Lightroom midi and the iPad (loupedeck alternatives)
Apr 2, 2018 08:28:15 #
I think most of us have a fair idea of how things work with lightroom there are a bunch of sliders we can use to edit our raw photo's and a numbe of buttons. A fair while back people figured out that you can control the sliders and buttons in lightroom via midi control.
if you have a midi controller of some sort even a regular piano type keyboard you tend to have knobs sliders and buttons as well as regular piano type keys which can send midi information. Usually that tends to go to a digital audio workstation which synthesises a number of virtual instruments, modifys sounds and records a performance ect.
Some bright spark thought wouldn't it be great if i could operate a knob on my midi controller and have it change the value on a lightroom slider.
The first software option was called paddy which is no longer produced.
Loupedeck has its own software hardware solution, as do pfixer midi2lr and knobroom. There maybe others that also work.
The software sits between the hardware controller and lightroom and it translates the signals between the midi hardware and lightroom.
The best hardware has endless knobs and motorised sliders but these are expensive to buy, cheaper options have regular potentiometers and sliders these also work but they don't tend to have the feedback that you get from the motorised and endless ones. If you switch from one photo to another the knobs will usually be in the wrong position. E.g if you have exposure at +1 on the fiirst image and at zero on the second then the slider will be at +1 for the first image and you have to move the slider back to zero (or where ever the exposure is set) for the second image before you can start adjusting it with the slider.
With a motorised controller when you switch photos the sliders move themselves and the led feedback on the knobs adjusts to show the values on the second image.
It works still just not quite as handy. There are a lot of settings in lightroom that can be controlled via midi, and a limited number of physical sliders. This tends to lead to a lot of reuse of the physical sliders. e.g in one mode a slider might control exposure in another mode it controls red hue say.
it is very easy to adjust that slider and have it adjust the wrong slider in lightroom. That leads on to the other problem labelling each slider. ok you can probably write a strip of labels for each slider and then a second and third label for that slider... Especially in the beginning you maybe moving sliders around and remaking labels, talk about headache inducing.
What makes using midi controllers great for adjusting parameters in lightroom is that you do not need to look at the values but at the effect on the photo. That is a good thing the values are of less importance than the enhancement of your image.
It tends to be relatively expensive to buy the midi hardware and if you want a motorised set of controllers you could easily spend anything up to a $1000 or more. The cheaper options tend to have less controls so more control reuse and less feedback.
An alternative to a hardware midi controller is a software midi controller and you can design your own. Midi designer 2 for the iPad lets you do just that. You just add controls to a page and resize them and label them to suit. It lets you have 6 pages of controls so rather than reusing controls each cc control can be dedicated to a single function, you have around 127 cc controls + 127 note controls available + up to 16 channels, the cc controls allow you to set values and the note controls buttons. you can use the buttons for all sorts of things copy paste switch between library mode , develop mode, rate photo's apply a preset. Your controller can be as simple or complicated as you like. These controls all have feedback so the sliders and kobs will reflect the settings on your current photo.
They can be connected via wifi bluetooth or usb, my old mac dosn't have compatible bluetooth so usb or wifi works best. USB should be most responsive but i honestly see no difference using wifi. The software currently can be bought for $5 if you just want to play around first then there is a demo which is based around an old synth. There are knobs and sliders but you can't add your own labels. With midi2lr you can have everything unassigned you wiggle a control a button pops up labeled "unassigned" and you pick a control to map it to, e.g exposure. now wiggling that control the exposure changes in lightroom in response to that control. You can also move the exposure slider in lightroom and see the control move on the ipad.
With the full version there is a basic lightroom controller available to download with 11 cc controllers as sliders and also a template for midi2lr
It controls temperature, tint , exposure, contrast, highlights , shadows, whites, blacks, clarity, vibrance and saturation. its very easy to edit and add more controls and pages. Another program you may want is musicio Midi this enables the usb control. You have wifi control without it.
There is also an addon pack for mididesigner which gives you more widgets and options. I haven't bought this yet mididesigner has the essentials i need.
The downside really is that only lightroom will be using these controls as far as I know, you can't use them in photoshop or nik or ...
So buying an expensive hardware midi controller just for lightroom, may not be justified but 5 or 10 dollars for pretty much the same functionality...
I guess having physical controls maybe better for some people, having something to physically hold on to maybe better but having all the dedicated controls organised as you want with visual feedback works too. If you are into making music or dj ing then you can find other uses for the software too.
In fact i'm going to see if i can make a design to replace my m-audio Xpression pro. :) This works quite well as a hardware controller in lightroom and virtual dj.
if you have a midi controller of some sort even a regular piano type keyboard you tend to have knobs sliders and buttons as well as regular piano type keys which can send midi information. Usually that tends to go to a digital audio workstation which synthesises a number of virtual instruments, modifys sounds and records a performance ect.
Some bright spark thought wouldn't it be great if i could operate a knob on my midi controller and have it change the value on a lightroom slider.
The first software option was called paddy which is no longer produced.
Loupedeck has its own software hardware solution, as do pfixer midi2lr and knobroom. There maybe others that also work.
The software sits between the hardware controller and lightroom and it translates the signals between the midi hardware and lightroom.
The best hardware has endless knobs and motorised sliders but these are expensive to buy, cheaper options have regular potentiometers and sliders these also work but they don't tend to have the feedback that you get from the motorised and endless ones. If you switch from one photo to another the knobs will usually be in the wrong position. E.g if you have exposure at +1 on the fiirst image and at zero on the second then the slider will be at +1 for the first image and you have to move the slider back to zero (or where ever the exposure is set) for the second image before you can start adjusting it with the slider.
With a motorised controller when you switch photos the sliders move themselves and the led feedback on the knobs adjusts to show the values on the second image.
It works still just not quite as handy. There are a lot of settings in lightroom that can be controlled via midi, and a limited number of physical sliders. This tends to lead to a lot of reuse of the physical sliders. e.g in one mode a slider might control exposure in another mode it controls red hue say.
it is very easy to adjust that slider and have it adjust the wrong slider in lightroom. That leads on to the other problem labelling each slider. ok you can probably write a strip of labels for each slider and then a second and third label for that slider... Especially in the beginning you maybe moving sliders around and remaking labels, talk about headache inducing.
What makes using midi controllers great for adjusting parameters in lightroom is that you do not need to look at the values but at the effect on the photo. That is a good thing the values are of less importance than the enhancement of your image.
It tends to be relatively expensive to buy the midi hardware and if you want a motorised set of controllers you could easily spend anything up to a $1000 or more. The cheaper options tend to have less controls so more control reuse and less feedback.
An alternative to a hardware midi controller is a software midi controller and you can design your own. Midi designer 2 for the iPad lets you do just that. You just add controls to a page and resize them and label them to suit. It lets you have 6 pages of controls so rather than reusing controls each cc control can be dedicated to a single function, you have around 127 cc controls + 127 note controls available + up to 16 channels, the cc controls allow you to set values and the note controls buttons. you can use the buttons for all sorts of things copy paste switch between library mode , develop mode, rate photo's apply a preset. Your controller can be as simple or complicated as you like. These controls all have feedback so the sliders and kobs will reflect the settings on your current photo.
They can be connected via wifi bluetooth or usb, my old mac dosn't have compatible bluetooth so usb or wifi works best. USB should be most responsive but i honestly see no difference using wifi. The software currently can be bought for $5 if you just want to play around first then there is a demo which is based around an old synth. There are knobs and sliders but you can't add your own labels. With midi2lr you can have everything unassigned you wiggle a control a button pops up labeled "unassigned" and you pick a control to map it to, e.g exposure. now wiggling that control the exposure changes in lightroom in response to that control. You can also move the exposure slider in lightroom and see the control move on the ipad.
With the full version there is a basic lightroom controller available to download with 11 cc controllers as sliders and also a template for midi2lr
It controls temperature, tint , exposure, contrast, highlights , shadows, whites, blacks, clarity, vibrance and saturation. its very easy to edit and add more controls and pages. Another program you may want is musicio Midi this enables the usb control. You have wifi control without it.
There is also an addon pack for mididesigner which gives you more widgets and options. I haven't bought this yet mididesigner has the essentials i need.
The downside really is that only lightroom will be using these controls as far as I know, you can't use them in photoshop or nik or ...
So buying an expensive hardware midi controller just for lightroom, may not be justified but 5 or 10 dollars for pretty much the same functionality...
I guess having physical controls maybe better for some people, having something to physically hold on to maybe better but having all the dedicated controls organised as you want with visual feedback works too. If you are into making music or dj ing then you can find other uses for the software too.
In fact i'm going to see if i can make a design to replace my m-audio Xpression pro. :) This works quite well as a hardware controller in lightroom and virtual dj.
Apr 2, 2018 08:49:49 #
Sep 12, 2020 12:13:11 #
blackest wrote:
I think most of us have a fair idea of how things ... (show quote)
Just picked up an $80.00 X Touch Mini from Behringer - Midi2lr free software. Configured and works well. I am starting to get slight tremors in my right hand at times working my mouse, and it often makes working with sliders with a mouse difficult for me. No problems with buttons or knobs though.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-664333-1.html#11564904
Sep 17, 2020 21:23:10 #
Dngallagher wrote:
Just picked up an $80.00 X Touch Mini from Behringer - Midi2lr free software. Configured and works well. I am starting to get slight tremors in my right hand at times working my mouse, and it often makes working with sliders with a mouse difficult for me. No problems with buttons or knobs though.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-664333-1.html#11564904
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-664333-1.html#11564904
you might find some software called 'Touch Portal' useful pretty much makes custom buttons for doing most things using ios or android device on a PC or Mac you can have several commands on a single button. There is a free version but its limited on buttonsbut enough to see if its something you would use.
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