controlAid was designed to help maximize the use of MIDI controllers with Live or any program that allows you to assign onscreen controls to MIDI messages. The program is freeware and runs in Mac OSX 10.3 and higher.
controlAid does the following:
- outputs MIDI data it receives to a user selected channel. You can choose which channel controlAid outputs to with any knob/pedal/fader that sends CC messages.
- many programs let you MIDI map controls on different channels. One common use for controlAid is with MIDI maps in which all controls (such as pan, volume, aux sends etc) use the same note on or cc messages from track to track, but on different MIDI channels. By using controlAid to select which channel you are outputting to, you can in effect select which track or device your MIDI controller is sending data to.
- when a channel is selected, the track the channel number corresponds to is automatically selected and highlighted in Live so that you can view the effects for it.
- converts mouse movements for the entire screen to three different sets of user defined CC messages. Each set can be turned on/off individually, or they can be used simultaneously. When used with the 1->many option this allows you to control unlimited knobs/faders/buttons/notes using only your mouse.
- The velocities/values of noteon/cc messages can be assigned min/max values or inverted. This is useful when used with the one-to-many feature described next.
- allows you to have unlimited "one-to-many" noteOn or cc triggers. When these notes or cc messages are received, controlAid will create unlimited additional cc / note on messages as defined by the user. Examples of use include triggering multiple one-shot clips with a single note, or controlling the cutoff frequency for the filters of all your tracks / instruments with a single knob, slider or pedal. You can use the invert, max and min capabilities of controlAid to setup all kinds of special crossfades between different effects using the one-to-many function. All MIDI messages generated using mouseMode are sent through these transformations.
- allows you to map the noteOn and CC messages that your controllers create to three different virtual outputs via a small matrix. This is very useful for controlling multiple programs simultaneously. One example would be to send noteOn messages from a controller to a Reason synth but not to Live so that you don't have to worry about accidentally triggering audio clips. The CC messages from the same controller could then be mapped to both Live and Reason if desired, or have the CC messages going to Live while only the notes go to Reason.
- converts program change messages to note on messages for people with foot controllers that only send program change.
- allows you to delete a selected clip in Live using a user-defined note on message. This is useful for deleting clips from a pedalboard in the event you create an undesirable loop.
- clipFill mode is an optimized way to quickly loop through a user defined range of slots using a single note on message. This allows a user to quickly record into a predefined number of slots and then immediately start triggering them for playback, all using a single switch pedal or note.
- the channel selected for output can be incremented or decremented using the cmd+5 and the cmd+6 key combinations. This allows you to select which channel controlAid is transmitting on using a device like the Griffin Powermate, or any other external device than can trigger keystrokes.
- cmd+7, cmd+8, cmd+9, cmd+0 allow you to trigger four midi notes of your choice using the keyboard. The keystrokes can also be triggered via an external device such as the Griffin Powermate. cmd+4 allows you do delete clips in Live from one of these devices.
- controlAid can merge two MIDI inputs.
Enjoy! I can be contacted at charlieATcharlie-roberts.com for help and hopefully suggestions, or through the forum in the navbar above. This program is freeware.
Version History
1.97 current - Added channel split feature to i/o section. Added greater ability to split notes from their cc values and route to different outputs. Added "help" button for quicker online help access. Really fixed the bug that was supposedly fixed in 1.81. No, really.
1.81 Fixed bug that would cause controlAid to crash when two MIDI devices with the same port names were being used. Midi Devices are now identified by their model and port name in the i/o menu, and are also each assigned a unique ID number to prevent the bug.
1.8 - Added ability to scale and invert incoming messages using the oneToMany feature. Fixed small bug in clipFillMode. Added tips section to documentation and updated previous documentation to reflect changes that controlAid has undergone.
1.7 - Added invert, max and min columns to oneToMany feature. Added abiltiy to lock the controlAid window position. BIG improvments in midi timing from controlAid to Reason/Live. Stability is greatly improved.
1.6 - more changes to user interface, keystrokes placed in menu bar for optimization purposes (and conveinent reference). Various code optimizations.
1.55 - Changes to user interface allow for smaller footprint, tabbing through the various sections using cmd+option+tab and cleaner text/graphics.
1.5 - improved one->many feature to allow infinite (well, possibly) transformations. This improvement came at the price of Jaguar compatibility, although the rest of the program could work with Jaguar. Further optimized code and resolved some stability issues.
1.4 fixed bugs with defining defaults for the MIDI sources, optimized code, cleaned up interface and updated documentation.
1.3 - added and input and output MIDI matrix to give greater flexibility over what MIDI messages were going where.
1.2 - added the ability to use keystrokes for control of channel selection and to send noteOn messages. These keystrokes can be configured by external devices such as jog wheels or joysticks.
1.1 - noteCCSplit function allows you to map note messages and cc messages to different virtual outputs.
1.0rc5 - controlAid now allows all MIDI messages to pass through.
1.0rc3 - decreased volume of noteOn message to select channel in Live, also followed it with immediate noteOff.
1.0rc2 - fixed problems with Applescript deletion.
1.0b everything is changed.... controlAid can now output on the MIDI channel of your choice, making it extremely easy to create custom MIDI maps.
0.97 3 different sets of CC messages for mouseMode.
0.95 mouseMode, maps two CC messages of your choice to the x and y movements of your mouse.
0.9 - user defined # of tracks, controlAid is much more customizable now.
0.8 - tweaked interface, new templates, updated instructions, added clipFill range selector.
0.75 - Added extra transform options to 1->many tool.
0.72 - clipFill mode. converted all knobs to text boxes, program is now truly Jaguar compliant.
0.7 - setup recall is now complete. Minor interface changes.
0.66 - filtered out note off messages and tweaked interface.
0.65 - changed fonts to system fonts for more universal performance, partially implemented defaults feature where last used settings are recalled on startup.
0.62 -made program compliant with Jaguar. Finally created working deployment build.
0.61 - fixed nasty MIDI bug that would not allow controlAid to accept input
0.6 - added one-to-many feature
0.5 - added delete clip feature
0.4 - added pgm change to note on feature
0.3 - added track selection note on messages for Live
0.2 - added always on top, window transparency and 2nd MIDI source
Known Bugs
1. None currently, but I'm sure someone will point some out soon...