microKEY Air 37: Success with FluidSynth on Android 14

[edburns]

I am a hobby musician. I have played professionally, I act in a professional manner, but I do not consider myself a professional musician.

I purchased a KORG microKEY Air 37 with the express purpose of trying to keep my piano chops up during a long business trip. This post describes how I successfully configured the microKEY to play sound with my Android 14 phone.

Software stack

• Android 14
• Kernel 5.10.168-atdroid12-9-27760517-abS908U1UES4DXB1 #1 Mon Feb 5 12:03:28 UTC 2024
• MIDI BTLE 1.4.0
• FluidSynth MIDI 2.0.30
• SoundFont files from musical-artifacts.com

Hardware stack

• KORG microKEY Air 37
• Samsung Galax S22 Ultra 128 GB

Steps

1. Install the above software stack.
2. Start FluidSynth and load the SoundFont files downloaded to the phone.
3. Restart the phone.
4. Put microKEY Air in "wireless mode".
5. Start MIDI+BTLE app.
6. Select START BLUETOOTH SCAN.
7. When microKEY2-37 shows up, select it.
8. Start FluidSynth.
9. When the MIDI output port not connected shows up, select it.
10. Select microKEY2-37 Air shows up, select it.
11. Tap elsewhere to dismiss the modal dialog.
12. By default the microKEY Air transmits on midi channel 1. Apparently you can use the Korg Kontrol Windows or Mac app to change this and other settings.