Using PadBridge

Using PadBridge

The window has five tabs: Monitor, MIDI, MIDI-Geräte (MIDI devices), Tastatur/Maus (keyboard/mouse) and Netzwerk (network).

Monitor

• Shows the selected pad live: sticks, triggers, all buttons. With several pads, pick one at the top.

• Pads a peer sends here appear in the same list as "Pad n der Gegenstelle" (pad n of the peer), for viewing only (rumble and LEDs are set on the computer the pad is plugged into).

• Rumble: two sliders for the heavy and the light motor, for testing.

• LED-Ring (LED ring / light bar): P1–P4, Rotieren (rotate), Blinken (blink), Aus (off), and three automatic modes:

  • Zufall (random): changes randomly.
  • Clock: Beat: blinks on every beat of the MIDI clock.
  • Clock: Takt (bar): one LED per bar, round in a circle.

  On the PS4 controller the light bar takes the place of the ring: P1 blue, P2 red, P3 green, P4 pink.

MIDI

1. In the DAW (Bitwig, Ableton, Logic, …) enable the MIDI input PadBridge. On Linux see also part 6.

2. In the MIDI tab switch on MIDI senden (send MIDI) and pick the target: Dieser Rechner (this computer) or Netzwerk-Gegenstelle (network peer).

3. Adjust the mapping in one of two views:

   • Bild (picture): the outline of the pad in your hand (Xbox or PS4, automatic or chosen under Form). Next to every control is its CC or note field, and beside it the current MIDI value. Pressed controls light up in the picture. Clicking a control opens all its settings: active, CC or note, momentary or toggle, velocity (fixed or from the left/right trigger), and for axes invert.
   • Tabelle (table): the same settings as a list.

   Default mapping: axes CC 20–25, buttons CC 102–116. MIDI leaves these numbers undefined, so they clash with nothing. Controls that send the same message are marked red.

4. Channel and deadzones for sticks and triggers are at the top of the tab; Standard resets everything.

5. MIDI learn in the DAW then just works.

The peer's pads as MIDI controllers: normally the computer the pad is plugged into makes the MIDI. With Pads der Gegenstelle hier zu MIDI machen (turn the peer's pads into MIDI here) the receiving computer does it, with its own mapping: pick "Pad n der Gegenstelle" under Pad; its buttons light up in the picture and the mapping can be edited here. Handy when the pad is on a computer you don't want to set up. Switch off MIDI senden on the peer then, or everything arrives twice.

MIDI clock: send clock from the DAW to PadBridge. The modes "Clock: Beat" and "Clock: Takt" in the monitor then follow the tempo. With the target "Netzwerk-Gegenstelle", the DAW's clock comes back from the peer to the pad.

MIDI devices (MIDI-Geräte)

The MIDI controllers on this computer show up here (Novation Launch Control XL, Akai MIDImix and APC mini mk2, Allen & Heath Xone:K2, Ableton Push 2, Elektron Digitakt II, others as a list). For the known devices PadBridge shows a drawing with every value live.

• Umbelegen und weiterleiten (remap and forward): per knob or button CC/note, number, channel and momentary/toggle. The result comes out of the PadBridge port.
• Knob LEDs: colour, brightness, "Mitte hell" (brightest in the middle) or traffic light (Launch Control XL).
• Button LEDs: two states, gedrückt (pressed; an = on for toggles) and in Ruhe (at rest), each off or a colour, dimmed where possible. The same setting in both rows keeps the button lit all the time; a different colour or a dimmed rest makes it change on press. What works depends on the device: Launch Control XL red/amber/yellow/green with dimming, APC mini pads colours with dimming, Xone:K2 red/amber/green, Push 2 pads red/green/white and buttons on/off, MIDImix and single-colour buttons on/off.
• Endless encoders (K2, Push 2) have no position; while turning, the drawing shows a lit ring and the last step ("+2", "−1"). Set them up as relative encoders in the DAW.
• Push 2: the "Live Port" is drawn. When Ableton Live runs with the Push as its control surface, Live drives the LEDs and the display and PadBridge only shows values. The Push 2 display is not MIDI and stays empty.
• Over the network: a device can send its remapped values to the peer. They arrive there on a port of their own, "PadBridge " (on Windows create a loopMIDI port with that name, part 3).

Keyboard/mouse (Tastatur/Maus)

1. Switch on Tastatur/Maus aktiv (keyboard/mouse active) and pick the target: Dieser Rechner or Netzwerk-Gegenstelle.
2. Give every button a keyboard key or a mouse button, with modifiers (Shift, Ctrl, Alt/Option, Super/Cmd).
3. Use each stick as mouse, scroll wheel, WASD or arrow keys. Sensitivity and curve can be set (1 = linear, higher = finer around the centre, fast at the edge).

Keyboard/mouse runs alongside the game pad. Best to map buttons the game does not use.