Once you have a control surface like the wonderful PreSonus Faderport 8 then you can find yourself wishing that you could use it for more than the software it was designed for.
Yes, Faderport 8 can work in native, HUI and MCU mode but lots of software does not support any of those protocols, I use Final Cut Pro X for example and I have wished I could use Faderport to control Final Cut Pro - well with a simple app it's now possible to control any app you like.
midiStroke converts midi note, program or CC messages into keystrokes. Any single midi message can trigger as many keystrokes as you like, in order. It's simple to use, takes up almost no system resources and best of all it's free.
How To Set Up PreSonus Faderport With midiStroke
Download midiStroke from the midiStroke website and install on your Mac.
Then download MIDI Monitor from Snoize, this will help you identify the MIDI information being transmitted from the Faderport.
I found that this app worked best in MCU mode If you would like to change the mode at any point, power on the unit while holding down the first two Select buttons.
Then with the MIDI monitor app open press or move any control on the Faderport, MIDI monitor will tell you which MIDI message is being transmitted. Then go to the midiStroke app and map it to the keyboard shortcut you want it to control in the app of your choice.
Repeat as necessary to map as many controls as you wish. I managed to map controls for Final Cut in around 20 minutes.
One thing to note is that the shortcuts are not exclusive to one particular app so you need to have the app in focus otherwise you might find Faderport controlling another app!
Of course this will work with any controller that can transmit MIDI data.
