Midi

You can use any generic midi device to remote control the mixer via Mixing Station.

Supported protocols

General Midi
Mackie Control (MCU - recommended)
X-Touch (in MCU mode, with metering and LCD support)
X-Touch Expander (in MCU mode, with metering and LCD support)
Waves FIT (in LV-1 Mode, with LCDs and colors)
PreSonus Faderport Classic

Known issues

Android

In Android 5.0 (Lollipop) only the last plugged USB device is working correctly. This is a known bug in Android and cannot be fixed.

iOS / MacOS

iOS 15/16 and macOS 13 have a bug in midi stack of the operating system causing them to not support fast sysex messages. This causes MCU mode not to work correctly (faders moving to random locations). Make sure to update to iOS 17/macOS 14.

MCU (Mackie Control)

The MCU protocol is the recommended way to connect a midi fader extension to mixing station. By default, the channels are mapped to the currently active layer.

Channel strips

Control	Action	Description
SELECT	Select in Mixing Station	-
MUTE	Mute	-
SOLO	Solo/PAFL	-
REC	Not assigned	-
VPOD	Multiple	The knob can control multiple parameters depending on the selected assignment

Buttons

Control	Action	Description
TRACK (Assign-1)	Gain on knobs	-
SEND	Sends 1-8 on knobs	of the selected channel
PAN/SURROUND	Pan on knobs	-
PLUG-IN	Gate on knobs	of the selected channel
EQ	Not yet implemented	-
INSTRUMENT	Dynamics on knobs	of the selected channel
-	-	-
< BANK >	Prev / next layer	-
< CHANNEL >	Scroll current layer	Scrolls 4 channels in the current layer (if more than 8 channels)
F1-F8	Sends on fader	Bus 1-8

Terminology

This section describes the terms used by Mixing Station:

Midi Port: An input/output port for sending/receiving midi data.
Midi Device: Represents a single physical device consisting of one input and output midi port.
Midi Controller: A single fader/button/knob.
Action Slot: A collection of actions that should be executed
Action: A single action / value that should be bound to a Midi Controller

Midi Controllers

There are three controller types available:

Button: Midi device sends a value when pressed and/or released
Fader: Midi device sends an absolute value when fader/knob is moved (e.g. 0-127)
Knob: Midi device sends a fixed value for each increment / decrement (e.g. 24 and 27)

Midi Setup

The midi overview can be opened from the mixer via the menu:

Menu -> Setup -> Midi

You can add / edit the midi devices form here:

Add a new device

Press the New device button
Select the appropriate protocol and input / output ports you want to use.
Press Apply.

The following additional settings are available:

Sof source: By default the midi device will follow the sends on fader settings of the app. You can change this to a fixed mix so the midi controller will only change that particular mix instead. (This only applies to actions using the Main->On and Main->Fader values).
Ch offset: Allows you to configure a channel offset that should be applied. For example if you're using two midi devices and the 2nd one should control channel 9-16 you can set this parameter to 8.

Midi device overview

You can select a midi device to open its overview page. This page shows all controllers assigned to the device (left table) as well as their assigned actions (right side).

This view allows you to add new controllers or modify existing.

Device overview

To find an existing controller simply press the Find controller button and then move/press any item on your physical midi device. Mixing Station will automatically select the controller in the table.

Add a controller

Select the midi device you want to add a controller to (click on the row).
Press the Add Controller button
Select the type of controller you want to add (see definition above!).

Configure a controller

The edit controller view allows you to change the properties of the controller: Configure controller

Unique name: Name of this controller.
Output Mode: Defines when Mixing Station will send out new values to the midi controller (see below).
Midi parameters: Configures the midi parameters that are sent by the midi controller (see Mapping below).

Output Modes

The output mode configures when the value should be sent back to the midi device.

Mode	Description
On value change	Sends midi value when the action value has been changed without a midi input
On midi event+change	Sends a midi event when a midi event was received or the action value has been changed
On note up+change	Sends a midi event when a "note up" command was received or the action value has been changed

Mapping a midi parameter

In general, you can just press the Learn button and move/press the fader/button you want to assign. The app will automatically detect the midi channel and parameter type.

You can also configure the parameters yourself:

Event type: The event type defines what midi command the controller should react to.

Event type	Description
Note On/Off	Triggers the action on "Note On" and "Note Off" events
Note On	Triggers the actions on "Note On" events
Note Off	Triggers the actions on "Note Off" events
CC	Triggers the actions on "Control Change" events
Pitch	Triggers the actions on "Pitch" events

Channel: The midi channel that should be used
Param A/B: These two selections are for filtering the midi parameter. Depending on the currently selected event type the names of the parameters will change. A value of -1 means that the value will be ignored.
Value source: Selects which midi parameter should be used as a value source. Example: A fader sends midi CC events. The position of the fader will be sent as Value of the CC command so this parameter should be used. Select Param B to choose the second parameter which in this case is the Value parameter.

Note: Buttons do not require a value source because the action will be triggered as soon as a matching midi command is received.

Buttons

Output "on" value: Sets the value that should be sent when the button is currently on. Some midi devices can show different colors depending on the midi value so this parameter can be used to change the color.

A button has multiple actions slots available.

Slot	Behavior
Click	Event needs to be > 0 and then 0 (press and lift)
Long click	Event needs to be > 0 for a longer period
Touch	Event needs to be > 0 (triggers immediately)
Momentary	Event > 0 triggers "on", Event = 0 triggers "off"
Inv. Momentary	Same as `Momentary` but inverted

Fader

Fader mode: Defines how mixing station should react to received values.
- In Motorized mode the values are always accepted and applied.
- In Non-motorized mode the fader must first be moved to the current value before the app will start processing the movements.

Knob

Multiplier: Sets the sensitivity of one increment/decrement step
Inc value: Midi value for a single increment
Dec value: Midi value for a single decrement