# Stream Deck Virtual MIDI



## cleverr1 (Jun 7, 2022)

I found a great YouTube Video on how to setup a Stream Deck to send MIDI events.

Seems there used to be a plugin call MIDI Button which had its own internal virtual MIDI port, but that's no longer available. There is another called MIDI which doesn't have its own virtual MIDI port. This runs fine with LoopMIDI but it feels really clunky having to launch an interactive app to provide a virtual MIDI port.

Does anyone know of something that runs as a service that does this in the background?

Functionally I'm setting this up for Broadway Lites with its impossible for me to remember multi key articulation switches. It works brilliantly for this but I just hope there's something out there that can do this without an open application window for the MIDI port it uses.

I'm so impressed with the Stream Deck. Its an incredibly versatile piece of kit that I didn't know it existed until earlier this year. I bought it for Cubase shortcuts and it looks like a serious contender for intuitive articulation switching.


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## Markrs (Jun 7, 2022)

cleverr1 said:


> This runs fine with LoopMIDI but it feels really clunky having to launch an interactive app to provide a virtual MIDI port.


LoopMIDI can autostart as that is how I have it on my main computer and then sits in the system tray.


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## cleverr1 (Jun 7, 2022)

Markrs said:


> LoopMIDI can autostart as that is how I have it on my main computer and then sits in the system tray.


I ticked autostart for loopMIDI and closed the GUI after a reboot. Not silent, but the virtual MIDI port still works so this is at least a way forward. Thanks!!


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## aaronventure (Jun 7, 2022)

You can also tick the "Start Minimized" option.


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## cleverr1 (Jun 7, 2022)

aaronventure said:


> You can also tick the "Start Minimized" option.


Thank you!! I'm now happy with LoopMIDI now working in the background.

Thanks both for the helpful comments!

There'll be a fair amount of effort required to program all of the Broadway Lites instruments articulations into folders on the Stream Deck, but having played around with BL Trumpet 1 with labelled articulation buttons it feels like this will be time well spent.


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## wcreed51 (Jun 7, 2022)

I don't see a "MIDI Button", but there's one called just "MIDI" that you might want to check out


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## cleverr1 (Jun 7, 2022)

wcreed51 said:


> I don't see a "MIDI Button", but there's one called just "MIDI" that you might want to check out


Yes thanks - this thread's about how to use MIDI with LoopMIDI. MIDI works great and thanks to the above replies having LoopMIDI starting silently in the system tray appears to be a good solution after the demise of MIDI button.

IMHO Stream Deck is a relatively unsung 'must have' piece of kit which has thus far dealt with everything asked of it here.


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## Henu (Jun 8, 2022)

wcreed51 said:


> I don't see a "MIDI Button", but there's one called just "MIDI" that you might want to check out


I'd love to get some more info about this one, if you have any? I found LoopMIDI unreliable and clunky, and would love to get a much more simpler solution to my hands if there is any. You know, something that just sends pre-defined values with a single command into a track and that's all. Is there anything that does that without having to install and use LoopMIDI?


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## cleverr1 (Jun 8, 2022)

Henu said:


> I'd love to get some more info about this one, if you have any? I found LoopMIDI unreliable and clunky, and would love to get a much more simpler solution to my hands if there is any. You know, something that just sends pre-defined values with a single command into a track and that's all. Is there anything that does that without having to install and use LoopMIDI?


As it appears to be the only solution currently available I've kicked the tyres of using the "MIDI" plugin with LoopMIDI today running LoopMIDI with AutoStart and Start Minimised options.

I'm about to invest some time in building Stream Deck articulation folders for all of the Broadway Lites instruments, so I want to validate a solution before spending hours on something that may turn out to be unreliable.

After several test restarts as long as I waited for long enough for the auto starts that are setup to happen before launching the DAW (Cubase 12 here) it's been 100% and rock solid. I didn't even notice that LoopMIDI is there.

I'm still curious about what happened to "MIDI Button" as it looks like a simple elegant solution.


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## cleverr1 (Jul 27, 2022)

After running with Loop Midi auto starting silently to route Streamdeck MIDI back to Cubase for several weeks now it's been solid. This is major here for switching articulations as you get to press a button for each art on which it says what it actually does regardless of how many multi note selections it may be using under the surface.

The Streamdeck XL is right up there with my best hardware purchases


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