Pedalboards allow you to control your layout – or some part of your layout – from external hardware, another iOS app, or any MIDI controller, including MD on another iOS device.

The fundamental idea behind this feature is that controls on an external controller map to different controls in your layout depending on the page you are seeing in MD. The most typical use-case is one where MD is the heads-up-display (HUD) for a external hardware. You never let go of your external hardware with your hands, but your eyes are looking at MD, which is telling you the names of the parameters you are tweaking. The parameters change depending on which page you are seeing.

Virtual Lefty Prototype

Slide your pages up to reveal pedalboards. You will place supercontrols that are mapped to your external hardware on these pedalboards.

Left Pedalboard, Revealed

By default, pedalboards cannot be made visible and require you to change pedalboard visibility.

Config Pane → Pedalboards Tab → Design Mode (Toggle)

Pedalboard Options

The two toggle buttons at the top of this config page are relevant:
Design Mode (Toggle) — If ON, allows you to reveal pedalboards in Design Mode with a single-finger swipe up on your page. Swipe down to hide.
Play Mode (Toggle) — If ON, allows you to reveal pedalboards in Play Mode with a two-finger swipe up. Swipe down to hide.

1. Drag or add a supercontrol to the pedalboard area.
2. Use MIDI learn to map the supercontrol to an external hardware parameter.
3. For each page on which you want to use the supercontrol, assign one or more of the controls on the page as a subcontrol.

When you switch pages in MD, toggle buttons will return to the ON-OFF state they were in when you left the page. The corresponding toggles on your external MIDI controller will get out of sync with the toggles on your Pedalboard unless they can receive and react to MIDI as well.

MD works around this problem by allowing you to use momentary buttons on external hardware to control toggle buttons on your Pedalboard.

Config Pane → Pedalboards Tab → Pedalboard Toggles Triggered by Momentary Hardware (Toggle) — Turns this feature ON, so that toggle buttons on pedalboards respond to momentary presses: each ON→OFF from the external controller results in the toggle button toggling between ON and OFF states. This is ON by default.

• The first press of the momentary button will turn the toggle ON.
• The second press of the momentary button will shut the toggle OFF.
• Since the toggle remembers its last state when you switch to a page, it will start at the last state (ON or OFF).

Control Properties Pane → Relationships Tab → Supercontrol Options — If the global option is OFF, you may use this option to force a toggle to interact correctly with a momentary button on your external controller. If the global option is ON, this toggle has no effect. Note: there are two options, Left and Right, for iPad, and only one for iPhone.

Force Toggle Reacts
to Momentary Hardware

The essence of Pedalboards in MD is that the controls snap to their previous values for that page. However, you may choose to disable this feature. One reason to do this is to use the Pedalboards as hidden storage places for controls.

Supercontrols Snap Option

Config Pane → Pedalboards → Pedalboard supercontrols return to previous values on page change (Toggles)
This option is ON by default. Note: there are two options, Left and Right, for iPad, and only one for iPhone.

Ideally, your Pedalboard is set up to look exactly like your page, with one subcontrol for each supercontrol on the Pedalboard. One way to do this is to create the Pedalboard first and let MD create the pages for you.

To do this, access the Page Properties Pane → Control Actions on a blank page and select Copy Pedalboard Supercontrols to Page.

The Pedalboard will be mirrored exactly, and all the controls will be subcontrols of the supercontrols on the Pedalboard. Note: — Only supercontrols will get new supercontrols. Ensure that all of the controls that you wish to create a subcontrol for are already marked Supercontrol

Copy Pedalboard Supercontrols

for dynamic controls only

Require Hardware Pickup

If your external controller is not bidirectional, values of the supercontrols on your Pedalboard will jump to match the values of your external controller. Hardware Pickup means that the external controller must first pass through the value of the supercontrol before it will be affected by the external controller.