Questions

What is MIDI learn?

MIDI learn is the feature that lets you link a hardware control to a control on screen without knowing any numbers. You put the app in learn mode, click the knob or fader you want to control, and move a control on your MIDI device. The app notes which message arrived and ties the two together. From then on, the hardware moves the control on screen.

I make InputConfig, a free Mac app whose Scan button is the same idea pointed at the whole Mac: it learns a control and gives it a shortcut. The steps for Logic Pro and Ableton Live below are the ones I use with it.

On this page: 9 sections
  1. Steps
  2. Know what the app is learning
  3. Use it in Logic Pro
  4. Use it in Ableton Live
  5. Know where it is missing
  6. Learn one control at a time
  7. Learn a control for the whole Mac
  8. The short version
  9. Questions

Steps

  1. Turn the MIDI device's input on in the music app.
  2. Put the app in its learn or mapping mode.
  3. Click the control on screen that you want to move.
  4. Move one knob, fader or pad on the MIDI device.
  5. Leave learn mode and try it.

Know what the app is learning

When you move the hardware control, it sends a message: most often a Control Change with a controller number, sometimes a note. The app stores that number and the channel next to the on-screen control. Nothing changes on the hardware. MIDI learn is the app remembering which message goes with which control. The MIDI CC list names the controller numbers, though with learn you never have to look one up.

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

Use it in Logic Pro

  • You: Click the plugin or mixer control. Choose Logic Pro, Control Surfaces, Learn Assignment, then move the knob or fader on your device. Choose Learn Assignment again to finish.
  • Logic Pro: Ties that control to the message it received.
  • Check: Move the hardware control and the one on screen follows.

In Logic the order is the control on screen first, then the hardware.

Use it in Ableton Live

  • You: Switch Remote on for the device's input in Settings, Link, Tempo and MIDI. Press Command M for MIDI Map Mode, click the control, move the knob, and press Command M again.
  • Ableton Live: Shows the mapping while the mode is on and keeps it when you leave.
  • Check: The hardware moves the control on screen.

Without Remote switched on for the input, Live hears the notes and ignores the mapping.

Know where it is missing

Not every app has it. GarageBand has no MIDI learn: it plays the notes and follows pitch bend and the modulation wheel like any keyboard, and that is all. Most other music apps have a learn or mapping mode under their MIDI settings, and the names differ.

If an app has no learn mode, its controls can still be reached through keyboard shortcuts, and a mapper turns MIDI into those.

Learn one control at a time

  • One at a time. If two hardware controls send the same message, the app learns whichever moved last.
  • Keep still. A wheel or a pedal that is moving while you learn another control gets learned in its place.
  • Check the input. If nothing is learned, the device's input is not switched on in the app.

When a mapping goes to the wrong control, something else was moving during the learn.

Learn a control for the whole Mac

MIDI learn stops at the edge of the music app. InputConfig does the same thing for everything else: add a row, press Scan, move a knob or hit a pad, and the row is bound to it. Then choose what it sends, such as a keyboard shortcut, a click, the system volume, or an app to open. It works in the other direction too: give a game controller's stick a CC number, and any music app's MIDI learn picks it up as if it were a knob.

Scan is MIDI learn for apps that never had it. MIDI to keystroke on a Mac and gamepad to MIDI on a Mac have the steps.

The short version

  • What. The app links a hardware control to an on-screen one by listening to what you move.
  • How. Learn mode, click the control, move the hardware, leave learn mode.
  • Limits. One control at a time, and only in apps that have it.

You show the app the control, and it remembers the number for you.

Questions

What does MIDI learn mean?

A mode where an app assigns a hardware control to an on-screen control by listening: you click the control on screen, move a knob or pad, and the app links the two.

How do I use MIDI learn in Logic Pro?

Click the control you want to move, choose Logic Pro, Control Surfaces, Learn Assignment, move the knob or fader on your device, then choose Learn Assignment again to finish.

How do I MIDI map in Ableton Live?

Switch Remote on for the device's input in Settings, Link, Tempo and MIDI. Press Command M, click the control, move the knob, and press Command M again.

Does GarageBand have MIDI learn?

No. GarageBand plays notes and follows pitch bend and the modulation wheel, but it has no mode for assigning a knob to a control.

Why is MIDI learn not working?

Usually the device's input is not switched on in the app, or another control was moving during the learn. Enable the input, keep everything else still, and learn one control at a time.

Download InputConfig on the Mac App StoreFree. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.

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