MIDI over Bluetooth LE Connection for Android App

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E-Gwen
Posts: 6

Post by E-Gwen »

Hi,

I were very pleased to be able to connect an andoid device to Synthesia 10.7 by MIDI over Bluetooth.

Is there a way to do it ?

Will Android phones be able to connect to keyboard this way, as iOS allow it through an App, cos' there is no subject about this feature when you want to get support on your website "Which ports your keyboard have ? :?:

Best regards. :geek:
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Nicholas
Posts: 13170

Post by Nicholas »

You should be able to get a Bluetooth MIDI keyboard working with Synthesia by doing the following:
  1. Make sure the "Music Device Connection Method" is set to "Android M  MIDI".  This can be found at the top of the Settings screen.
    Spoiler:
    Music Device Connection.png
    Music Device Connection.png (36.91 KiB) Viewed 3986 times
  2. If you had to actually change the setting, it usually helps to swipe the app completely closed and restart it.
  3. Pair the keyboard using any third-party app with a BLE MIDI feature, like this one.
  4. Once you re-open Synthesia, your keyboard should pop into the list automatically.
For what it's worth, I've had a terrible experience with BLE latency on every Android device I've tested. On the iPad it usually "just works" and is close enough to the same experience you get with a wired keyboard. On Android, I've routinely seen half-second delays, tons of jitter, and constantly dropped messages. So while it's technically possible, for now I still recommend connecting directly with a cable.
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E-Gwen
Posts: 6

Post by E-Gwen »

Thank you.

The tab doesn't appear with my device, so I can't do this way.

I manage to connect my keyboard Akai lpk25 wireless with the BLE Scanner App ! Yes, I do. :x

So can you add the bluetooth access tab directly in the Synthesia App to choose the already connected keyboard ?

Cheers. :)
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Nicholas
Posts: 13170

Post by Nicholas »

Adding the scanning feature directly to Synthesia would mean adding several unsavory permissions ("Bluetooth Administration" and "Location") that I really don't want the app to have. Today the way Android does MIDI device discovery is a little extreme and not just as easy as asking the system for a list of nearby BLE-MIDI devices. Since the workaround is to install a tiny, free third-party app that already does exactly that part of the process, I haven't been too worried about adding things that will make Synthesia look suspicious. Like, "why does my piano practice app need to know my location?" That's a good question. It doesn't.
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Bebe1980
Posts: 2

Post by Bebe1980 »

Hi... new user here - thanks for the product works great on our Casio LKS250 - lights and all!

Just got Synthesia working with Kawai ES110 using (3rd party - Bluetooth MIDI Connect app) on my Amazon Fire Tablet (Android)

All the basics seem to be working ok ... but when I try the free play and using different instruments all I get is the piano sound - no change - I am running the output back to ES110 via MIDI

Is there something I need to tweak to get that working too or is that a known issue?

Thanks
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Bebe1980
Posts: 2

Post by Bebe1980 »

Think I've found the answer to this - the Casio LKS250 has audio in, whereas the ES110 doesn't :( - so I need to connect some headphones to the pc or tablet to get the sound from there.
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