[Solved] Midi Device Names for Hardware Devices with the Same Name

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I’m trying to add an additional MIDI device that has the same name as an existing device … and it has cause havoc with my rig because the MIDI names keep changing.

I have a device [Sylphyo Link] (it’s a radio/wireless receiver for my Sylphyo). I’d like to add a second one, to accommodate a second Sylphyo player at an upcoming gig and also to pave the way in the future for a backup receiver.

The Sylphyo Link presents 3 MIDI devices, which get named [Sylphyo Link 1], [Sylphyo Link 2], and [Sylphyo Link 3]. I figured out long ago which of the three is tied to which hardware port and things have been grande.

Plugging in a second Sylphyo Link gives me [Sylphyo Link 4 through 6] … fair enough. But the original Sylphyo Link becomes [4-6] and the newly added Sylphyo Link is bound to [1-3]. This is a disaster, because the original one is the head of a hardware MIDI-Thru chain, and I’m now addressing the wrong MIDI port.

I’ve tried:

Results were the same in each case: my devices appeared out of order.

Bizarrely, if I turn off the second Sylphyo Link device (which has grabbed ports [1-3]), the my original Sylphyo Link device switches from slots [4-6] to [1-3] on the fly. Everything then works as before, but I don’t have the second Sylphyo Link plugged in.

If anyone could point me to a resource that actually lets me handle this situation, I would really appreciate it …

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Have you tried Ghostbuster to remove all the registered ports so you can start over? Not sure but It sounds like you may need to reverse the installation after you clear the MIDI ports out of Win10 (secondary Sylphyo first then primary second)

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GhostBuster is (pretty) cool. It identified dozens of ghosted entries for my Sylphyo Link devices. However … “busting” the ghosted entries in GhostBuster is not very selective … the interface allows selection by “device” (which is broad and generic) and other broad/generic categories, so I would of deleing entries that were not related to the Sylphyo Link and it was a bit nerve racking … but no damage seems to have been done.

However, the reality seems to have nothing to do with the classic “ghosted” entries for which Windows is famous. By experimentation, I found that Windows is freely binding the devices to names in the order that they are powered up.

To switch the order, I merely have to power them both down and turn them on in the order I want. This does seem to work, and the assignment is dynamic, with the system running, even with the MIDI ports of the devices bound to software processes.

So … I can live with this as a procedural issue. If I’ve got multiple devices of the same name hooked up, I have to power them both down, and then power them up in order, before or after boot-up.

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Sergio had the same thing happen with his wireless MIDI. Glad you got it sorted Clint!

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I’m going to remember this, as it’s good to know for those of us who might want to use two controllers of the same make / family that use the same driver (like Korg’s “Generic USB MIDI”).

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And the amazing thing is that it seems to work “live” just by turning off and on MIDI units …

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I have a pair of m-audio Axiom 61’s that swap places - I’ll try the power on in order method