Developer Geert Bevin (Moog Music, LinnStrument, MPE standard co-author) has introduced a free and open-source tool, ShowMIDI, that’s designed to make it easy to visualize what’s going on with MIDI data.
“I had this idea many years ago,” notes Bevin. “This time, when I had to wade through logs of MIDI monitor messages again, I finally rolled up my sleeves and got it implemented. I think it presents real-time MIDI data in a new way that makes it much more understandable and discoverable.”
ShowMIDI is available for macOS, Windows and Linux, with AU, VST, CLAP and LV2 formats. There’s also a standalone version.
It visualizes:
MIDI ports
channels
program change
note on/off
channel pressure
polyphonic pressure
continuous control change
pitchbend
RPN and NRPN
MPE configuration and channel modes
ShowMIDI is designed to be always on and auto-hides past information, using the spacebar you can pause the flow and focus on a data snapshot with the latest state of any MIDI entity.
ShowMIDI is available now as a free download. You can download pre-built binaries for Linux, Mac and Windows, and h@xx0rs can get the source at Github.