Questions

How to use a game controller in Logic Pro and GarageBand

Run InputConfig, a free Mac app, with one of its MIDI presets active, select a software instrument track, and press a button on the controller. Logic Pro and GarageBand both listen to every MIDI source on the Mac, so there is nothing to switch on. In Logic Pro, a stick or a trigger can then be taught to any knob with Learn Assignment, Command L.

I make InputConfig. The Logic Pro steps follow Apple's user guide, and they are the same for an Xbox, PlayStation or Switch controller.

On this page: 10 sections

1. Steps
2. Set it up
3. Play notes and drums
4. Teach a stick or trigger to a knob in Logic Pro
5. Teach one to a Smart Control
6. Know what GarageBand does
7. Add transport and shortcuts
8. If you hear nothing
9. The short version
10. Questions

Steps

1. Connect the controller, open InputConfig and activate a MIDI preset such as MIDI: DAW Performance.
2. In Logic Pro or GarageBand, select a software instrument track.
3. Press a face button on the controller to play a note.
4. In Logic Pro, select a knob, press Command L, move a stick or trigger, then press Command L again.

Set it up

• You: Activate MIDI: DAW Performance in InputConfig. In Logic Pro or GarageBand, select a software instrument track and press a face button on the controller.
• InputConfig: Publishes a MIDI source named InputConfig while it runs. Both apps pick it up with their other MIDI devices.
• Check: The instrument plays middle C.

There is no MIDI setting to change in either app. No IAC Driver is needed either, because InputConfig has a MIDI port of its own.

InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 or later, no account, no tracking, open source.

Play notes and drums

• Notes. In MIDI: DAW Performance the four face buttons play C, E, G and the C above, and the right stick bends the pitch.
• Drums. Activate MIDI: Drum Pad and choose a drum kit patch. The face buttons play the kick, the snare and the closed and open hi-hat, and holding one rolls.
• Expression. The right stick pushed down sends the modulation wheel, CC 1, which both apps follow.

Whichever software instrument track is selected is the one the controller plays. Gamepad to MIDI on a Mac has a fuller layout, with a pentatonic scale on eight buttons.

Teach a stick or trigger to a knob in Logic Pro

1. In the Mixer or in a plug-in window, select the knob or fader you want to control.
2. Choose Logic Pro, Control Surfaces, Learn Assignment for that parameter, or press Command L. The Controller Assignments window opens with Learn Mode on.
3. Move the stick or pull the trigger.
4. Click the Learn Mode button, or press Command L again, to finish.

Move only one stick or trigger while Learn Mode is on. Apple's page is Assign and delete controllers in Easy view, and MIDI: CC Dials gives both sticks and both triggers a controller number each, ready to learn.

Teach one to a Smart Control

Smart Controls are the row of knobs Logic Pro shows for the selected track, and each can be assigned the same way. In the Smart Controls pane, click the Inspector button, select a screen control, click External Assignment, click Learn, and move the stick or trigger. Click Learn again when you are done. Learn stays on until you click it again, so several controls can be assigned in one pass. Apple's page is Assign hardware controls to screen controls.

Know what GarageBand does

• It plays. Notes from the buttons play the selected software instrument.
• It bends. It follows pitch bend and the modulation wheel, CC 1, like any keyboard.
• It does not learn. GarageBand has no MIDI learn, so a stick cannot be assigned to an arbitrary knob there.

In GarageBand a controller is an instrument to play, and in Logic Pro it is also a set of knobs.

Add transport and shortcuts

One InputConfig preset can send MIDI from some buttons and keyboard shortcuts from others. Space on a button starts and stops playback, and R starts recording, in both apps, whenever the app is in front. Notes go out as MIDI, and play and record go out as the keys the app already uses. The Logic Pro preset and the GarageBand preset are ready layouts of shortcuts.

If you hear nothing

1. Check InputConfig is running and the preset is active. The port exists only while the app runs.
2. Open InputConfig's Live Visualizer and press a button. If nothing lights, the Mac is not reading the controller.
3. Select a software instrument track. An audio track has no instrument to play.
4. Play the track from the app's own Musical Typing window, Command K. If that is silent too, the fault is in the track or the audio output.

If Musical Typing plays and the controller does not, look at InputConfig. If neither plays, look at the track.

The short version

• Run. InputConfig, with a MIDI preset active.
• Select. A software instrument track. Nothing to enable.
• Learn. In Logic Pro, select a knob, Command L, move a stick, Command L.

Logic Pro and GarageBand hear a game controller the moment InputConfig is running.

Questions

Related

• Gamepad to MIDI: a game controller as a MIDI instrument
• MIDI output: send MIDI from any controller
• Logic Pro from a game controller
• GarageBand from a game controller
• How to use a game controller in Ableton Live on a Mac
• What is MIDI learn?

Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.

Updated October 7, 2026