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.

I use L4 as my main program for post processing. I went to Luminar with the previous version mainly to get away from a monthly fee for LR. I like the program but L4 took several months to resolve most of the issues for that version. Now they are pre-selling the next version LuminarAI and apparently stopping support for L4 in about a year. Really not much of savings if every 2 years you need to buy the new version. I really want to become comfortable and competent with one program. I am considering migrating one more time.
I will either return to LR and keep L4 as plug-in or as a Fuji user I may go through the learning curve for Capture One. I'm open to input from other UHH members.

I want to thanks those who recommended the Mediasonic box for four hard drives. I set ip up yesterday, and the temperatures stayed between 95 and 105°F for the four drives. I'm guessing the drives near the top ran hotter.

I'm going to add a second hard drive to my son's new Dell, but I had to order a dual power cable for it. Like the first Sata cable I bought, the right-angle part that attaches to the drive has the metal release tab. That makes the cable stick up so much that the side cover won't fit back onto the computer. I ordered two more cables from different sources, and I hope at least one of them has bare connectors. I'll return the one I just received from Amazon.

I posted this scam alert several years ago. This is so insidious I thought I should remind everyone of the dangers out there.


Women often receive warnings about protecting themselves at the mall and in dark parking lots, etc. This is the first warning I have seen for men. I wanted to pass it on in case you haven't heard about it. This will only become more commonplace as the weather warms.

A 'heads up' for those men who may be regular Lowe's, Home Depot, or Costco customers. This one caught me by surprise.

Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your friends.

Here's how the scam works: Two seriously good-looking 20-something girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride to McDonalds.

You agree and they get into the back seat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet. I had my wallet stolen November 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th, & 29th. Also December 1st & 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th & 28th, three times last Monday and very likely again this upcoming weekend.

So tell your friends to be careful. What a horrible way to take advantage of older men. Warn your friends to be vigilant.

Wal-Mart has wallets on sale for $2.99 each. I found cheaper ones for $1.99 at K- Mart and bought them out. Also, you never will get to eat at McDonalds. I've already lost 11 pounds just running back and forth to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Costco.