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Hardware Control

Liquid LSD can be played from a hardware controller, a tablet or a phone. There are three ways in; pick the one that matches what you own, and mix them freely.

Watch: Hardware control — open the guided tour

MIDI learn
Perform pages and the Twister
OSC
You have Use Setup
A DJ TechTools Midi Fighter Twister The built-in Twister profile Plug it in. Optional one-time settings file for the Midi Fighter Utility
Any other MIDI controller (knobs, faders, pads, keyboard) MIDI Learn Enable MIDI, right-click a control, move a knob
TouchOSC or another OSC app on a phone or tablet OSC Learn Enable the OSC server, point the app at your computer

MIDI and OSC are both off by default. Turn them on in Preferences (Ctrl+,) under MIDI Controls and OSC Controls. Each tab has a live monitor that shows every incoming message, which is the quickest way to check that a device is talking to the app.

The Midi Fighter Twister

The Twister is the controller the app is built around. Its 16 encoders are the 16 knobs of the Performance Matrix: the 4×4 grid on the hardware mirrors the 4×4 grid on screen, and whatever a row is showing is what its encoders control.

  • Pages. The hardware banks (or, in native mode, the top-right side button) step through the Perform pages: A/B, BG/PV and MIXER. The screen follows the hardware, and clicking a tab on screen moves the encoders to match.
  • Effects. On an FX row the first knob is the chain's Super Knob and the other three are the slots' Metaknobs. A tap on a knob's switch bypasses a slot, and Shift + tap focuses it so the whole row becomes that effect's parameters.
  • Browsing. The side buttons open the Library and the source and effect pickers, so you can load a source or effect without touching the mouse.
  • Lights. Rings show each knob's value. Knob 13 on the MIXER page pulses on the beat, shows the tempo and taps tempo when pushed.
  • Native mode. With the optional XT firmware, rings change style to suit each parameter and the switch LEDs show the row colour.

Setup, every gesture, a worked example and troubleshooting are in Controller Profiles: Midi Fighter Twister. Jump straight to one-time setup, gestures, side buttons or the XT firmware mode. To change what a page controls, see Perform Pages.

Other MIDI controllers

  1. Connect the controller and enable Preferences → MIDI Controls → Enable MIDI Subsystem. New devices are picked up without restarting.
  2. Right-click the on-screen knob, slider or button you want to control. Choose Learn MIDI. It pulses while it waits.
  3. Move a knob or fader, or press a pad, on the controller. The two are now linked.
  4. Right-click again to cancel, or choose Clear MIDI Mapping to remove a link.

The app recognises what the control is (a continuous knob, a button, an endless encoder, pitch bend). Min and max, invert, smoothing and soft takeover (so a knob does not make a value jump after a preset change) are set per mapping in the MIDI tab. Mappings live in a profile you can save and switch, so a home setup and a gig setup can differ.

Buttons learn the same way: right-click A, B, AUTO or TAP, then press a pad. In Edit, any slider can be learned. Details: MIDI Hardware & Control Mappings.

OSC and TouchOSC

  1. Enable Preferences → OSC Controls → Enable OSC Server. It listens on UDP port 8000 and sends feedback on 9000; both can be changed.
  2. In your app, set the target to this computer's IP address and the same ports.
  3. Right-click a control in Liquid LSD, choose Learn OSC, then move a control in the app.

Macro knobs also answer /macro/<bank>/knob/1 to /8 with no mapping, and report their values back so a tablet layout stays in sync. OSC mappings are saved in profiles, one per app or layout. Details: OSC / TouchOSC Control Surfaces.