MIDI iOS

1. Connect the iPad to your gear

QMe sends MIDI out of the iPad. Your device has to be listening on a MIDI connection, not just a USB audio cable.

• Wired (best for the stage): a USB MIDI interface that works with iPad without a driver, such as the CME U2MIDI Pro, plus a USB-C adapter if its plug is the older USB kind. Plug its MIDI OUT into your device's MIDI In.
• Small 1/8" MIDI jacks (HeadRush, many pedals): add a Type A 1/8" (3.5 mm) TRS to 5-pin MIDI adapter. Check your device's manual for Type A or Type B.
• Bluetooth: a Bluetooth MIDI adapter on the device, paired in Tools → MIDI Devices. Fine for preset changes. For tempo, use a cable.

2. Add your device to My Gear

Pick what it is: Line 6 Helix and HX, Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Kemper, Fractal, HeadRush, Boss, TONEX, Fender, mixers, lighting, ProPresenter and more. QMe sets the channel, the numbering and the message type for that device, so presets read the way the device shows them ("Setlist 2 · 05B", "Scene 12").

• Channel: match the MIDI channel set on the device (or set the device to Omni).
• Send to: every MIDI output, or just the interface this device is on.
• Send a little early: section changes go out on the last line before the section, so a slow preset load lands on the downbeat.
• Use at this gig: turn off when the device is not with you, and its cues are skipped.
• Send each song's tempo: delays and modulation follow each song's tempo. Use a cable for this.

3. Name your presets and rigs

Some devices only know a number over MIDI. Pick the number, type the name it has on your device, and every cue shows it: Cuts Like a Knife · Prog 1. You can also swipe left on any preset in the picker and tap Name. Names follow your account to your other devices.

Send this now sends that preset straight away, so you can check the connection before the gig.

4. Add cues to a song

• Song start: sent the moment the song opens, from search, the library or a setlist. You do not need to press Play, and it works without Voice Follow or Auto Scroll.
• Sections: sent when the prompter reaches the section, by voice, scrolling, pedal or tapping a line.
• On a line: a single hit on one line: a blackout, a spotlight, a stomp.

Jump around or repeat a chorus and every device catches up to where you are. Cues on at the top turns them all off to rehearse without changing your gear.

Setting up a whole library? My Gear → your device → Choose a preset for each song lists every song so you can set them in one go.

Learn a rig or a light cue from the Chart New in 1.48

The quickest way to set a section's rig: open the Chart, hold the rig button on the section and change your rig on the device. QMe hears the change and saves it as that section's cue. Hold the light button to give the section its own lighting cue, sent straight away so your lighting app can learn the look. For learning, the device's MIDI Out has to reach the iPad too. See Rig and light buttons.

5. Setlists

Opening a song always sends its song start cues. Turn this on so moving to the next song in a set sends them too.

Example: HeadRush Flex Prime

1. On the HeadRush, open Global Settings → MIDI: turn on Prog Change Recv and set MIDI Channel to 1 (or Omni).
2. For each rig, tap the footswitch icon (top right of the main screen) → Hardware Assign → MIDI Prog, pick a number (0 to 127), and save the rig under the same name. A rig saved under a new name loses its number.
3. Connect: iPad → USB MIDI interface → Type A adapter → the Flex Prime's MIDI In. Its Bluetooth is for audio only.
4. In QMe, add HeadRush (Flex Prime, Prime, Core, MX5) to My Gear, name each rig under Test and name, and add a Song start cue to each song.

Nothing changes on the device?

1. My Gear says "No MIDI output is connected right now": the connection is the problem. See step 1.
2. Open MIDI Monitor (in MIDI Cues) and tap Send this now. If the message shows there but the device does not change, check the device's MIDI channel and that it is set to receive program changes.
3. Check Cues on and the device's Use at this gig switch.
4. In a setlist, check Send MIDI on Song Change.

Connect your gear

Pair Bluetooth MIDI devices, see every connected output, and target one (or broadcast to all). A Test Messages section sends Program Changes and Control Changes on demand so you can prove the connection before a gig.

Per-song and per-section MIDI

Give each song Song Start actions (patch selects, scenes) and By Section actions, clean for the verse, drive for the chorus, boost for the solo, fired automatically as the prompter enters each section, however you got there. Each action has a name, type (PC/CC), channel, values, and optional bank select. MIDI Learn captures values straight from your gear, and Test fires an action immediately.

When Song Start fires: whenever the song opens in the teleprompter, from the library, from search, from a setlist, anywhere. You don’t need a setlist for a song’s own MIDI to work.

Where it goes: to every connected MIDI output at once. The device picker in Tools → MIDI Devices only narrows the Test buttons; it never limits what a song sends during playback.

MIDI through a setlist

With this on, moving to the next song in a set automatically fires that song’s MIDI, your rig follows the setlist by itself.

Control QMe from a MIDI pedal board

Drive the teleprompter from a Morningstar MC8, a Behringer FCB1010, or any controller that sends Control Change messages. Turn on Control QMe with MIDI, then tap Learn beside any of the six pedal actions and press the button on your board. QMe listens on every MIDI channel on purpose, so a board that gets re-channelled between gigs keeps working.

Nothing is assigned until you assign it. That is deliberate: CC 64 is the standard sustain pedal controller, so a preset binding would let a keyboard player stop their song every time they pressed sustain. If your board follows the SongBook Pro convention, Use Suggested sets CC 65 to advance and CC 64 to start and stop in one tap.

A MIDI board and a Bluetooth pedal work at the same time, so you can switch between them mid-set without reprogramming anything.

Turned off by default, so if you use MIDI only for patch changes a stray CC can never start your song.

Bulk MIDI import

Migrating? Import your entire library’s MIDI in one pass on the web console, from a CSV export or straight from a SongBook Pro backup. See Web Tools.