1. The MP MIDI Controller Application

Modified on Mon, 4 Nov at 12:08 PM

The MP MIDI Controller app is a plugin (VST3/AU/AAX and standalone application for Mac and Windows) that transforms the MP Controller to a flexible, comprehensive midi controller.

The app features 32 encoders and 32 buttons on each page and there are 32 pages. That is a total of 1024 midi encoders and buttons ready to be used.

Here is a video overview of the MIDI app: https://youtu.be/7miAnnNMvmA

Mixer Mode
In the November 2024 update we have introduced the Mixer Mode view. See the documentation here

The guide and midi remote script for Cubase can be found here

Installation

The installer will install the standalone application and the VST3/AU/AAX plugins and create the necessary folders under /MP/Host. After installation you can just run the app or load the plugin in your DAW.

Only one instance should be run at any given time. Either the standalone app or the plugin. Do not run both.

The standalone app is installed in the Applications folder on the Mac and in Program Files on Windows.

In Windows, a desktop shortcut is also created.

Opening, closing and quitting the standalone app

To open the app after you double click on the desktop icon, you need to click on the small icon, on Windows taskbar The same applies to the Mac, the app icon appears on the top bar.

To close the app window click on the taskbar/topbar icon or click on the "Close Window" button on the application.

To quit the application you need to right click on the taskbar/topbar icon

A pop up window will appear asking to confirm if you want to quit

MIDI Ports

The MIDI device of the MP Controller app will be displayed in Mac OS and Windows as "MP MIDI" (not as c1-xMP1).

You can use the MP MIDI Controller app/plugin as a standard midi controller to control any DAW, software or hardware that sends and receives midi.

The "MP MIDI" is a virtual port and it listens and sends midi to the c1-xMP1.

Setup MIDI on Mac

No routing is necessary on the MIDI router to use the MP MIDI app with your DAW.

On the Mac, clicking on the MIDI router button will show up the available MIDI IN and OUT ports.

The MP MIDI port can be selected in your DAW for IN and OUT, to send and receive MIDI.

Setup MIDI on Windows

To use the MP MIDI on Windows, you need to install a virtual midi port software. We recommend loopMIDI which is a free utility software. There are others as well like LoopBe30.

LoopMIDI allows you to create a many virtual ports you need and set custom names for each port.

For the MP MIDI we need two ports, one for sending another one for receiving MIDI.

After you install loopMIDI, open loopMIDI and add a port, name it "TO DAW", then add another port and name it "FROM DAW"

so it will look like this:

Keep in mind that each port "TO DAW" and "FROM DAW" both carry MIDI inputs and outputs. Therefore, you will see them listed in both the MIDI inputs and MIDI outputs of your DAW and the MP MIDI app.

There is a button on the bottom right named MIDI devices. This menu allows you to select which MIDI devices will be visible in the MIDI router. The MP MIDI app does not use a MIDI device unless it is linked to another device in the MIDI Router.

Then click on the MIDI Router button on the MP MIDI app and click and drag to create the following routing:

Select the MIDI devices from the MIDI DEVICES menu that you want to use. 
Selecting a device makes it visible in the MIDI router, however the device will only be used (consumed on Windows) when a line is drawn from the device to another device).

Click to close the MIDI Router and Save the default preset, choosing to overwrite it.

Note that, if a port is used by another application or is missing (for example loopMIDI is not running) when opening an MP MIDI app preset, the port missing will appear with a grey color and the connection line in red, indicating that a connection cannot be made

In your DAW, choose the TO DAW for the MIDI IN port, and FROM DAW for the MIDI OUT port.

It should look like this:

Now, you can send and receive MIDI from/to your DAW.

On Windows, to check if your midi ports are free,  Midiview is a free app that can tell you if a device is occupied by another app.

The MP MIDI app also features an XY pad which can control 3 CC on each axis

Using the Plugin Panel

The plugin panel was added in the July 2024 update and it can be used to switch plugins on the MP Host and switch on the Ableton Control Surface (Ableton MPH). The Plugin Panel Feature is only available when running the MP MIDI plugin (not the standalone application) and/or Ableton MPH plugin (not the standalone application).

MIDI CC on encoders and buttons

The app creates a default preset where the encoders are assigned from midi Channel 1, CC 0 to 31 and buttons CC 32 to 63 on the first page.

On the second page, the encoders are assigned from midi Channel 1, CC 64 to 95 and buttons CC 96 to 127.

The same pattern repeats for all 16 midi channels, so every 2 pages, the channel number increases by 1 and the default CC assigned to buttons and encoders are the same as pages 1 and 2.

Each encoder has a default label: Channel.CC. For example, 1.31 means Channel 1, CC 31

When you double click on an encoder label area it opens a text box to type in the label you want for the encoder.

and it will appear as

The Encoder CC & Ch button displays the list of CC ids assigned to each encoder on the currently selected page. We can change the CC and Channel for each encoder from that list.

Each page has a title which can be written under the Preset name

Right Click Menu options

1. The right click menu on the area allows to select an option to save the CC values of the buttons and encoders.

If this is selected the presets saved will include the current values of the encoders and buttons.

2. From this menu you can also select the target monitor.

3. Selecting Fullscreen or Window Mode of the app window)

4. You can choose to have the virtual encoders rotated as the bottom row of encoders.

5. This will display the Channel.CC on each encoder and button.

Encoder Options

Right click and choose Encoder Options form the menu to show the encoder options for each encoder.

The encoder options are described here

Additionally, there is an Sync option in the MP MIDI App.

This is checked (enabled) by default on all encoders and it will sync encoders with the same CC id and channel.

When you have multiple encoders with the same CC id and channel they will be synced when you turn one of them.

This is useful when you set encoders with the same CC ids and channel on multiple pages.

To set the CC id and channel on an encoder use the "Encoder CC & Ch" button.

Pages

The pages button will show a menu on screen to select 32 pages.

The title of a page is displayed at the bottom of each page button

When you right click on a page button, the options menu appears on top.

Here you can set a CC message to be sent when clicking on a page button. This is useful because you can assign it to your DAW to perform a certain action upon changing a page on the controller, like open a audio effect device or instrument.

Presets

A preset file when saved will carry all the changes made within the application, except the current CC values of the encoders and buttons. This includes CC ids, background images on buttons and on the pages, colors of encoders, names assigned on encoders, buttons and the favorites.

Presets can be saved with the Save and Save As buttons. The can be recalled via the Open button or via the Favorites button (if these presets have been assigned to Favorites).

Choosing the option Save with values, will save the current values of the encoders and buttons from all pages.

Favorites

Clicking on the Favorites button will open the Favorites page

Here you have a total of 16 buttons to name them as you wish for different categories.

Right click on a button and it will allow you to type a name

Right click on a preset button and it will preset the following options:

You can select a preset to be loaded when clicking on the button.

Select an image to appear on the button (images will be copied in the MP\Host\MP MIDI Presets\Images folder)

Select to show the Favorites page when the app starts.

Reset the favorite.

Encoder Options and Hi Res

The encoder options offer the same options as in the MPH. For all the options and the Hi Res buttons see the article here

Button and Options

Each button displays the assigned channel, CC and value on the top right.

Right clicking twice in the bottom row on a button allows to type in a name for the button.

Right click on any button and the button options will appear on the area on top of the buttons.

The main option buttons on the left:

Show/Hide: shows and hides the selected button.
Options: displays the 3 options to select the button type.
Push Options: displays the options when the selected button type is Push.
Select Color: displays 2 color palettes to select button colors for the pressed and non pressed state.
Select Image: Select an image for the button.
Close: closes the menu.

While you have the button options menu open, you may right click on another button and it will show the options of that button.

Button Types

Push (default) - This is a momentary button type that when released will return to the non-pressed state.

Here we can assign a Channel, CC id and a CC value for that button.

You can also set the selected button to play a note or set all the buttons of that page to play notes.

The following options are available:

Selecting Note will set the selected button to play a note when pressed. When this option is selected, the following options appear. The middle is the note selection dropdown and the right is the octave selection dropdown.

If All Button Notes is selected then all the buttons in that page will play notes, starting from the note of the top left button. Changing the note from the dropdown will cause all the buttons to continue with notes after the top left button.

When closing and reopening the button menu, will allow you to set individual options for each button. So, you may set for instance, one button to send CC messages instead of notes, while all the other buttons still send notes.

The option All buttons CC will cause all buttons in the page to send CC messages

The starting CC for all buttons is set here

Toggle - This is a permanent type button that when pressed again will go to the non-pressed state.

The default Toggle button type range is 0 for minimum and 100 for maximum.

Permanent - This is a permanent type that can only be pressed once. You can set multiple Permanent type buttons on the same parameter to set a specific target value on the controlled parameter. When other Permanent type buttons are pressed will cause the rest of the Permanent values to change state to not pressed.

Push Button Options

Go to specific value on release - This option will set the parameter to a specific value when the button is released. This option is not available when selecting either of the following 2 options, however it is available to be selected along with the last 2 options.

On every press increment - This option on every press of the button will increase the value by the value set in the box.

On every press decrement - This option on every press of the button will decrease the value by the value set in the box.

Increment every (ms) - This option increase the value of the parameter when the button is kept pressed every miliseconds set. The value of increment is taken from the box set on the option "On every press increment".

Decrement every (ms) - This option decreases the value of the parameter when the button is kept pressed every miliseconds set. The value of increment is taken from the box set on the option "On every press decrement".

Round Robin - This option affects all push options. It will cause the buttons to loop through when reaching 0 or 100.

Go to page - If checked it will open the page selected from the dropdown upon clicking on the button.

Go to preset - If checked it will open the selected preset upon clicking on the button.

Send Keyboard Keys - (September 2024 Update) It sends keyboard keys to the selected application. See article here

With this option you can assign colors to the pressed and non pressed states of buttons.

Images on Buttons

You can select an image to be displayed on each button via the "Select Image" option on the menu.

These can be png or jpg image files. The size does not matter but to preserve the ratio of the original image choose an image that is square. The image is converted automatically to a smaller image and copied in the MP\Host\MP MIDI Presets\Images folder.

You can have a color and an image set on a button. If you use a png image with transparency then the colors you have set for pressed/un pressed states will be visible. The images are set with partial opacity so the colors set on the button are still visible.

You can get png icon images for free from many sites.

You can use the "Select Image" option and then Remove Image to remove an image from a button.

The buttons are transparent, therefore if you assigned images with background to color to them, they may blend with the assigned colors.

You can download some icons for the buttons we used in our promo video from here

MIDI Router

The MIDI router button will show all the available MIDI ports on your computer.

You can create multiple routings by clicking and dragging lines from and to each port.

The routings you make will be saved in the preset.

Note that, if a port is used by another application or is missing (for example loopMIDI is not running) when opening an MP MIDI app preset, the port missing will appear with a grey color and the connection line in red, indicating that a connection cannot be made