Play
CTRL-1

You can also activate play from main menu Play, at line Play :



If you press play all tracks which are not switched to off by mute switches are

- send to your MIDI output device

or

- routed to MIDI Locator's Virtual Sample Player if Virtual Sample Player is visible and an .igr sound library loaded (see more info about Virtual Sample Player
here)

Mute switches

If you want to change more than one mute switch at the same time, please click on it and hold the mouse button down for more than 2 seconds, then a little menu appears.



Please read about mute switches' influence to the render process in Virtual Sample Player's file writer
here.

Determine and send

"Determine and send" section at the beginning of the sequence play process

MIDI Locator
assumes that you will hear a loaded sequence at your MIDI device as it was created by the author, and not influenced by random states of controllers in your device set by a sequence you heard before. MIDI Locator has to detect the device's current controller states and to square them with the needed controller states inside your MIDI sequence, where you go to play now.

If you go to play at the very beginning (at position 001:01:000) MIDI Locator assumes that the author wants your MIDI device in an initialized state, never mind if he forgot a MIDI mode reset at the beginning. To determine the initial values of controllers (which are different in different MIDI modes) MIDI Locator derives the MIDI mode of the loaded sequence from the existens of mode typical MIDI events.

If the current controller states in your MIDI device distinguish from these ones needed at the start point in your sequence, MIDI Locator sends the relevant controllers settings to your device for correct adjustment before it really starts playing your sequence. For knowing which states are active at your device, MIDI Locator keeps careful all last sent states in memory.


Visualisation of Determine and send

MIDI Locator
avoids to send a MIDI mode reset itself, it always sends the correct values of currently "dirty" controllers.

Please note that these can be hundrets of events in worst case, but only some or none in best case.

If you start a sequence in the middle, MIDI Locator follows the controller flow of all MIDI controllers to this point (assuming initialized states at the beginning) so that controllers are then set to states as if you'd switched off/on your device and played to that point.

Only if the next event which will be played in your sequence is a MIDI mode reset, MIDI Locator supresses to square controllers.

We call this feature inside MIDI Locator the determine and send section in a sequence play process.

Nevertheless you can confuse MIDI Locator by switching an external MIDI output device off and on without notification. Then MIDI Locator thinks that the last sent values are still active. So don't do this without manually sending a GM, GS or XG mode reset, so that MIDI Locator clears its value memory, too.

You can manual send a GM, GS or XG mode reset by clicking the right information window (current device mode) :


MIDI mode info windows at MIDI Locator's main application window's bottom


MIDI mode reset dialog

You can switch determine and send off in MIDI Locator's settings menu , on page general.


Settings/general

There you can remove the mark from Determine and send... Then MIDI Locator just plays the events of your sequence and doesn't adjust any controllers before, when you press play.


Controller positions on play parameters of Settings/General

To avoid an overflow of MIDI events in your device by determine and send there is the parameter delay in ms.

This is the amount of time MIDI Locator waits between two controller adjustments and should only be set to a few ms (maybe 5-10). The time cumulates with the number of needed adjustments before a sequence start point.

Determine and send leads to a more easy editing process if you are creating own MIDI sequences, because you don't have manualy reset controllers to their correct states if you permanently alter between different start positions. Also hearing MIDI sequences from authors which forgot to enter controller adjusting MIDI events at the beginning will be much more comfortable - but please note that you have to enter at least a correct MIDI mode reset by a sysex event if you have finished editing your sequence to make it hear like you have created on other MIDI file players.


Rewind preparation

The cursor position is stored in memory when you press play, for recovering it when you press rewind.

Stop CTRL-2

Press stop if you want a playing sequence to stop. If no sequence is running, the stop button sends MIDI events which are necessary to stop probably hanging notes. Hanging notes could appear e.g. if you stop a sequence in a moment where a MIDI controller Sustain on has been sent, but the following Sustain off lies behind the position where you stopped. Usually only necessary when working with Sustain controllers.


Rewind CTRL-4

The rewind button moves your cursor to the position where you started your sequence playing the last time. If you did't play your sequence yet or if you press rewind the second time, your cursor will be placed into the very first measure 0001:01:000.