Sticky: MidiKey2Key FAQ
Posted: 14 Aug 2020, 14:29
My action is performed twice, when I send a Midi-Note
This happens with MIDI-controllers like the Novation Launchpad which do not send a Note-Off when releasing the pad, but send a Note-On with a velocity of 0.
Solution: Those devices send at NoteOn a fixed velocity of 127 and a Note-On with a velocity of 0 when releasing the pad.
Select a NoteOn - event and check "React on2nd value (xx)". So the action is triggered only, when a Note-On with velo=127 is received.
My game/app is not responding on key-actions, but OBS does
Keep in mind, that "normal" programs are responding only, when they are in foreground.
Some programs - like OBS - are capable of responding on global hotkeys. Wether they are in focus or not. This affects not the most apps!
Specially games do read the keyboard in a different way than most of desktop apps do. If Your game/app has another way of reading key-presses, MidiKey2Key's keypresses are not recognized so far. There is another way of sending keystrokes to be fully implemented into MidiKey2Key, but this means a lot of work and would possibly fix all of these problems.
Wait for future updates...
When another MIDI-program is running, MidiKey2Key crashes with the error-message 'There is not enough memory available'
This is not related to Your system's memory. It is a misleaded windows error message. It occurs because window's MIDI driver is not multi-device-capable. You can use other MIDI software besides MidiKey2Key sharing the same MIDI-input by using a virtual MIDI-port:
Download Tobias Erichsen's loopMIDI here: http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html, install and run it.
You can add one or more virtual MIDI loop ports which appear as inputs and outputs in every Windows MIDI application. Choose a virtual loop-port as output-device in MidiKey2Key and activate 'Mirror MIDI' in the MidiKey2Key options. In Your other MIDI-App choose the loopMIDI port as input. You can use multiple instances of MidiKey2Key.
When MidiKey2Key is in focus, OBS switches scenes correctly. When Midikey2Key looses focus, it does no longer
(Or similar: When the target-app is not longer in focus even it can handle global key commands) In normal cases it is not needed, to run MidiKey2Key as administrator. But if Your target-app runs as administrator, MidiKey2Key only can send keystrokes to it when running as administrator too. Try this when having such issues.
Can I control volume-settings of OBS with MidiKey2Key?
Unfortunately OBS does not have hotkeys for volume-control so far. So MidiKey2Key cannot help.
Some special Keys can not be triggered
This is true. The API, MidiKey2Key uses to send keystrokes is limited to common key(-combinations), that Windows is able to use as hotkeys. No alternating keys, like Shift, Alt or Control alone can perfom an action and other special keys.
Luckily the multimedia-keys (that some PC-keyboards have) work!
There is a problem with "Wait for NoteOff" in my game/app
...that causes, the hotkey is only send once, but does not repeat, (it looks like).
Actually when using Notepad for testing a held MIDIkey, a letter will not be repeated. Using MidiKey2Key for controlling games like pinball, You should see, that the triggers should be held until You release the MIDI-key.
From version 2.3.5.0 this should work with devices, which send a velocity of 0 instead of NoteOff messages.
See also "My game/app is not responding on key-actions, but...". Specially games are very different in reading keyboard-input. So far MidiKey2Key acts as a standard Windows-app.
It is possible that there are games or apps that do not respond to MidiKey2Key's Keyboard-actions. Sorry so far.
This happens with MIDI-controllers like the Novation Launchpad which do not send a Note-Off when releasing the pad, but send a Note-On with a velocity of 0.
Solution: Those devices send at NoteOn a fixed velocity of 127 and a Note-On with a velocity of 0 when releasing the pad.
Select a NoteOn - event and check "React on2nd value (xx)". So the action is triggered only, when a Note-On with velo=127 is received.
My game/app is not responding on key-actions, but OBS does
Keep in mind, that "normal" programs are responding only, when they are in foreground.
Some programs - like OBS - are capable of responding on global hotkeys. Wether they are in focus or not. This affects not the most apps!
Specially games do read the keyboard in a different way than most of desktop apps do. If Your game/app has another way of reading key-presses, MidiKey2Key's keypresses are not recognized so far. There is another way of sending keystrokes to be fully implemented into MidiKey2Key, but this means a lot of work and would possibly fix all of these problems.
Wait for future updates...
When another MIDI-program is running, MidiKey2Key crashes with the error-message 'There is not enough memory available'
This is not related to Your system's memory. It is a misleaded windows error message. It occurs because window's MIDI driver is not multi-device-capable. You can use other MIDI software besides MidiKey2Key sharing the same MIDI-input by using a virtual MIDI-port:
Download Tobias Erichsen's loopMIDI here: http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html, install and run it.
You can add one or more virtual MIDI loop ports which appear as inputs and outputs in every Windows MIDI application. Choose a virtual loop-port as output-device in MidiKey2Key and activate 'Mirror MIDI' in the MidiKey2Key options. In Your other MIDI-App choose the loopMIDI port as input. You can use multiple instances of MidiKey2Key.
When MidiKey2Key is in focus, OBS switches scenes correctly. When Midikey2Key looses focus, it does no longer
(Or similar: When the target-app is not longer in focus even it can handle global key commands) In normal cases it is not needed, to run MidiKey2Key as administrator. But if Your target-app runs as administrator, MidiKey2Key only can send keystrokes to it when running as administrator too. Try this when having such issues.
Can I control volume-settings of OBS with MidiKey2Key?
Unfortunately OBS does not have hotkeys for volume-control so far. So MidiKey2Key cannot help.
Some special Keys can not be triggered
This is true. The API, MidiKey2Key uses to send keystrokes is limited to common key(-combinations), that Windows is able to use as hotkeys. No alternating keys, like Shift, Alt or Control alone can perfom an action and other special keys.
Luckily the multimedia-keys (that some PC-keyboards have) work!
There is a problem with "Wait for NoteOff" in my game/app
...that causes, the hotkey is only send once, but does not repeat, (it looks like).
Actually when using Notepad for testing a held MIDIkey, a letter will not be repeated. Using MidiKey2Key for controlling games like pinball, You should see, that the triggers should be held until You release the MIDI-key.
From version 2.3.5.0 this should work with devices, which send a velocity of 0 instead of NoteOff messages.
See also "My game/app is not responding on key-actions, but...". Specially games are very different in reading keyboard-input. So far MidiKey2Key acts as a standard Windows-app.
It is possible that there are games or apps that do not respond to MidiKey2Key's Keyboard-actions. Sorry so far.