MIDI: controllers - Shadow Rack Docs

This is where you map MIDI controllers to Shadow Rack - and, with the WING Extension, switch on the desk's custom controls.

Any class-compliant MIDI controller – an X-Touch Mini, a Launch Control, a little box of knobs – can run Shadow Rack: the plugin's parameters, moving between channels and plugins, bypass, PANIC, tap tempo. You map it here, one knob or button at a time. Open Setup (⌘,) and click MIDI.

Setup > MIDI: the WING's Custom Controls on top, other controllers below

The page since 0.4#

The page has two parts. Wing control is the Behringer WING's own Custom Controls and only does something with the WING Extension. MIDI controllers is everything else, and works with any interface and without a WING.

Wing control

The Wing's Custom Controls - 4 knobs, 8 buttons - on the channel you pick (SEL too). One switch, ON by default. When it's on, Shadow Rack puts its three pages on the desk's Custom Controls by itself – pages 1, 2 and 3: FX, NAV, SHOW – routes their MIDI over USB, and writes the names on the desk's displays. OFF puts the lights out and leaves the desk's Custom Controls alone.

The three lamps say where it stands:

Lamp	Good	Needs you
THE WING	Connected	Not found on the network – check the network cable (routing)
USB MIDI	the desk's MIDI port name	No Wing port - USB cable?
PAGES	FX 1 NAV 2 SHOW 3	Waiting for the Wing / Putting them on the Wing...

A problem, if any, shows in red under the lamps. With the switch OFF the lamps go grey and read Off. What the pages do is on Custom Controls; with the WING Extension, View > MIDI... opens this page too.

Connected controllers#

Under MIDI CONTROLLERS you see a chip for every MIDI input the Mac has, lit green while that one sends. With nothing plugged in it says None connected. Plug a controller in and it shows up by itself – there's nothing to switch on.

Mapping a knob or button#

Shadow Rack has three pages of controls – the same three the WING's Custom Controls have – each with 4 knobs, 4 upper buttons and 4 lower buttons. You put your controller's knobs and buttons onto those.

Click + LEARN. A menu opens with three pages: FX - the plugin you're on, NAV - channels, plugins, presets, SHOW - New York, SPEECH, PANIC, TAP.
In a page, pick a target: Knob 1-4, Upper button 1-4 or Lower button 1-4. Each shows what it does right now; ones already mapped are ticked.
A red bar says Move a knob or press a button on your controller - it goes onto .... Move the knob or press the button. CANCEL stops waiting.
A message confirms it, like Learnt: X-Touch Mini CC 1 -> FX knob 1, and a row appears in the list.

Two controls mapped, a third one waiting

The rules:

A knob goes onto a knob; a note or a button can't go onto a knob. Buttons can send notes, or CC 127 / 0.
Endless knobs (encoders) are recognised by themselves. Turn a knob fast and it moves further.
Mapping a control again moves it to the new target.
A mapping belongs to the target, not to a fixed parameter: FX knob 1 turns whatever is on knob 1 of the plugin you're on.
Leaving the page cancels mapping, so a knob turned by accident later never gets mapped.

What the pages do#

Page	Knobs	Buttons
FX	The selected plugin's parameters, four at a time	Previous / next bank, FINE, BYPASS, WINDOW, previous / next plugin, TAP
NAV	Channel, plugin, a plugin to add, a preset	CH BYPASS, UNDO, BYPASS, WINDOW, INSERT, DELETE, LOAD, REDO
SHOW	The channel's New York sends	Sends on / off, CH BYPASS, SPEECH, PANIC, TAP

INSERT, DELETE and LOAD ask for a second press, and so does switching PANIC on. The FX page's knobs turn what you've programmed for that plugin with LEARN on the knob strip under it; on FabFilter Pro-Q 3 / 4 and Waves F6 they also follow the EQ band you touch. There are no other ready-made maps. More on MIDI controllers.

The list of mappings#

One row per mapped control: the controller, CC 1 ch 1 or NOTE 8 ch 1, the target (FX UPPER BUTTON 4) and what it does now (BYPASS). A row lights while you use it. x removes one mapping. FORGET ALL asks first – Forget every controller? Their knobs and buttons stop doing anything in Shadow Rack. – with Forget / Cancel.

The mappings are stored with Shadow Rack's settings, not in the session, so they're the same at every show.