Turn A Gamepad Into A Midi Controller To Use With Audio Software
As a home musician typically you’re going to have programs such as Fruity Loops or other VST (Virtual Studio Technology) instruments within your favorite DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). If you are on a budget these programs are expensive enough, let alone purchasing the hardware. A common device for home musicians is a MIDI keyboard. You can buy a decent one for under $100 or with this tutorial, if you already have a game controller … Free! Because there are so many possible configurations with different audio software this how-to is meant to get you started. Once you have these basics you can play around and find the right combination of settings for you. I am using a USB Logitech controller a couple years ago and Fruity Loops Studio 8.
The first thing you need to do is download and install MIDI Yoke which acts as virtual MIDI input ports. Although the site does not state it … this application is compatible with Vista.
Next, download the freeware application Avis Rejoice V 1.6. Rejoice allows any USB input control to be input as a MIDI command.
At first there are no settings needed to be changed in MIDI Yoke. You will want to launch Rejoice to assign the gamepad controller buttons command. Make sure your gamepad is connected before launching Rejoice so it is recognized.
Now, in the second section of Rejoice select the Button field and hold down one of the buttons on your controller, select the “Note On” command, then click the Add button. Simply go over these same steps for every button you want to assign a control. Just minimize Rejoice as you will need to let it run in the background.
For the sake of this article I assigned my 1,2,3, and 4 buttons on my controller as “Note On” commands. Now that the gamepad controller is configured, open Fruity Loops and go to Options \ MIDI settings (F10).
In Settings there are a couple of things to look for. Make sure for the Input section that MIDI Yoke 1 is enabled and active. Also make sure Controller type is set to “generic controller” and then Enable button is lit. Then just below that make sure Auto accept detected controller is also lit and enabled.
Now to verify the signal is getting through if you look at the upper left corner of the screen you will see a signal light next to MIDI every time you press your new MIDI controller.
Hopefully this will get you started. For additional information on setting up and assigning MIDI controls in Fruity Loops this is a great place to start. As for other DAW’s you would need to refer to the application manual on setting up and assigning the controller.
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Thanks for this article! I made a video a while back with what I knew, but yours is easier to follow
Hey! nice article! so helpful, but I can't download Avis Rejoice V 1.6. I don't know why. some recommendation?
great tutorial! Hmmm is this applicable with other USB devices? Oh and how do i Install MIDIyoke by the way? THANKS!
i got midi yoke installed fine, but im running vista and when after i installed rejoice it says "its main binary has stopped working" and doesnt run… anyway to fix?
thanks soo much
Looks cool, but how do I map it in sonar?
hey how do you map the midi input to specfic keys in fl i think im using an older version maybe 6 or even possibly 5
Its working great so far but how do I assign the joystic to a continous controller change midi message? im waggling the joystick and pressing add but it doesnt do anything
Agh did it
thanks this is amazing XD
xx
Hey another question if anyone can help
Erm is there anyway of being able to use two different games controllers at the same time? without having to switch on the rejoice screen…thats getting kind of distracting
Maybe would it be possible to have two windows of rejoice open sending midi information for each controller? I dunno just a thought
x
I did not know that this was possible, but its really interesting.
Thanks for the helpfull article. One day I was using fruity loops and thought about how great it would be if I could put my game controller to use with FL.. Like all questions I have in live I consulted google first.Low and behold I am not the first person to look at a controller and want it to be a music devise. Your article was very helpful all steps went accordingly but I now realize that my understanding of midi is very lax. I'm sure it's just a matter of playing around with it but I can't figure out how to use it in the piano rolls. Do I have to step record or something? You have definatley opened a door for me as far as something I'd like to further understan.
I'm sure spending more than the five minutes playing around with it that I've invested so far I will discover all kinds of advantages to this. However, as naive as this may sound it wasn't quite what I had in mind. What I'd really like to do is use my game controller in place of my mouse. I spend hours upon hours pointing and clicking to add notes into the piano roll and a game controller would be so much more ergenomical. It's probably just a matter of re adapting my deep rooted habits, but being able to use it in this manor would come more natural to me. Is there any way to configure the controller this way? Thanks in advance