List of Midi Controllers with Two-way Communication

Renoise Tool Development
1

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been finding it useful to write scripts for midi controllers that allow for two-way communication (for example, the ability to set LED state/color and Screen text via midi, controlling motorized faders etc).

Experimenting with different tactile devices and UI designs has opened up a lot of creative ideas for me in Renoise. So I’m looking for more info about devices that support this type of communication - sometimes it isn’t obvious what a particular device supports or documentation is hard to find. I thought others in the community may have their own recommendations. Below are the devices I have worked with, please help me grow this list!

AKAI APC 40
Official Reference

AKAI Fire
Blog Post

Presonus Atom
Forum Post
Google Doc

Presonus FaderPort 8
Official Reference

Novation Launchpad Mini MK3
Official Reference

Novation Launchpad X
Official Reference

Novation Launchpad Pro MK3
Official Reference

Novation Launchpad MK 2
Documentation

Novation Launchkey MK3
Official Reference

Novation LaunchKey Mini Mk2
Blog Post

Novation LaunchKey Mini Mk3
Official Reference

Novation 61 SL MkII
Official Reference

Ableton Push 1
Blog Post
Forum Post

Ableton Push 2
Official Reference

Intech Grid Controllers
Official Reference

Midi Fighter Twister
Official Reference

Electra One
Official Reference

Roland FC200
Official Reference

BCR2000
Third Party Software

Roger Linn Linnstrument
Official Reference

Kenton Killamix Mini
Official Reference

2

Novation Remote series has two way comms. You can set text on the displays via sysex. Ableton Push also.

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3

I had no idea the Push supported this! I was able to find a forum post from 10 years ago with some information but no official documentation or reference. I added what I could find, thanks!

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4

Push 2 is fully documented by Ableton on their Github page.

Push 1 was never documented. Some of the parts of the Push 2 interface apply retrospectively to the Push 1 as well (or rather, weren’t changed in the later version so now become openly documented). There is some info on the Ableton forum like this, and other bits like a useful blog page which seem lost in the mire of dead internet. My Push tool also has a lot of the MIDI info documented in the source, like which MIDI info to send to light up pads, make them flash etc. It also has a routine to write to the display via sysex.

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5

Thanks a lot, this is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to find! Keeping my eyes open for a used Push 2 from now on. :pray:t2:

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6

Cool. You put that Ableton forum post i linked under Push 2, but it only applies to Push 1. Push 2 uses a C interface to the display over USB via a separate process, so MIDI doesn’t do anything in that case. Push 1 has a cooler display IMO anyway, nice and basic, no fancy graphics to distract.

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7

I found the blog page that i mentioned above, luckily i had saved a PDF of the page with the address on it:

It’s really useful for some of the less obvious messages that Push 1 can receive.

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8

Added! :pray:t2:

9

Hello. I’ve a little Novation Lauchkey mini for mobility with a laptop. There seems to be no official documentation, but somebody went through the whole rabbit hole of reverse engineering the midi commands to control it. You can find the infos here: GitHub - giezu/LaunchkeyMiniMK3: Reverse enginneered MIDI implementation of Launchkey Mini MK3 by Novation

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10

Thank you, added! :pray:t2:

11

Here’s a couple:

Intech Grid Controllers - These use a Lua based editor.

Midi Fighter Twister

Electra One

Launchpad Pro MK3

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12

Some really interesting ones, thank you!

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13

I’ve added a few more links to documentation that I discovered through another message board.

Also shoutout to @cupcake for the tip about the Push 1! I was able to find one used in my city and started experimenting with it, a lot of possibilities with this. :pray:t2:

IMG_7801
IMG_78011920×2560 417 KB

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14

Push 1 user here, any progress or info to start?

16

I wrote a LUA script that is sending midi messages to Push 1, and it has been working well - the nice thing is you can customize the behaviour and UI to anything you feel like would help you musically. A great way to experiment with making little hardware musical UIs.

I used the documentation linked above to customize the behaviours and trigger the lights and write text to the screen. Good place to start is the Renoise Midi API.