I have a MIDI keyboard that I’m using that doesn’t have a mod wheel and doesn’t have a sustain pedal. However it does have some other knobs that send MIDI data.
One of these knobs is assignable on my keyboard, but the other is not. I wondered if I could use one knob for the mod wheel and the other as a sustain pedal.
Turns out it’s pretty easy:
Jiggle the knob or fader that you want to use. In the transport, make sure that Logic sees MIDI data flowing in. Note the control value that your knob is sending (the second number of the three).
Open up the environment window (command 8). Choose Click & Ports in the view dropdown. Click New > Transformer.
Leave the Mode as “Apply operation and let non-matching events pass through”.
In the conditions section, change the Status to “=” and in the second dropdown, “Control”. For Data Byte 1, choose “=” and set it to the value you noted the transport.
In the output section (the bottom half), choose “Fix” for the first dropdown and “Control” for the dropdown underneath it. For Data Byte 1, choose “Fix” and set it to 64 (for sustain), or 1 (for modulation).
Next, you just have to connect up your transformer object. Click on the connection between the input view and the sequencer input. Hit delete. It may prompt you that it’s in use. Hit OK. (Note: now your keyboard won’t work in the arrange view until you reconnect it.)
Click and drag from the Input View’s output to the transformer object to make a connection. Click and drag from the transformer’s output back to the sequencer input. Now your keyboard should be reconnected, and all 74 controls should be remapped to 64 live, and the knob now controls the sustain pedal. Cool!
In this screenshot, I’m using two monitors and two transformers, but your setup should be similar:
If only there were a universal way to save this environment for all projects; I can make a template from here on out for new projects, but I’ll have to go through the same steps for previous projects I’ve already worked on.