What Is A MIDI Controller

As you can see from the previous few post a Midi Controller can come in many shapes and sizes. From a simple keyboard to a huge mixing desk arrangment. One thing they all have in common is that they can control your music software.

Most modern DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software has this ability built in and are usually very easy to setup,Take Ableton Live, all you have to do is click the midi learn button, then move a button/knob/slider on screen and finally move the control on the midi controller you want use. Thats it, now when you want to change that control in the software, you just move the control on the controller.

Take the example of my Waldorf Blofeld synth module. Most of the controls on the synth are to be found deep inside a menu driven OS. This makes editing a sound on the Blofeld slow and boring. (althought the Blofeld has a very good interfaces, its just not as hands on as using a midi controller).

Using the Berhinger BCR Ican map each knob to a separate control on the Blofeld. So for example I can control the envelope, filter, FX, etc.

This way I can create new sounds a lot faster and a lot more hands on experience.