tracks there.
Click on the track you want and then click the MIDI tab. From here, you can either add the cues manually and enter in the Timing, Not, Octave, and Velocity. Or, you can play the Rehearsalmix by clicking play on the track thumbnail in the top left corner and click Add Event at the bottom of the screen any time you want to add a cue. After those cues are inserted, you can make any changes to the Notes or Octaves or Velocity if you need to. Remember, these settings need to match the values that are set in EasyWorship in the MIDI Control window.
In the Playback app, if push notifications are turned on, you will get a notification that the song has updated and will ask if you want to accept the changes. Or, you can edit the track in Playback and go to the settings of the song and tap Refresh MIDI Cues.
Now, when you play that track in Playback, anytime it hits one of the MIDI cues, it will send that signal to the computer and EasyWorship will perform the action you gave it when setting up that cue.
Click HERE to watch the EasyWorship training video on getting this all set up with the Playback app.
