MIDI — the complete setup guide

Everything you need to get RigWork talking to your gear and your software: connecting, channels, virtual MIDI ports, controlling Neural DSP / EastWest and other plugins, and triggering RigWork from a DAW.

1. Quick start (5 minutes)

1. Open RigWork in Chrome or Edge on a laptop.
2. Plug in your USB MIDI interface (or set up a virtual port — see §4 for software).
3. Click the MIDI button in the sidebar → Allow when the browser asks.
4. Go to Gear → + Add Device, pick your pedal's template (or "Custom"), and set its MIDI channel to match the pedal.
5. Go to Presets → + New Preset, dial in the sound (or assign a PC number), and hit it. Your gear should respond.

That's the whole loop. The rest of this page is for multi-device rigs, software control, and DAW integration.

2. Web MIDI & connecting

RigWork uses the Web MIDI API built into Chrome and Edge. No driver, no bridge app — if your MIDI interface shows up in your OS, RigWork can see it. Click the MIDI button in the sidebar and Allow; RigWork connects to every MIDI output and input it finds and shows a count.

Browser compatibility

3. Channels — addressing each piece of gear

MIDI has 16 channels on every cable/port. Think of them like apartment numbers: the message goes down the hall (the cable), but only the device listening on that channel opens the door. This is how one MIDI output controls many pedals independently.

• Give each device its own channel (Delay on Ch 1, Reverb on Ch 2, amp sim on Ch 3…). Set the channel on the pedal/plugin, then set the matching channel on the device in RigWork (Gear → Edit → MIDI channel).
• When a preset fires, RigWork sends each device's CCs and PC on that device's channel, so they don't step on each other.
• If two devices must share a channel, that's fine for PC (they'll both change preset together) but their CC maps will collide — keep CC-controlled gear on separate channels.

4. Controlling software & plugins (Neural DSP, EastWest, any VST)

This is the big one: use RigWork to drive a standalone app or plugin running on the same computer — change Neural DSP presets, switch EastWest patches, ride expression — all from your setlist. The trick is a virtual MIDI port: a software "cable" that carries MIDI from RigWork to the other app without any hardware.

4a. Create a virtual MIDI port

Reconnect RigWork (sidebar MIDI button) after creating the port so it picks up the new output.

4b. Point the software at that port

In the target app's MIDI/settings, set its MIDI input to your virtual port (RigWork Out):

• Neural DSP (standalone) — Settings → MIDI → enable RigWork Out as an input. Presets respond to Program Change. Any knob can be controlled: right-click it → MIDI Learn, then move the matching slider in RigWork's device editor (or send the CC once) to bind it.
• EastWest Opus / Play — set the input to RigWork Out. Patches respond to Program Change; articulations are keyswitches (MIDI notes); CC1 = dynamics/mod, CC11 = expression, CC7 = volume are the standard controllers.
• Any other VST host (a DAW track, Cantabile, Gig Performer…) — route RigWork Out to the plugin's MIDI input and MIDI-learn parameters as needed.

4c. Build the device in RigWork

1. Gear → + Add Device → pick the Neural DSP or EastWest template (they're tagged as software and pre-load the standard CCs), or "Custom" for anything else.
2. Set its channel to whatever the software listens on (often Ch 1).
3. Open the device Editor (⊙) and add a custom control for each knob you MIDI-learned — give it a name and the CC number. Now it's a live slider you can capture into presets.
4. To change presets/patches, give your RigWork preset a PC number matching the slot in the plugin.

5. The built-in MIDI tools — Monitor, Generator & Tweak

⊹ MIDI Monitor (watch MIDI coming in)

Open Gear → ⊹ MIDI Monitor:

• The channel grid lights up the channel a device is transmitting on — great for figuring out what channel a pedal or controller is set to.
• The live feed shows every incoming message: CC (with a value bar), PC, Note (with note name), and pitch bend. Wiggle a knob on your gear and read its CC# straight off the feed.
• Filter by message type, Pause to freeze the feed, or Clear to reset.

Workflow: wiggle knob → read CC# in the Monitor → Gear → Edit device → + Add control with that CC#. Done.

⌁ MIDI Generator (send test MIDI out)

Open Gear → ⌁ MIDI Generator to transmit test signals — handy for checking a mapping, a cue, or how a pedal/plugin responds before you trust it on stage:

• Waveform → CC: drive any CC number on any channel with a shape — On (steady value), Sine, Triangle, Saw, Pulse, or Random — at an adjustable rate and min/max range. Watch the live value as it runs.
• On/Off starts and stops it; Hold freezes the value where it is (great for parking a parameter at a test point).
• Program Change: send a PC number, or step PC −/+ to walk through presets and confirm each cue fires.

Tweak tab (live CC surface)

For sending CC to hardware — not just watching — use the Tweak tab. It gives you a slider for every CC param on every device simultaneously. Sliders fire CC instantly on drag; hardware knob movement syncs the sliders back. See the Tweak guide for the full feature set including A/B snapshot compare, Learn mode, and Capture → Preset.

6. Triggering RigWork from a DAW or controller (PC in)

RigWork can listen on its MIDI inputs and auto-fire a scene or preset when it receives a Program Change. This is how you sync it to Ableton, a DAW, or a foot controller:

1. Your timeline / controller sends one PC message per section on a chosen channel.
2. RigWork checks if any scene has that trigger PC number. If yes, it fires the scene — and if that scene is assigned to a song/section in your setlist, it also advances the Show Mode strip cursor to that song automatically.
3. If no scene matches, RigWork falls back to finding a preset with that PC number and fires it instead.

So your foot controller or DAW only needs one MIDI event per section; RigWork handles the rest — including scrolling the strip and showing the "Up next" bar.

Scene trigger PC (bidirectional — recommended)

The most powerful setup: assign a trigger PC to each scene (Presets → Scenes → Edit → Trigger PC), and assign those scenes to setlist songs. Then:

• You tap a section in Show Mode → the scene fires → your foot controller lights the right LED automatically (if it mirrors PC)
• Your foot controller sends PC → RigWork fires the scene AND scrolls the Show Mode strip to that song — so the visual always matches your feet
• Toast appears: PC 5 → Big Chorus confirming the match

This is the recommended live setup for a foot-controlled rig. The Show Mode strip becomes a trusted mirror of your foot controller position, not just a manual override.

Trigger channel

Use the trigger ch selector in the sidebar to choose which incoming channel RigWork watches for PC triggers — Any, or a specific Ch 1–16. Set a dedicated channel (e.g. Ch 16) so RigWork doesn't fire from MIDI meant for other devices. The MIDI IN dot flashes green on each received trigger — confirm the signal before you're on stage.

7. Typical signal chains

8. MIDI interfaces

Any class-compliant USB MIDI interface works. Common picks:

• iConnectMIDI4+ — iPad + desktop at once, 4 DIN ports
• MOTU micro / express — low-latency, multiple DIN ports
• Roland UM-ONE — smallest/cheapest, one DIN in + out
• Any USB-C audio interface with MIDI DIN — RME, Focusrite, etc.

9. Troubleshooting

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