Using both keys and transport from a midi controller with MuseScore

• Feb 10, 2024 - 17:28

Hi everyone,

I recently bought the M-Audio Oxygen Pro Mini midi controller. I was super exciting because I knew that I could use it has a midi device (notes) and a transport device (play, stop, record, etc), especially with DAWs like Pro Tools. And it works well with DAWs. So I thought that I could do the same thing with Musescore but it didn't work. The fact is that my Oxygen Pro Mini has 4 midi ports:

Oxygen Pro Mini USB MIDI
Oxygen Pro Mini MIDI DIN
Oxygen Pro Mini Mackie/HUI
Oxygen Pro Mini Editor

It's not a problem on Pro Tools because when you want to play notes you select the midi device (here Oxygen Pro Mini USB MIDI) in the track you want, and to use the transports buttons you select the transport controller on an other window (here Oxygen Pro Mini Mackie/HUI). But when I use Musescore I have to choose one of the 4 ports so I can't have the notes and the transport at the same time. This is frustrating because the only way to have both is to select "Oxygen Pro Mini USB MIDI" in I/O preferences and to map the transports to others buttons (On the Oxygen Pro Mini you have 4 mapping buttons named Arp, Latch, Chords and Scale). There must be a better way.

So the solution might be to combines the two in midi ports to a single out midi port. I couldn't find a software like this that runs on Mac so I decided to create mine with MAX MSP. I made an application that you run while you are using Musescore. This is the instructions to setup the app:
- Open the application
- Select the input midi 1 (for me "Oxygen Pro Mini USB MIDI")
- Select the input midi 2 ("Oxygen Pro Mini Mackie/HUI")
- Select the ouput midi. It can be anything. I'm using the SSL12 audio interface which has 2 midi ports (in and out). So I connected the out midi port to the in midi port with a normal midi cable. I select the ouput midi "SSL12" on the app.
- Let the application opened while you're using Musescore.

Now in Musescore preferences, I choose "SSL12" in the midi I/O settings and I can use my entire midi controller. I also had to modify a few parameters in the M-Audio Editor, but it depends on what controller you use.

You can find the applicatio, the patch for MAX MSP and the preset for Oxygen Pro Mini at this link : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bF44PP7WwvmrB8xYWOHNI_MM3Mk5L9-…

I hope it will help you and make you life easier.

Best regards