Table of Contents

MIDI Troubleshooting

Loopy Pro's MIDI Learn is generally straightforward and transparent. If you run into problems, the information on this page should help you solve the problem and, if not, it should provide you with the details needed for Loopy Pro support or other users to resolve your problem.

If you have not yet seen it, you main want to see the page Loopy Pro: Getting Started with MIDI Learn.

Here is a video showing how MIDI Learn should work.

If MIDI Learn isn't working at all, start with the Basic Troubleshooting Procedure below.

If MIDI Learn is “kind of” working jump down to the MIDI Learn section further down the page.

The three most common problems people run into are:

Basic Troubleshooting Procedure

If you aren't sure where to start, start with this procedure. The outline is

Use A MIDI Monitor to See if MIDI Is Received

of Before troubleshooting:

Use a standalone MIDI Monitor such as ShowMIDI (which can also be loaded as an AUv3), MIDI Wrench, MIDI Scope, or any of the other MIDI Monitors that can run standalone. ShowMIDI is convenient because it runs as both and AU and a standalone app and it gives you a picture the recent activity (as opposed to the long type monitors that can sometimes show an overwhelming amount of data).

When you launch the monitor, check to make sure that your MIDI Device is listed. If your controller is connected to an audio/MIDI or MIDI interface with a standard MIDI cable, the MIDI will come from the MIDI port of the interface.

If your device is not listed, the OS does not see it. Loopy Pro will see any device seen by the OS. If the device isn't seen, you should check your connections and make sure that it is receiving enough power. You may want to contact the MIDI/audio interface manufacturer to ensure that it is compatible with iOS. Check to see if there is a firmware update for the interface.

If the interface is listed, press a button on your controller and make note of what is being sent. If no message is received, check your cables and confirm that the interface or controller is compatible with iOS.

If the controller is connected via USB, make sure that you have supplied enough power. Some controllers require more power than the iPad or iPhone supply. Some require more power than the Apple Camera Adapter plus Apple USB charger supplies.

MIDI Learn

If you have confirmed that your device is receiving MIDI, the next step is to see what happens when you MIDI Learn from the device.

Here is a video showing how MIDI Learn should work. If something different happens, make note of what happens differently as that will point the direction to how to solve the problem.

To troubleshoot after confirming that MIDI is being received from your controller:

At the bottom of the MIDI Learn Panel, you should see the name/type of event followed by the word ON. If you see anything other than ON, read the rest of this section. If everything seems to have worked correctly till this point, skip to the next section.

Loopy Pro's MIDI Learn assumes that the MIDI controller sends an ON message (MIDI note on or a MIDI CC with a value of 127) when a controller pedal or key is pressed and an OFF message when the pad or key is released.

HOLD rather than ON learned. Some controllers only send an ON message and no release/off message. If this is the case, Loopy Pro will see that as a HOLD message. You can tell Loopy Pro to use ON instead of hold. Hold messages will result in delayed response. To change HOLD to ON, tap on the part of the MIDI Learn panel that displays the learned message. You will see options for the triggering event, choose ON. If your controller is configurable, set it to send an ON when pressed and OFF when released.

MIDI Feedback

If you get surprising response when controlling Loopy via MIDI, the problem may be an inadvertent feedback loop, or the controller may not respond well to the feedback that Loopy Pro sends.

By default, Loopy Pro sends feedback to a controller when Loopy received MIDI that you have mapped to something. For many controllers, this allows them to update their display to reflect Loopy's state. For example, if a pad is mapped to play a clip, the pad will light up with the clip is playing. Some controllers, however, misinterpret the feedback and may send it back to Loopy (creating a feedback loop) OR it might interpret as some sort of button press or bank change.

To see if feedback is the issue, open Loopy's Control Settings panel. Find your MIDI controller in the list of MIDI sources at the top of the panel. Turn off the setting labeled Feedback Enabled and see if that solves things.

If that does not solve your problem, you may want to see if your pedal has a setting to ignore incoming MIDI in case something else is sending MIDI back to your device.

Other Causes of Common Problems

If the troubleshooting procedure didn't identify the problem, perhaps you are encountering one of these common issues:

More MIDI Troubleshooting Tips

Changing/Correcting A MIDI Learn

If you MIDI Learn and something isn't quite right, tap on the MIDI Learned message to see options you can change.

Using a MIDI Monitor to Examine MIDI

It is sometimes useful to be able to see the MIDI coming in from controllers or that is being sent from between plugins or widgets. A MIDI Monitoring AUv3 is very handy. Some useful (and free) MIDI Monitor AUv3 are:

To use the MIDI Monitor:

Open the MIDI Monitor's window and you can watch the MIDI traffic.

Streambyter Note. If you are new to Streambyter, tap on the button with the magnifying glass icon to see its MIDI monitor.

Quick tutorial showing StreamByter as a MIDI Monitor in Loopy:

Check Your MIDI Bindings

If MIDI events are resulting in unexpected behavior and you have turned off MIDI Feedback, look at all of your MIDI Bindings. MIDI Bindings are the mapping of MIDI events to actions. They are listed and can be edited through the Control Settings panel.

If a particular MIDI event is causing a problem, make a note of what the event is. If you aren't sure, use a MIDI monitor (as described elsewhere on this page) to see what MIDI message is resulting in the unexpected behavior.

More....

What is your pedal sending? The Loopy Pro's MIDI Learn assumes that a pedal sends a value when pressed and another value when released. If your pedal does not send a CC value of 127 (or note velocity of 127) when pressed and 0 when released, it may throw off what Loopy Pro thinks you are trying to do. Loopy Pro allows you to specify the correct trigger if it makes the wrong guess about what the trigger is. You may want to use a MIDI Monitor to see what your pedal is sending. Using a MIDI Monitor is covered elsewhere on this page.

For the Morningstar pedals, use the pedal's global configuration menu to turn Cross MIDI Thru Off and Ignore MIDI Clock On.

Here's a helpful video for the Morningstar pedal from John Paul Music UK

MIDI Controlled Effects Not Responding

If you have an AUv3 such as a sampler that responds to MIDI and which is not responding, you may need to turn off idling for that effect. Normally, Loopy puts effects that aren't receiving any audio input to sleep in order to free up CPU. This is called idling. To turn off idling, open the AUv3 window. Long-press on the label that says On, Off, or Idle and turn off Enable Idle Mode in the panel that pops up.