MIDI Thingies That'll Make Your Head Hurt

The MIDI Settingz screen is basically where OnSong^® shoves everything it does with MIDI into one giant, terrifyingly organized wall of controls: what devices it's besties with, the tempo it's flexin' on 'em, all the nerdy events it's bleepin' & bloopin' while you play, how it throws a fit when OTHER stuff tries to talk to it, & a whole dashboard so you can watch the chaos unfold in real-time. ZOMG. 🤓

Plug Into The Matrix

This area is where you convince OnSong & actual hardware that they're meant to be together—wired, wireless, however you roll.

• MIDI Turned ON (Or Nah) — flip this & OnSong either talks MIDI or goes total radio silent. Your call, fam.
• Gimme da Inputs — shows which CoreMIDI devices are actually listenin'. Tap it if you wanna cherry-pick which ones OnSong bothers to hear
• Where's It Goin'? — lists devices that OnSong is gonna yell at. Tap to decide your broadcast list
• Bluetooth MIDI — pairs your fancy wireless MIDI toys. Plot twist: this used to be buried in some icon nobody could find. We fixed that. You're welcome. 🎉
• Network Session — connects to other machines over Wi-Fi using that CoreMIDI network jazz. Shows "Off," "On," or a scary number of connected devices. OnSong's got your back & auto-reconnects to sessions y'all have done before
• Virtual MIDI — lets OnSong & other iOS apps talk directly to each other through a pretend MIDI port. It's like a secret handshake for nerds.

Keep the Beat (Or Else)

Sync tools make sure OnSong & everything else are jammin' in time. Think of it as a metronome for your entire rig. Everything here is built on the beat clock because we're fancy like that. Ableton Link gets top billing cuz it's cooler than regular MIDI clock, not because we play favorites. (We totes do.)

• Ableton Link — dumps OnSong into a Link party with other apps & hardware on your Wi-Fi. No pairing. No cables. It's basically magic.
• MIDI Clock — syncs tempo by sendin' 24 little tick-tock signals per beat. Sync Mode goes both ways now: Lead means OnSong's the boss & sends a tempo so accurate it's embarrassing, Follow means OnSong takes orders from somebody else's clock, & Both means it's indecisive (where that old Listen ▸ For Tempo thing hid). Behavior picks whether the clock keeps tickin' silent or shuts up when there's no tempo. Time Adjustment is for when MIDI clock is bein' weird & needs a nudge.
• Tap — sets up that "tap-tap-tap for tempo" vibe through MIDI. Very tappy. Much rhythm.
• Tempo — broadcasts tempo as two CC messages (CC 106/107, by default, because defaults are chef's kiss). Sync Mode sends OnSong's tempo (Lead), accepts somebody else's (Follow), or does both like an overachiever (Both)
• Time Signature — beams your meter out as official music notation nerd stuff. Follow means "adopt whatever meter someone else sends." Lead means "listen up, y'all, this is the meter."

Playtime (AKA Backing Tracks Go Brrrr)

Controls how MIDI files actually play & when OnSong starts flingin' MIDI events around like confetti.

• Route Those MIDI Notes — decides where MIDI note events go during backing track shenanigans. Multi-Channel Setup, hidden in that screen's toolbar, assigns a different destination per channel instead of forcin' everything to the same place like some kinda MIDI totalitarian
• Sendin' Control Events To — picks where CC messages & other controller nonsense get routed. Basic Playback Setup puts it back to one-size-fits-all mode
• Song MIDI Commands — shoots MIDI start/stop/continue orders to your gear, so when you tap that Audio Buttony Thing in the Live Bar, it doesn't just start the track—it also boots up all your connected equipment like they're a coordinated team. Teamwork makes the dream work! 🎸
• Chord Note Events — plays chords from your song through optional sound banks or yells them at connected MIDI devices (you pick which channel). It's like your iPad just became a keyboard player.
• Velocity — sets how HARD those chords smack. Defaults to 64 (polite). Crank it higher for ANGRY CHORDS or lower for chill vibes

Inbound Stupidity (AKA Control)

Tells OnSong how to react when other stuff sends it MIDI commands, includin' which channel it eavesdrops on & how to handle all those controller values.

• Follow Chords — OnSong listens to note events & tries to guess what chords you're playin', then auto-inserts 'em in the Song Editor. Tap it on, stick your cursor in the Song Editor, play a chord on a keyboard, & watch it magically appear. It's like OnSong learned to read your mind. (Spoiler: it didn't, but it's a pretty good bluff.)
• Raw Values FTW — instead of gettin' all fancy with relative positioning, this just takes MIDI values (0-127) at face value. Useful when you're doin' Variable Actions & need something actually literal for once in your life

The Broadcast Booth

OnSong flexes proprietary System Exclusive messages to tell other apps what's happenin' in your song. Tighter integration = less chaos. (Probably.) If you're a developer & wanna learn how to receive this super-secret MIDI gossip, peep our Broadcast SysEx API—it's mostly user-friendly, we promise.

Watch the Light Show (Display Events)

Enables on-screen MIDI event flashies so you can actually see when something happens instead of just hopin' for the best.

• Chord Events — screen flashes when OnSong detects a chord
• Control Events — lights up when CCs are flowin'
• Note Events — shows when notes go On/Off (riveting stuff)
• Program Changes — indicates program & bank select chaos
• Sequence Events — flashes for start/stop/continue commands
• One-Based Index (1-128) — shifts numbering from the boring 0-127 to the cool 1-128. Yeah, we're that petty.
• MIDI Note Start — picks your Middle C reference (Yamaha C3 or Roland C4). Both are correct. Both will start fights.