Useful Windows Software for Debugging MIDI

[w-u-2-o]

With the recent resurgence of interest in MIDI, thanks to Richie's vast improvements that substantially open up a much larger population of potential controllers, understanding exactly what messages a controller is sending can be very helpful in debugging MIDI setups.

The following two utilities can be of great value when debugging, and can even be used to perform more advanced functions such as translating and routing commands:

https://mountainutilities.eu/miditools

http://www.midiox.com/

https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/showmidi-effortlessly-visualize-midi-activity

To get the most out of these tools a good understanding of MIDI message structure is important. There is an excellent, multi-part article that starts here:

https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/about-midi-part-1-overview

Be sure to continue beyond Part 4 (use the tiny, hard to see links at the bottom of the articles) until you get to the MIDI message diagram article.