/
Editor v1.0.14 Manual

Editor v1.0.14 Manual

Owned by James Toh
Last updated: Dec 31, 2021
12 min read

 

For a video guide and overview of the Morningstar Editor watch https://youtu.be/NEl0EievXd0

Overview

While editing directly on the device is possible, the MIDI Editor for Web and Desktop allows you to edit the settings on your controller with ease. The Web Editor should be used with Google Chrome only.

Setting up the Web Editor

When connecting for the first time, the Chrome browser will prompt you to allow access from MIDI devices. Click on Allow.

After which, the Editor will load. If you click on the padlock icon next to the URL, you will see that MIDI devices are allowed full control.

Connecting to your device

Upon connecting your device via USB to the computer, the Editor will load, but it is not communicating with the device yet. You will need to click on Select device to connect.

A drop-down box will show a list of connected devices. Click on the device you intend to connect with.

On Windows, it is not possible to connect 2 or more of the same devices (i.e. 2 MC8s) to the editor as the editor can only detect one device. However, different devices (i.e. 1 MC8 and 1 MC6) can be detected.

This are no such issues for MacOS.

Multiple editor instances can be opened in different tabs if using the Web Editor. Barring the issue for the Windows platform listed above, you can edit multiple device with multiple editors open.

After connecting, the device model will appear on the button. Clicking on the button again will disconnect the editor and exit Editor Mode on the device.

When testing functions on your device, please make sure to exit Editor Mode on the device as some functions are disabled while in Editor Mode.

Controlling your device via the Editor

On the top right panel in the Editor, there are a few buttons to allow you to interact with your controller. The current active Bank and Preset is listed as well.

  • Toggle Preset : Toggle the current active preset between Position 1 and 2.

  • Toggle Page : Toggle the page in the current bank between Page 1 and 2

  • Bank Down : Bank down on the device

  • Bank Up : Bank up on the device

Clicking on the Bank or Preset labels will allow you to select the Bank or Preset to switch to.

Switching between Edit Views

By default, the Editor will launch in the Edit Preset tab. Different tabs allow you to access different editing functions

  • Edit Preset : Edit your current active Preset settings

  • Edit Bank : Edit your current active Bank settings

  • User Library : Allows you to manage your saved PC and CC messages in the Editor.

  • Controller Settings : Allows you to edit the Controller global settings.

  • Controller Backup : Backup and restore your data

  • MIDI Monitor : Allows you to monitor MIDI messages

  • MIDI Dictionary : View a collection of MIDI implementations across a large number of devices.

Edit Preset

Overview

In the Edit Preset tab, you can edit your current active Preset settings. Press a switch on your controller (while in Editor Mode) to load the Preset settings into the Editor.

Toggle, Blink and Message Scroll

The button block below allows you to edit the Toggle function (whether the Preset should toggle between Position 1 and 2), Blink function (whether the Preset Short Name should blink when the Preset is toggled), and Message Scroll function Preset Message Scroll (scroll through messages within a preset) .

Copy, Paste, Swap and Clear

The button block below allows you to copy, paste and swap Presets. This is applied to the current active Preset. You can copy the current active Preset, load a new Preset into the Editor and then click on Paste. This will paste the copied preset into your current active Preset. Clicking on Swap will swap the current active preset with the last copied preset.

Double clicking on Clear will clear the entire Preset.

If you have multiple devices connected to your computer and have multiple Web Editors open, you can click on Copy on one editor and then Paste the settings to the other editor, if you want to quickly transfer your Preset settings between devices.

Save and Load

You can save your Preset setting in the Editor to a .json file by clicking on the Save to File button. A File Dialog box will appear and allow you to save the settings to your computer.

Clicking on Load from File will open a File Dialog box to allow you to select the .json file that you saved using the Save to File function. The settings will load into the editor. You will need to click on Save Preset to save the settings you loaded into your controller.

Save Preset

Clicking on Save Preset will save the Preset settings on the editor to your controller.

Editing Preset Names

The next panel shown below allows you to edit the Preset Short Name, Toggle Name and Long Name. The Short name is what is displayed in the default page view on the controller, while the Toggle Name will replace the Short Name when the Preset is toggled.

The Long Name will be displayed for a short moment when the Preset is engaged.

Editing Preset Messages

The last block allows you to edit the one of many messages (16 on the MC3, MC6MKII and MC8) available in one Preset.

Select an Action

Clicking on the Action Dropdown will allow you to select an action that executes the message.

Select a Message Type

Clicking on the Type dropdown box allows you to select one of the many Message Types that you can pair with the action. More info here: Message Type List

Select the Message toggle setting

The Message toggle setting can be set in the Pos button. Clicking on it will toggle between Both, 1 and 2. Both means that the message will engage in both toggle positions. 1 means that it will only engage when the Preset is in toggle position 1 and likewise for 2.

Clear, Copy and Paste Messages

You can also copy, paste and clear messages using the buttons shown above. The Clear button requires a double click to execute.

Sorting Messages

The Messages can also be sorted by dragging and dropping them into position.

Executing individual messages

If you have got a MIDI message (PC, CC, Note etc) programmed in the editor, you can click on the leftmost Msg n button to send that message to the controller. If your controller’s Cross MIDI Thru setting is turned on, it will forward the message out via its TRS or DIN ports. This is useful if you want to test a specific message with a specific device. For example, setting the MIDI Channel on the Chase Bliss requires a PC message set on the desired MIDI channel. Using this feature will allow you to easily send that message out.

Edit Bank

Overview

In the Edit Bank tab, you can edit your Bank Settings here, as well as execute some Bank functions.

Edit Bank Name

The Bank Name input box allows you to name your Bank on the controller.

Copy, Paste and Swap Banks

Copy Bank will copy the current active bank

Paste Bank will paste the last copied bank into the current active bank.

Swap Bank will swap the current active bank with the last copied bank.

Clear Preset Toggles

The Clear Preset Toggles function, if turned on, will clear the toggle positions of all the presets in the Bank, except the last engaged Preset. This is useful if you want to have only one Preset blinking or Toggle name displayed at any one time to show what was the last engaged Preset.

 

Bank Preset Messages

Similar to Preset Messages, each Bank also has its own set of Messages that it can execute on specific events.

The current events available are:

  • On Enter

  • On Exit

These 2 events allows you to execute specific functions upon entering or exiting the bank.

Sorting Bank Preset Messages

These messages can easily be sorted by dragging and dropping them into place.

Controller Settings

The Controller Settings tab is where you can edit the Controller global settings. If the settings are not loaded, you will need to click on the Load Settings button to load the Controller settings. If the Settings are changed and saved, the controller will restart when it exits Editor Mode. This is done to load the new settings when the controller boots up.

The functions you can edit are:

  • General Configuration

  • Configure Omniports

  • CC Waveform Generator Engines

  • CC Sequencer Engines

  • Edit MIDI Channel Names

  • Re-arrange Banks

General Configuration

Under General Configurations, a number of functions can be edited here:

  • Dual Switch Lock : Whether to lock dual switch presses i.e. Pressing Switch A+B will bank down by default on the MC8. If Dual Switch Lock is enabled, the controller will not bank down when A+B is pressed.

  • MIDI Clock Persist : When the controller is generating MIDI clock signals, MIDI Clock Persist will ensure that the clock signals continue or persists. If MIDI Clock Persist is turned off, pressing any switch or moving the expression pedal will stop the MIDI Clock from generating.

  • Align LCD Names : Whether to align the Preset Names to the switch that engages it. If turned off, the Preset Names will align to the left by default.

  • MIDI Thru : Whether to pass incoming MIDI messages from the MIDI IN port to the MIDI OUT Ports.

  • Cross MIDI Thru : Whether to pass incoming MIDI messages from the MIDI IN port to the USB OUT, or USB IN to MIDI OUT ports. MIDI Clock messages are not passed from USB IN to MIDI OUT.

  • Ignore MIDI Clock: Whether to ignore incoming MIDI Clock signals

  • Save Preset Toggle : Whether to save the Preset toggle position in each bank, such that when you change bank, the Preset toggle positions will be where it last was. Turning this feature off will reset all the Preset Toggle positions to default (Pos 1) when the bank is changed.

  • MIDI Channel : Sets the MIDI Channel for the controller. The controller will respond to MIDI messages sent to its MIDI Channel.

  • Switch Sensitivity : How sensitive the switches should be. Default to 3. More sensitive means that there is less delay between pressing a switch and when the Preset executes, while less sensitive means more delay. If the Switch Sensitivity is higher, executing dual button presses may be harder.

  • Bank Change Delay Time : How much delay there should be when changing banks and when the new bank is loaded. When scrolling through banks (i.e. holding the Bank Up function), this delay will affect how fast you can scroll through the banks.

  • Bank Name Display Time : How long to display the Bank Name for. On the MC8 this setting is not used as the Bank Name is always displayed on the screen.

  • Long Press Time : How long should a switch be pressed down to consider it to be a Long Press action.

Configure Expression Ports

This block allows you to configure how you want to use the Expression Ports.

Each port has a number of options available.

  • Aux Switch : Use a 1-3 button aux switch to control extra Presets in the bank.

  • Expression : Use an Expression Pedal to engage the Expression Presets

  • Fixed Switch 1 : Use a 3 button aux switch to engage the Bank Up, Bank Down and Toggle Page function

  • Fixed Switch 2: Similar to Fixed Sw 1 but the Bank Up and Down functions are swapped.

  • Fixed Switch Custom: This allows you to select specific functions to use with your Aux Switch buttons. This gives you more flexibility as compared to the Fixed Switch 1 and Fixed Switch 2 options.

  • MIDI Out : Configure the port to send MIDI Out using the internal circuit board jumpers (MC8 Only).

  • MIDI Out - Standard: Configure the port to send MIDI Out by the standard way (MIDI on Tip, Power on Ring).

  • MIDI Out - Tip Active: Sends MIDI on the Tip while Ring is left floating.

  • MIDI Out - Ring Active: Sends MIDI on the Ring while Tip is left floating.

CC Waveform Generator Engine

This block allows you to configure the Waveform Generator settings. More info here: CC Waveform Generators

Sequencer Engines

This block allows you to configure the CC Sequencer settings. More info here: CC Sequencer Generators

Scroll Counters

This block allows you to configure the minimum, maximum and default values for each counter.

Counters are used for the PC Number Scroll and CC Value Scroll message types.

There are 16 counters available, Counter 0 (1) to Counter F (16).

 

Edit MIDI Channel Names

This block allows you to edit the MIDI Channel names for each MIDI channel.

If you name your MIDI Channels, the names will be displayed when you are editing your Presets.

When using Control Change messages, the function of the CC number will also be displayed if the device is available in the MIDI Dictionary. In the image below, MIDI Channel 1 is named as “HX Stomp”, and the CC Number 50 executes the Emulates FS2 function on the HX Stomp.

Re-arrange Banks

This block allows you to re-arrange the banks on the controller. More info here: Custom Bank Sequence

Controller Backup

The Controller Backup tab allows you to back up and restore your Current Bank, or All Banks in your controller.

Backing up data

Clicking on Current Bank or All Banks will start the data dump from the controller to the editor.

When the process is done, a file dialog will appear to let you save the data into a file.

Restoring data

When restoring data, please ensure that the controller Use Custom Bank Sequence setting is turned off. If not, the back up will write Bank 1 to 30 according to your Custom Bank Sequence.

When restoring the data, clicking on Browse will open a file dialog to let you select the file you want to load.

Please ensure that there is only one instance of the Editor running. Running multiple editors may results in a back up or restore error.

MIDI Dictionary

In the MIDI Dictionary tab, the MIDI Implementations for a large number of devices are stored here for easy reference. You can select a device and load its MIDI implementation for reference, instead of having to search for the device manual on the web.

If you have named your MIDI Channel, clicking on Copy in the MIDI Dictionary and then Paste in the Edit Preset tab under the Message Type will auto configure CC message parameters and MIDI Channel.