Failed to open MIDI IN device: Use the Registry?

Fri 12/28/2012 7:58 am. BOME is a wonderful thing but I would really like it to STOP doing this.

1. In an effort to add a keyboard to my ridiculous virtual organ (owenlabs.org/nordn3.htm#note_3rdkey) I moved my M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB interface from one USB hub input to another.

2. Which of course caused BOME (V1.72 build 1285) to entirely cease operating and generate the idiotic start-up error:

Failed to open MIDI IN device "2-Fast Track Pro MIDI In"

Because of course Windows had fiendishly *renamed* my MIDI interface to "3-Fast Track" etc.

3. (Long infuriating time passes ...) Eventually I fired up REGEDIT in my W7 64-bit latest-updates system, searched for "fast track", and found the evil "2- Fast Track" etc. in

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bome Software\Bome's Midi Translator Pro\MidiTranslator\MIDI.alias]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bome Software\Bome's Midi Translator Pro\MidiTranslator\MIDI.in]

and if I find it anywhere else I will do the same thing, which was to DELETE the registry entry, for instance something like "Name11"="2- Fast Track Pro MIDI In".

THAT stopped Bome's idiotic error message.

4. Bome still didn't work, but that apparently was my endless hackery of the BMTP file, and when I replaced it with a saved copy of the previously-working one, everything was good. Easy-Peasey eh?

5. I should note that during all this, I could figure-out the *real* name of the constantly-renamed M-Audio interface with MIDIOX which *doesn't* have these confusions.

HOW BOME SHOULD BE MODIFIED

There should be some way to delete these old names IN THE *&)(*&)& PROGRAM, that is, **NOT** HIDDEN IN THE REGISTRY. Please please PLEASE!

Can you imagine how many people have tried BOME and given-up on it for this simple reason? It is after all quite a common thing for people to be wildly plugging-in and -out USB gadgets, and I understand that's one of the reasons *FOR* the "feature" -- but you should let us EASILY get rid of the old names after the 37th "Failed to open MIDI IN" message.

-- best wishes,

j.g.o. * owenlabs.org

Why don't you choose a midi alias for "2-Fast Track Pro MIDI In" and choose the "3-Fast Track Pro MIDI In", instead?

//Wed 1/02/2013 1:53 pm. Lack of psychic powers? ... I guess you're suggesting instead of raging through the registry with regedit, I *should've* raged through BOME looking for the evil thing. And you're probably right. But I can *search* the registry; I *can't search* BOME. So I will try and remember the next time this happens to go find the offending alias. And maybe I'll find it!

The obvious thing Bome *should* do is, when it puts up that annoying error message, have a button "don't try to open this device again"; and it could have an "Are You Sure?" confirmation if you want.

-- cordially,

j.g.o. * owenlabs.org

//Wed 1/02/2013 2:00 pm. Ooops see I left-out crucial bit; my offending thing already *had* an alias, pretty-much by accident. Which is the only reason I *understood* your suggestion! ... I mean it's still probably the best and/or only approach. -- j.g.o.

jgowen wrote:The obvious thing Bome *should* do is, when it puts up that annoying error message, have a button "don't try to open this device again"; and it could have an "Are You Sure?" confirmation if you want.
j.g.o. * owenlabs.org

Florian is aware of the problem(see last post) : http://www.bome.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3820

So we wait for the next version...Until then ,you have to manually make an alias once and ignore that annoying error message!
Happy new year

Hi jgowen,

I can understand your frustration and you raise a valid point. It is as easy as unchecking (Windows) or double-clicking (OS X) the port in the MIDI port list so that it's not "open" or "pending" anymore. Then MT will not try to open it upon next restart.

The REASON why MT does this is that it remembers all ports that are open when closing MT. Next time you'll start it, it'll retry to open them again to re-establish the state it was before. Now it can only match MIDI devices by name. If the name has changed, it seems like a different device, and I think it's very important to notify the user that a particular MIDI port cannot be opened.

Imagine a live situation where you need to restart MT (or the computer) and need to get things going as fast as possible. That's where this MIDI port persistence is crucial. It also works if you accidentally unplug a device and replug it. MT will re-open it within seconds.

Many users only use MT for this behavior -- they use MT to solely pass through MIDI data and make sure ports are used when plugged in.

But it's a very good suggestion to tell the user how to stop this error message. Will come.

Thanks,
Florian

Tue 1/08/2013 7:36 am.

>> It is as easy as unchecking (Windows) or double-clicking (OS X) the port in the MIDI port list <<

That's the top menu "MIDI" / "MIDI Ports" I assume. And yes I see the check boxes. That does look a lot easier than trolling through the registry in a hysterical fit....

I'm not going to try and restage my annoyance, but as far as I remember, BOME *stopped* with a modal error message. If that's so, *that's* why it ought to have the "uncheck" logic available at the modal error message. Or, as you suggest, at least tell the poor user where to fix it.

-- best wishes,

jgo * owenlabs.org

yes, it is annoying for me, too, so I'll add a one-click way to close/disable a port right from that pop-up.
Thanks,
Florian