SMC-Mixer

The M-Vave SMC-Mixer is an inexpensive, popular MIDI mixer/controller that can connect via USB or Bluetooth. It has DAW and user CC modes. While a very useful controller, it has some limitations out-of-the-box worth knowing about. These limitations can be worked around using something like the MIDIFire MIDI routing and filtering app between Loopy Pro and the the controller.

The compatibility issues mentioned below can all be worked around with the MIDIFire project mentioned below.

In DAW mode, the mixer's faders don't work with Loopy Pro because they send pitchbend which Loopy Pro does not yet support (as of version 2.0) for incoming MIDI bindings. Its encoders use a different protocol than Loopy Pro supports and LED feedback doesn't work because the mixer doesn't respond to the 8X style note off messages Loopy Pro sends (even though that is the type of of note off that the SMC-Mixer sends).

In CC mode, it does not respond to Loopy Pro's MIDI feedback to keep the LEDs in-sync. The mixer has hard-coded note mappings to turn the LEDs on and off. These are the same as in DAW mode and unrelated to the CC mappings set up for the device. This can be worked around but requires some work on the user's part.

MIDIFire To the Rescue

The MIDIFire iOS app can be used as a go-between that sits between Loopy Pro and the SMC-Mixer.

Use this MIDIFire project between the SMC and Loopy Pro to make full use of the SMC-Mixer's DAW mode. The MIDIFire project also requires the free streambyter plugin. What the project does is:

• translate the DAW mode encoders to the relative MIDI protocol that Loopy uses.
• translate the DAW mode faders' pitchbend to MIDI CCs that Loopy can use for bindings.
• translate the note off messages that Loopy Pro sends for MIDI feedback into the format that the SMC-Mixer uses.