MIDI Learn lets you control Live from a standard USB MIDI controller. Choose a SvetoMaster function, click Learn, then move the hardware fader or press the button you want to use. You do not need to know Note, CC or MIDI channel numbers.
Quick setup — the easiest path
If you have never connected a desk to a lighting program, start here: in the MIDI window press the green Quick setup button. The wizard switches MIDI control on and creates the mapping for you, then guides you step by step: it names the function (“Overall brightness”, “Instant blackout”, “Track faders”…) and asks you to move the fader or press the button you want to use. Move it and the function is assigned.
You do not need to know channel or CC numbers. Any step can be skipped, and Finish is available from the very beginning: the wizard is useful even if you assign a single function. Everything assigned is saved immediately, so leaving halfway loses nothing.
The wizard also explains failures. If the desk sent nothing, it says so and offers another try. If you touched a control that does not fit the function — pressing a button where a fader is needed, for example — it explains why and asks for a different control. If you touched several controls, it asks which one you meant.
On a second run nothing is wiped: each step shows the current assignment and offers Keep or Teach again.
If your desk has memory banks (1–4 or A/B/C/D), pick one and stay on it: each bank sends different message numbers, so the program would see “other” controls.
First connection
- Connect the controller, open Live, and click MIDI.
- Click Add mapping and select the controller’s MIDI input.
- Enable MIDI control and the device mapping.
- Find a function, click Learn, then move a fader or press and release a button.
- Repeat for the remaining functions. The mapping is stored on this computer and works across different
.smpprojects.
Available actions include Grand Master, Blackout, Freeze, 16 submasters and Flash buttons, the crossfader and GO, TAP, bank selection, scenes and chases in the current bank, playlist transport, BPM, fade time and the overall Live speed.
A note of its own for a scene, chase or playlist
The mapping above works «by slot»: a button starts scene 3 of the current bank, and in another bank the same button starts a different scene. That is convenient when you have many scenes and few buttons on the desk.
If you want a specific scene to always start from the same button, regardless of the bank, assign the address to the scene itself. Open it for editing and press the MIDI button in the window header. Chases and playlists have the same button.
In the window that opens:
- Press “Catch from desk” and press a button on the controller — message type, channel and number are filled in for you. Or type them by hand if you know them.
- Choose what a press does:
— Toggle — press to switch on, press again to switch off (same as clicking the card with the mouse);
— Start only — a second press does not switch it off, so you can hit the button without looking;
— While held — stays on while the button is held down, like a flash.
- Optionally switch on the LED on the desk: it lights up while the object is playing. Your desk’s mapping needs a MIDI output selected for this.
- Press Done, then Save the scene — the address lives inside the scene, so without saving it is not remembered.
The “Test” button in the same window starts the object exactly as the assigned note would, so you can confirm you picked the right scene without touching the desk at all.
The assigned address is visible in two places at once: on the MIDI button itself and as an icon on the scene card in the list. The full list of all such assignments in the project is shown in the MIDI settings window — no need to open cards one by one.
Details worth knowing:
- One address, one object. If the note is already taken by another scene, by a mapping action or by the pad grid, the window warns you right away. The direct assignment wins: the scene fires, not the mapping action with the same address.
- The assignment lives in the project and travels with the
.smpfile to another computer. Desk mappings stay on this computer — they describe the hardware on your table. - The note is accepted from any connected MIDI device, even one you never created a mapping for. The master MIDI switch does have to be on — if it is off, the window says so and offers to switch it on.
Check your controller
If learning a mapping on an unfamiliar desk is awkward, click “Check controller” in the MIDI window. The wizard shows, step by step, the messages coming from buttons, faders, encoders and pads, helps you tell Note, CC, Program Change and Pitch Bend apart, and also tests the LEDs with output values 0–127.
- Move a control or hit a pad — the wizard records the number, the channel, the range and the release.
- Connect the MIDI output if you want to check the LEDs: the wizard can send a test signal and switch the addresses off afterwards.
- Unplugging and re-plugging USB does not lose the step. At the end you can copy a ready-made report for support.
Faders without lighting jumps
Pickup is enabled by default for Grand Master and submasters. The hardware fader starts changing the light only after it reaches the current on-screen value. Choose Jump in the binding details when immediate response is more important.
Relative encoders and pad velocity
An endless rotary encoder can be learned too. In the binding details pick its format: two’s complement, binary offset or sign/magnitude; for an unknown device a cautious auto-detect from the first turns is available. Such an encoder suits Grand Master, submasters, the crossfader, BPM, fade time and Live speed.
A Flash button can be made to react to velocity — how hard the pad is hit. Then set the threshold and the curve: linear, soft or hard. This option is off by default: older Flash bindings give full brightness as before.
LEDs and MIDI output
A MIDI output is optional: learning and input control work fully without it. If the controller accepts feedback, select its output and enable Feedback for a binding. LED values and colors are model-specific, so non-standard lighting may require manual values.
4×4 pad grid
Each Live bank can have its own grid of 16 cells, with scenes, chases, Flash and other actions assigned to it. In the MIDI settings choose its channel, the first note, row or column traversal, the directions and the serpentine layout — that is how the grid matches your controller.
The LEDs can tell apart an empty, an available and an active cell, a held Flash, Blackout and an invalid binding. The values 0–127 are tuned to the colours of your particular model; when you switch banks or reconnect the device, SvetoMaster sends it the current state of the whole grid.
Manual parameter entry
If Learn cannot catch the control you need, click Manual in the same function row and enter the message type (Note, CC or Pitch Bend), the MIDI channel and the number. You can read these values in the MIDI Monitor, and the “Use last received message” button fills the fields for you.
You can also assign Program Change manually to select a bank or a scene in the current bank. It is disabled by default in every mapping: enable it only for a controller that really sends Program Change.
Manual entry matters most when the command comes from software rather than a desk — OBS Studio with Advanced Scene Switcher, for example. Such senders usually emit a single message with no button release. SvetoMaster accepts them: the button works as a toggle and reacts to every press. Flash, however, will not work from such a source — a flash needs the release signal to switch off, so choose toggle-style functions for those commands.
If the controller does not respond
- Open the MIDI Monitor and check that messages appear when you move a control.
- Make sure another application is not holding the port. Some Windows drivers do not allow two applications to open the same MIDI port.
- After reconnecting USB, wait for the green status indicator. Held Flash buttons are released automatically when a device disappears.
- Export the mapping before major changes; monitor diagnostics can be copied for support.
Choose the MIDI Clock input in Clock settings. SvetoMaster opens only ports required by enabled functions, so unused controllers do not occupy a driver or mix their tempo with the chosen source.
When a function responds to every second press
Some desks can latch: the key sends “on” and then “off” on the next press instead of press and release. The program honestly reads that second message as a release, so the function fires every other time. The cure is a tick box: expand the binding in the function list and switch on “Latching key on the desk”. Flash buttons cannot use it — they need a real hold, so set that key back to normal mode on the desk.
On some desks the transport keys (PLAY, STOP, REW…) send MMC commands instead of ordinary CC or Note. They cannot drive the light, but they are now visible in the MIDI monitor marked “not used”, and quick setup says plainly that the key has to be switched to CC or Note mode in the manufacturer’s editor.
If your desk has memory banks (1–4 or A/B/C/D), set up and work in a single one: switching banks changes the message numbers and the program sees “other” controls.