I am using the latest version of Djay (4.1.10) on iOS 17.0.2. I wonder if someone knows how to rename a (usb) connected midi device inside Djay, or otherwise from somewhere in iOS? I was unable to find any way inside Djay and have not found any “midi setup” app which allows this. Maybe someone here knows?
Renaming them on my Mac does not help since the devices are of course read-only and the names are hardcoded, it has to be done on the operating system which I use them on.
The reason is I have two Akai AFX midi controllers connected and they are named the same in Djays midi settings, making it confusing and hard to separate them when midi-mapping. Also it appears sometimes one device loses its mapping and it gets overriden by the other one, likely because of the identical naming. If I could name them AFX1 and AFX2 it would be easier.
@Tessel I don’t have 2 of the same MIDI controllers to test with, but you could try to rename the MIDI mapping file for each controller. Djay does a pretty good job of remembering which MIDI mapping you used last time and keeping them the same.
Start with only one controller plugged in.
Go to Settings>MIDI Devices>MIDI DEVICES>AKAI AFX>MIDI CONFIGURATIONS> and select your first AKAI AFX here.
Here you should see the (built-in) MIDI Mapping.
Select Edit at the top right then Duplicate at the bottom right.
Now select the newly created MIDI mapping and select Rename at the bottom.
Once renamed hit Done at the top right then select the new MIDI mapping you just renamed.
Now try plugging in the 2nd controller and repeating the steps above.
With a little luck, djay should remember the MIDI mapping file for each controller every time you connect them.
Thanks for the guide. I forgot to mention I have done exactly this. Since I use one AFX for the left deck I have it mapped for Djays Deck 1, and the other for Deck 2, in two separate files.
Now that I think of it at one point one of them was disconnected and when I reconnected it, it was assigned the wrong mapping automatically, so I assume Djay only uses MIDI device name instead of some other device/channel ID. It’s just fiddly and if I could rename them it would be easier. But maybe it’s not possible.
@Tessel have you tried downloading MIDI Scope for iOS? It will give you more information about connected MIDI Devices. Perhaps there’s something in there that will help.
It might be that the name of the device is hardcoded on the device itself ie. in Akai AFX.
So if when iOS asks the info from the device, the device will send back the name of the device.
So the renaming might not be possible, so you better check more info from Akai…
Yes, I suppose one could say that all midi devices names are hardcoded in a sense. Since they show a name in the operating system when you plug it in and they are generally not read-write devices.
I can rename it perfectly fine in the MacOS midi-settings - and it remembers the name when I plug it in the next time - but it would be cool if there was a function or an app for that in iOS as well.
