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Map MIDI and Keyboard

Drive scenes, masters and functions from a MIDI controller or the keyboard.

Control Mapping connects physical controls to actions. A mapping links one or more controls to one or more targets, and both sides can be mixed freely.

Set up a MIDI device

MIDI devices connect to the machine the kernel runs on. Open Settings → MIDI.

  1. Click New Device and name it.
  2. Open it and pick the Input Device. Pick an Output Device too if the controller has LEDs or motor faders.
  3. Add the controls you need with Button, Fader and Encoder.
  4. For each one, press Learn and do what the prompt says on the hardware.

Learn captures the note and channel for you, so you never have to look up MIDI numbers. A button asks for a push and a release, an encoder for a turn each way, a fader for a move.

MIDI Input List

Name the controls after their position on the hardware, for example Row 1 Button 3, not after what they do. The same device usually ends up driving different things in different projects.

Using Feedback Color Mapping you can set the color of the feedback LED on RGB controllers. This way you can easily select it in the mapping later.

Move a device to another computer

A configured MIDI device can be written to a file and read back in on another machine. Export in the device's context menu and at the bottom of the device details, Import below the device list.

If a device with the same id already exists, nextDMX4 asks what should happen:

  • Update keeps the existing device and merges the controls. Controls that exist on both sides are taken from the file. The name and the selected Input and Output Device stay as they are, because port names differ between machines.
  • Replace overwrites the existing device.
  • Add as new adds a second device with new ids. Control Mappings are not carried over.

MIDI devices live in the Kernel config, not in the project file. They are available in every project on that machine, and they are not part of a project export.

Create a mapping

Open Project Settings → Control Mapping and click New Mapping.

  1. Under Controls, click Add control and pick your MIDI button, MIDI fader or a keyboard key.
  2. Under Targets, click Add target and choose what it should do.

It works immediately. If the two sides do not fit, for example a fader on a target that only takes button presses, the row turns yellow and tells you.

Light up a button with feedback

For controllers with LEDs, turn on Send feedback on the MIDI control and mark one target as the feedback source with Set as feedback source. (The first target is used by default.)

The button then follows the state of that target, so a scene button lights while its scene runs.

Use layers for more than one job

A controller has a fixed number of buttons and a show usually needs more. Layers solve that:

  1. Create a layer with New Layer.
  2. Put the mappings for one song or one mode into it.
  3. Add a mapping in the global layer that toggles the layer.

Switching the layer changes what every button in it does at once.

Keep the layer switching mappings in global. Putting them inside a layer can leave you in a state where no button gets you back out.

Keyboard notes

A keyboard control binds a single key. Keys 0 and 1 through 7 are reserved for selecting Function Groups, so build your mappings on other keys.

Some keys are used by hotkeys sometimes, so they might work unreliably.

Where to go next

Build a Timeline

Arrange scenes and audio on a timeline and automate them over its length.

Build a ControlDeck

Lay out an on-screen console of buttons, faders and pads, then bind them.

On this page

Set up a MIDI deviceMove a device to another computerCreate a mappingLight up a button with feedbackUse layers for more than one jobKeyboard notesWhere to go next