Guides

A game controller as a MIDI instrument

A game controller is an expressive object: two sticks with return-to-centre, two analog triggers, a gyroscope, haptics, and a dozen buttons under the fingers. InputConfig publishes a virtual MIDI port, so all of that can go into Logic, Ableton, GarageBand, or a hardware synth through the DAW. This guide sets it up as an instrument, not a remote, with a preset that puts a pentatonic scale on the face buttons and D-pad and expression on everything else.

Enable the port in the DAW

1. Start InputConfig. Its virtual source, named InputConfig, exists while the app runs.
2. In the DAW, enable InputConfig as a MIDI input. GarageBand and Logic take all sources automatically; Ableton needs Track and Remote switched on for it in Preferences, Link, Tempo and MIDI.
3. Arm a software instrument track.
4. Activate the preset and press a face button.

Notes on buttons

Eight buttons that are easy to hit without looking: the four face buttons and the four D-pad directions. The Gamepad Synth preset maps them to a C minor pentatonic across one octave and a bit (C, Eb, F, G, Bb, C, Eb, F), which means any combination sounds fine. Hold LB and the same eight buttons play an octave lower; hold RB and they play an octave higher, through chords. Velocity is fixed per row; set it lower on the D-pad rows for a softer layer.

Expression on sticks and triggers

Right stick left and right

Pitch bend, both directions, with Variable Sensitivity on so the bend follows the stick. Centre is no bend.

Right stick up

CC 1, modulation, following the stick.

Left trigger

CC 11, expression, following the pull.

Right trigger

CC 74, filter cutoff, following the pull.

Left stick

CC 10 (pan) as the stick moves right, CC 7 (volume) as it moves up.

Any of these can be re-pointed at a different CC number in the row; the CC reference lists the conventional ones.

Gyro as a performance control

On a DualSense, bind Gyro Z (roll) to a CC with Variable Sensitivity on and the controller becomes a tilt controller: roll it to sweep a filter or a wavetable position. Add a Pause Motion While Held on a paddle so the sweep only runs when you want it. It is the closest thing to a theremin a gamepad can do, and it records as ordinary automation.

Drums

The built-in MIDI: Drum Pad preset puts kick, snare, closed hat, and open hat on the face buttons on channel 10 with turbo on, so holding a button rolls at the turbo rate. Set the turbo rate to match the tempo: 8 presses a second is sixteenth notes at 120 BPM.

Transport and recording

The system buttons: Start / Options sends MIDI Start, Back / Share sends Stop, R3 sends Continue, and L3 sends R as a keyboard shortcut to arm recording in Logic. Transport messages are real-time MIDI, so they work in any DAW that follows external transport; the keyboard shortcut is the fallback for ones that do not.

Haptics as a metronome

A row can vibrate when it fires. A turbo row with no output at the tempo's rate, bound to a button you hold, makes the controller pulse on every beat. Not a replacement for the click, but a physical downbeat in the hands while the monitors are off.

Latency

The note is sent the moment the poll sees the press. At 240 Hz polling that is about 4 ms, in the range of a USB keyboard. Set the polling rate in Settings, Advanced if you are on the default 120.

Download

• Gamepad Synth presetPentatonic notes on the face buttons and D-pad, pitch bend and modulation on the right stick, expression and cutoff on the triggers, pan and volume on the left stick, octave shifts on the bumpers, transport on the system buttons. 16 KB

Open a downloaded preset with InputConfig, or drag it onto the app icon. It lands in the sidebar, ready to activate or edit. Any launch target inside a preset file is cleared on import; add one yourself in the editor if you want it.

Questions

Related

• MIDI output
• Variable sensitivity
• Using the controller's gyroscope
• A MIDI controller as a control surface
• MIDI: DAW Performance preset
• MIDI: Drum Pad preset