Controllers
What each pad brings to the instrument
MIDIpad names controls by role - the left stick Left stick, the right trigger R2 - because it supports several controller families, and each family letters its buttons differently. The selector at the top of the manual switches every glyph and note on these pages to your pad.
MIDIpad is built for the PlayStation controllers - the DualShock 4 and DualSense. The touchpad and the motion sensors aren't extras; the touch strum, shaping by touch and the shake are core to how the instrument expresses, and those pads carry all of it. I've worked hard to bring as much of the instruments as possible to other pads - the strum stick exists so every pad can strum from a stick it does have - but there are real constraints, and this page names them honestly rather than rounding everything up to "supported".
Supported controllers
| Controller | Connection | Touchpad | Motion | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sony DualShock 4 | USB or Bluetooth | Yes | Yes | MIDIpad is completely built around one of these, from the initial idea upwards, it's the only one that's guaranteed to work in all ways as intended |
| Sony DualSense | USB or Bluetooth | Yes | Yes | One of these days I will get one of these and refine to what it's capable of, but for the moment I know that it works well |
| Xbox controllers | Bluetooth | No | No | For some reason, Bluetooth connection works fine, but Microsoft made it do weird things when it's plugged in to non-Windows devices, so Bluetooth works, USB connection is completely haywire |
| Nintendo Switch Pro Controller | Bluetooth | No | Yes | The triggers on these things don't recognise speed or depth, so they're on-off mechanisms - please get in touch with ideas if there's anything you feel I can do to improve the experience here, these are the least tested pads |
| Other gamepads | USB or Bluetooth | No | No | I've tested it on an 8BitDo SN30 Pro and it works quite well - I reckon most things with two analog sticks, which is most of them, should be at least somewhat usable - again let me know if anything weird happens |
Some third-party pads present as a Sony controller, which can make things a little confusing. For instance, the 8BitDo SN30 Pro in macOS mode will be read as a DualShock 4, but it doesn't have a touchpad or motion sensors, so I've tried to make it clear in the app which features are available.
If a controller misbehaves, Help → Send Feedback… attaches the diagnostics needed for me to investigate and help fix it.
What the touchpad adds
Chords can be strummed two ways: the touch strum on the touchpad, and the strum stick on the right stick, which every pad has. A pad with a touchpad gets both, plus the second thing a touch surface can do: shaping - a finger moving across the strings rides the ringing chord's level and colours the strike.
Without a touchpad, everything else works: the chord wheel, both visits, the extended chords, the strum stick and its plant, the squeeze, Stretch, and (with motion sensors) the shake. And Drums plays whole on any pad with two analog sticks - it doesn't use the touchpad at all, and it was designed that way on purpose.
Connection behaviour
MIDIpad reads controllers at the system (HID) level, so it keeps playing while your DAW has focus. Hotplug is watched continuously: unplug a pad and its notes fade out naturally; plug it back in and it's picked up immediately. Again, that means that it will try to take ownership of the pad over other apps, so if any other app is open that expects gamepad control while you're using MIDIpad, things might well glitch.
MIDIpad plays one controller at a time. A second pad can be connected without upsetting anything, but it stays silent.