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Developer Geert Bevin (Moog Music, LinnStrument, the MPE Specification) has released a new tool, ShowMIDI 1.0.0, that turns MIDI information into beautiful and easy to understand visuals.

Most MIDI tools display the protocol’s messages as essentially a ‘firehose’ of data, which can make it challenging to understand. ShowMIDI parses and visualizes the data, translating the stream of details into concise charts and visualizations that make it much easier to understand.

“Instead of wading through logs of MIDI messages to correlate relevant ones and identify what is happening, ShowMIDI visualizes the current activity and hides what you don’t care about anymore,” explains Bevin. “It provides you with a real-time, glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer.”

Best of, it’s free and available now for iOS, Linux, Mac + Windows.

ShowMIDI is designed to be always on. Using the spacebar or play/pause button, you can pause the flow and focus on a data snapshot with the latest state of any MIDI entity.

ShowMIDI can be run as a standalone application that automatically detects all your MIDI devices, or as an AUv3 plugin in your DAW or host to visualize MIDI data in your sessions.

ShowMIDI 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

In addition to being free, ShowMIDI is available as open source via Github.

Free X-Stream spectral synth can ‘turn any samples into smooth evolving soundscapes and textures’

If you like to experiment with new sound design ideas, you’re going to love this freebie from Steinberg. Not just for ambient music!

Said to ‘turn any samples into smooth evolving soundscapes and textures,’ this works by stretching, looping and otherwise manipulating your audio using its spectral algorithms and effects. In fact, although playback is monophonic, you can actually feed X-Stream complete tracks if you wish, then get busy twisting them out of shape.

Also, pitch-shifted copies of your sample can be stacked up to create chords that can be played from just one note. You can modulate two parameters simultaneously on two different axes with the X-LFO, and it promises to be easy to create custom envelope shapes.

“With X-Stream, you can unfold the full spectrum of possible sounds from your sample collection,” says Senior Marketing Manager Florian Haack. “Hit play and your sample transforms into something new and beautiful, with different tones, colours and textures. It also works perfectly as a drone machine for ambient music, making it a creative tool for imaginative composers and sound designers in all genres. And all of that comes for free.”

X-Stream Audio Demo:

Although there’s a heavy emphasis on what X-Stream can do to your own samples, it also comes with more than 100 presets to get you started. It is important to note that the instrument is not a standalone plugin. The instrument runs inside either Steinberg’s HALion 7.1 workstation or the free HALion Sonic 7.1, both of which have just been updated. HALion 7.1 is available at a 50% discount until the end of July.

Whichever route you choose to take, X-Stream runs on Window and macOS and can be downloaded for free from the Steinberg website.