Question about H9 control via Bluetooth

[Max_Power]

I currently have two H9s on my pedalboard that I'm controlling via hardwired MIDI using my iPad. I have all of my presets configured to change via MIDI on each song selection in the set list (using Bandhelper). This setup works great, but I would ideally like to eliminate the MIDI cable and do the same wirelessly if possible

So, my question is……is it possible to control both H9s in a similar way using Bluetooth? I know I can control the preset selection on each individual H9 using the control app, but is it possible to control both simultaneously? 

Thanks in advance

[gkellum]

Max_Power:

So, my question is……is it possible to control both H9s in a similar way using Bluetooth? I know I can control the preset selection on each individual H9 using the control app, but is it possible to control both simultaneously? 

I just checked out what happens if you turn on PGM.XMT on an H9 and click on the various presets in of the H9 in the preset list screen. I was hoping that as I loaded a preset in the preset list screen it would send out a program change message and you could use this to load presets on your second H9, but it's not doing this. I'll have to talk to my colleague, Nick, about this. It could be something we could easily add or it could be a harder problem to get the H9 to communicate via Bluetooth and service the MIDI port simultaneously.

We have talked about adding a screen called Combinations which would let you assign multiple presets to multiple devices in one go, and I think this will happen. But it probably won't happen for another six months or so given the other things that are higher in the priority list in the moment.

[badmelonfarmer]

There is an option in H9 Control where you can set "Midi Over Bluetooth" to be on.

Select "Pedal" on the bottom toolbar, then "MIDI Settings" then "MIDI over Bluetooth".

But I guess it would depend on the app you are using and I have never used Bandhelper.

Another thing to be aware of is that there is a limitation to the number of Bluetooth devices you can connect to an iOS device… it seems to be 3 on a 32bit iOS device and only 2 on a 64Bit iOS device. (iPhone 5S, iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina)

I have an iPad Air and a iPhone 5S (64 Bit)… I can only connect 2 H9's at a time … but when I use my Wife's or Daughter's iPad Mini's (32 bit) I can connect 3 H9's

Unfortunately this does not change in iOS8 (at least at the time of writing this and testing the latest Beta)

[Max_Power]

Thanks for the quick responses. I did notice the 'MIDI over Bluetooth' option, and I had it enabled, but the H9 does not show up as a MIDI device in my MIDI enabled apps on iOS. Is there something I'm missing?

[gkellum]

Yes, that option was originally there to turn Bluetooth over MIDI off for security reasons, but pretty much only developers would know how to communicate with an H9 using Bluetooth over MIDI anyway.  We have added an option in the v1.6 release that allows you to select a Core MIDI device and send its data to an H9.  This release isn't out for iOS yet, but that feature will let you do things like connect an IK Multimedia BlueBoard or a Livid Instruments Guitar Wing to an H9 through H9 Control. It will also let you connect the output from another app to an H9 through H9 Control.

What you're describing is a little bit different though. You'd like H9 Control to create a MIDI input port that could be connected to another app and have H9 Control run in the background sending the MIDI data over to the H9.  We'll have to think about that.  It's not currently supported and we haven't considered that option up until now.

[Max_Power]

Got it! Now it makes sense.

I have to say, this board is impressive. I've never seen product support like this. Fast response times and very knowledgeable staff. It's great to see.

[Max_Power]

Bumping this thread up to see if anything has changed or if anyone has any suggestions. 

[gkellum]

Well, in the latest development version of H9 Control that we're testing in house, we added a setting option to create a virtual MIDI port for the app that one can use to route MIDI from other apps into H9 Control and through to any connected devices.  But we're going to need to test this feature for a while to make sure that preventing H9 Control from quitting doesn't cause any unexpected or hard to solve problems.  If everything goes well, this feature will be in the next release which will likely come in January.

[BCy2k]

Has this release happened yet? New user here.

My H9 is running the v5.0.1[3] software. I found and selected my IK BlueBoard in the "Connect MIDI Device to Eventide" in the Settings menu. I've also enabled MIDI over bluetooth in the Pedal>MIDI Settings>MIDI Over Bluetooth menu. I don't seem to be getting anywhere in terms of having the H9 or my connected MIDI device respond to my BlueBoard commands (all CC commands – no program change messages).

Ideally, I'm looking to do is use H9's ability to receive MIDI over bluetooth to send those messages to a device connected to the MIDI out/thru port on the H9. It doesn't seem to be working so far.

There could be a few reasons for this. I am slaving the H9 via MIDI (in) to the very same device connected to the MIDI out/thru on the H9. I'm doing  this to change presets on the H9 via the other device (which can xmit MIDI). This is working fine as it's using a physical MIDI connection.

I guess my question is, is it possible to simultaneously run both a physical and bluetooth MIDI in to the H9?

Again, I'm trying to get the bluetooth MIDI out from the BlueBoard to pass thru the H9's MIDI out to the MIDI in of same externally connected device. The purpose here is to control IA functions (active & bypass) within the other device. I know it seems overly convoluted, but is this even do-able?

FWIW I can't seem to get the H9 to respond to anything my BlueBoard transmits. I'm not clear if this is even doable as yet either. If it's supposed to be, I'm missing something.

[BCy2k]

Has any of this been added as of the v5.0.1[3] software? I'm a new H9 user.

I'm trying to get my H9 to respond to my BlueBoard. Doesn't seen to work at all. I enabled MIDI over bluetooth in the H9 Control app (I'm on iOS8, iPhone 5S) and I selected my BlueBoard in Settings>Connect MIDI Device to Eventide.

I'm not getting anything to work in terms of bluetooth MIDI.

Another question, is it possible to run the bluetooth MIDI in, and simultaneously have another external MIDI device connected to the MIDI in port on the H9? This is part of what I'm trying to do. Ideally I want to be able to send MIDI CC messages from the BlueBoard to another device connected to the MIDI out/thru on the H9. I'm wondering if any of this is doable, and if not, is it still being looked at? Thanks – BC

[gkellum]

BCy2k:

Has any of this been added as of the v5.0.1[3] software? I'm a new H9 user.

Well, you should be able to use the BlueBoard to send MIDI messages to the H9 and control the H9, and you should be able to send MIDI in through the MIDI in jacks and MIDI over Bluetooth at the same time and have both work.  But we haven't implemented receiving MIDI messages over Bluetooth and sending them out the MIDI out ports.  (It's a bit weird by the way that the BlueBoard doesn't have normal MIDI in and out jacks. I'm sure there are people who would like to be able to use it that way as well.)

One of my colleagues has a BlueBoard.  I'll set this up with the latest software and make sure everything is still working as expected…

[BCy2k]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not getting the MIDI out from the BlueBoard to do anything on the H9 so far. As I previously mentioned, I think I've made all the necessary settings between the two (BlueBoard & H9) to get that to happen, but still no luck there. I'm not ruling out operator error, but I've run out of obvious things to check. I'm pretty much stumped at this point. 

Looking forward to hearing back from you RE trying out your associate's BlueBoard with the H9. It all looks so good on paper ;o)

I agree RE the oddities of the BlueBoard not having hardware MIDI I/O. 

It would seriously make my day to get all this to work they way I'm trying to. Might there be a way to get H9 to pass the bluetooth MIDI it receives to it's MIDI out/thru port to other devices at some point? As you've noted, this would be a huge help for at least some users. Thanks.

[BCy2k]

Well, now I'm successfully getting CC messages from the BlueBoard to control things on the H9. A welcome step in the right direction. 

I'm just randomly assigning controllers and testing things for now. I'm getting some unexpected behavior. For example, I have the "A" button on the BlueBoard set to send CC20. I've tried assigning it to toggle between Active & Bypass on the H9 (something I wouldn't do in reality), as well as toggling the tuner. In both cases I have to hit the A button twice to activate, and twice again to bypass. Obviously, I'm expecting it to toggle between the two states with a single hit of the A button, instead of two. 

Seems like a probable BlueBoard problem. Any suggestions on this? Thanks.

[LA Keys]

@BCy2k:

I was reading the blueboard website and saw this:

"So how does iRig BlueBoard work? It connects to your iPhone/iPod
touch/iPad or Mac via Bluetooth, and when you press its foot switches,
it sends out control signals that are converted to MIDI by the iRig Blueboard app."

I'm afraid that the key phrase here is: "converted to midi"

Looks like the blueboard itself doesn't send midi… Is that possible that you really need the app (running on iOS device) to first convert to midi and then, maybe, it is possible to send the converted midi to an outside device (H9)… ???

LA

[LA Keys]

@BCy2k:

Ok, I saw that my reply came late but now that you have it sorta working could you please tell me if it is possible to have the blueboard to talk directly to the H9, or do you need to have the apps running on iOS for this to work ?

LA

[BCy2k]

Hi LA – yes, the BlueBoard only works when it's iOS app running. Which explains much I suppose as I didn't realize that the iOS app was what converted the BT messages to MIDI. No wonder it's so clunky.

Still, as a new feature request for the H9, it really would be great if MIDI messages received by H9 from a connected bluetooth device could be passed to the MIDI out/thru port on the H9. Looks like none of what I'm trying to do can happen without that functionality.

Evidently, I'm going to need to look into finding a bluetooth MIDI controller that doesn't require an iOS app to function. I'm pretty sure there are some out there. I've got some homework to do.

[Max_Power]

I want to ressurect this topic in hopes that I can get this working. It looks as though the latest version of the H9 Control app now supports incoming MIDI commands to be sent via Bluetooth to the H9 unit, which I was very happy to discover.

I’m using an app called Bandhelper to control my H9 pedals via MIDI. I typically use a hard wired MIDI adaptor from my iPad to the MIDI input of the H9 pedals. I want to be able to do this wirelessly via Bluetooth. I configure the Bandhelper app to start a MIDI connection called ‘Network Session 1’. I then configure the H9 control app to listen for MIDI commands on this Network Session 1 port. The way I think it should work, is that any MIDI commands received by H9 Control (from Bandhelper) should be passed through to the H9 pedal. 

Unfortunately I can’t seem to get this to work. What am I missing? Perhaps I am misunderstanding how this functionality is supposed to work, so I’m looking for some clarity/guidance. 

Thanks in advance

Colin

[gkellum]

Max_Power wrote:

Unfortunately I can't seem to get this to work. What am I missing? Perhaps I am misunderstanding how this functionality is supposed to work, so I'm looking for some clarity/guidance. 

Did you enable the "MIDI over Bluetooth" setting on the H9?  In H9 Control if you click on the Pedal button in the bottom menubar and go to MIDI Settings, there's a "MIDI over Bluetooth" setting there.

[Max_Power]

Yes I did. It was already set to enabled. 

gkellum wrote:

Max_Power wrote:

Unfortunately I can’t seem to get this to work. What am I missing? Perhaps I am misunderstanding how this functionality is supposed to work, so I’m looking for some clarity/guidance. 

Did you enable the “MIDI over Bluetooth” setting on the H9?  In H9 Control if you click on the Pedal button in the bottom menubar and go to MIDI Settings, there’s a “MIDI over Bluetooth” setting there.

[alamondm]

I’m interested in finding out if you ever got this to work with Bandhelper and Bluetooth midi

[BCy2k]

Hi All – so sorry it’s taken me so long to respond. I no longer use the Blueboard controller, nor do I have any H9 pedals currently. So I’m afraid I won’t be able to be of much help.

 

[alamondm]

The new version seems to be working very good with the Bluetooth. However I cannot get it to stop running in the background and killing my iPad battery. I have closed the app on my iPad but it continues to run and drain the battery down.

[alamondm]

It seem to be working fine now as long as I make sure to close it in the back ground on my iPad when I’m done using it. I ran H9 control last night and made sure I closed it when I was done. ipad stayed on 100% charge through the night, just checked about an hour ago and all is good. Thanks for getting this to work with Bandhelper. I have only tried PC commands at this time . Will try CC as time allows. Thanks again.

[alamondm]

And just for the record I am using this on IOS 10,3.3

[bohan]

alamondm wrote:

I'm interested in finding out if you ever got this to work with Bandhelper and Bluetooth midi

I think I just got this to work. Do you use an iOS device? Could you let me know your email so I can intive you to test this?

[alamondm]

bohan wrote:

alamondm wrote:

I’m interested in finding out if you ever got this to work with Bandhelper and Bluetooth midi

I think I just got this to work. Do you use an iOS device? Could you let me know your email so I can intive you to test this?

 

yes I have a new iPad Air . 

mda2002@bellsouth.net 

[bohan]

alamondm wrote:

yes I have a new iPad Air . 

mda2002@bellsouth.net 

Hi, the new beta version that fixed this problem is available now. You can update it in the TestFlight now.

Here is the public link to the beta: https://testflight.apple.com/join/rTMrrvEQ

[bohan]

alamondm wrote:

The new version seems to be working very good with the Bluetooth. However I cannot get it to stop running in the background and killing my iPad battery. I have closed the app on my iPad but it continues to run and drain the battery down.

So this new version now can work with Bandhelper without any problem?

How did you realize that the app is running and draining the battery when you've closed it? Let me know and I'll try to fix it.

[alamondm]

bohan wrote:

So this new version now can work with Bandhelper without any problem?

How did you realize that the app is running and draining the battery when you’ve closed it? Let me know and I’ll try to fix it.

There appears to be a little orange dot right before the name on the app icon on my home screen. When I installed the newest update of H9 control it was not there. As soon as I clicked on it to open H9 Control the little orange dot appeared. That to me signaled it was on. 

I tried the H9 control app with Bandhelper and it worked great. I then just closed everything and set my iPad down for the night. I never turn it off and have never had a problem. Next morning the battery was dead. If the iPad is turned on , it takes forever to charge. . I have tried closing the H9 control app with instructions from Apple but it doesn’t seem to help. The little orange dot will not turn off.

whether the dot has anything to do with it or not I do not know. What I do know is nothing has changed on my iPad but the H9 control app and now the battery is being drained at a quick rate if it is on and I have to turn it off to charge it.

[bohan]

alamondm wrote:

It seem to be working fine now as long as I make sure to close it in the back ground on my iPad when I'm done using it. I ran H9 control last night and made sure I closed it when I was done. ipad stayed on 100% charge through the night, just checked about an hour ago and all is good. Thanks for getting this to work with Bandhelper. I have only tried PC commands at this time . Will try CC as time allows. Thanks again.

Yeah, now H9 Control is active in the background to keep the midi communication. That's why it consumes battery if you don't close it.

Thank you very much for your feedback! Let me know if you find any issues or anything you think could be improved.

[Author]

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