Reference

The MIDI map, note by note

Everything Funk Drummer listens to and everything it sends, with the values it ships with. Print it, or keep it open while you program your controller.

Every number on this page is the factory default. Nothing here is fixed: open MIDI Setup, tap a row, move the knob or press the pad you want to use, and the app captures it. This page is the starting point and the way back if you ever want it.

There are two maps, and they answer different questions. The control map is about driving the app: which message starts playback, fires a fill, switches a pad or moves a fader. The note map is about the drums themselves: which note each piece of the kit sends when it plays, and which note plays it when it comes from outside.

Both live in MIDI Setup, in the two tabs at the bottom of the panel, and both travel: a map you have set up can be exported and imported on another device, or sent to somebody with the same controller.

Control map

What drives the app

Note names follow the default octave reference, which is the Logic, Cubase, Ableton and Pro Tools convention where note 60 reads as C3. If your gear counts octaves differently, change OCTAVE REFERENCE in MIDI Setup and every label on screen follows.

Performance

Control	Message	Default
Play/Stop	Note	55 G2
Start	Note	64 E3
Stop	Note	65 F3
Fill start	Note	66 F#3
Fill stop	Note	67 G3
Fill and play, or fill and end	Note	57 A2
Fill	Note	48 C2
Fill and switch hats or ride	Note	50 D2
Toggle hats or ride	Note	49 C#2
Toggle cross stick or snare	Note	51 D#2
Crash cymbal	Note	59 B2
Random	Note	47 B1
Tap tempo	Note	58 A#2

Start, Stop and the two fill commands only go one way. Start does nothing if the drummer is already playing and Stop does nothing if it is already stopped, so a controller or a host can send the same command twice without ever flipping the transport. That is what makes them usable from a looper like Loopy Pro, from a DAW scene, or from a pedalboard with a separate button for each. Fill stop plays a closing fill and then stops, and unlike Fill and play it does not cancel that pending stop if you hit it again. Play/Stop still toggles the way it always has, and maps you already saved keep the assignments they had.

Live Pads, lists and songs

Control	Message	Default
Pads 1 to 8	Note	36 C1
Fill on pad change	Note	52 E2
Open list	Note	60 C3
Previous	Note	61 C#3
Next	Note	62 D3
Load selected	Note	63 D#3
Load set or song by number	CC	33
Next song	Note	56 G#2
Previous song	Note	54 F#2

Faders and knobs

Control	Message	Default
Jam	CC	1
Intensity	CC	2
Master volume	CC	7
Swing	CC	11
Reverb level	CC	91
Tempo fader	CC	20 standalone only

Selectors

Control	Message	Default
Bank	CC	32
Rhythm	CC	0
Soundset	Program Change	the only one on PC

A selector takes a position in a list, not a value: send 2 to Bank and you get the third bank.

Inside the plugin, tempo belongs to the host

The tempo fader is the one control that only makes sense in the standalone app. As an Audio Unit the drummer follows the host's transport and tempo, so a controller sending CC 20 into the plugin changes nothing. Everything else on this page behaves the same in both.

The one that trips people up

Pads 1 to 8, three ways

The eight Live Pads can be addressed by note, by control change or by program change, and the three do not work the same way. Picking the wrong one is the difference between eight working pads and one.

Note is the default, and the right answer for almost everybody. The note you assign is pad 1, the next note up is pad 2, and so on to pad 8. Every pad controller, foot controller and keyboard sends one fixed note per button, so eight buttons on eight consecutive notes and you are done.

Control change is tidier when a host is driving. One controller number covers all eight pads and the value picks which one, 0 for the first and 7 for the last. Loopy Pro, AUM, Setlist Maker and similar can send any value you type, so this keeps the rest of your MIDI range free.

Be careful with control change on hardware. Many foot controllers can only send one fixed value per switch, usually 127. A switch like that can never reach pads 2 to 8, because on CC the pad comes from the value and not from the controller number. Assigning eight different controller numbers does not help either: only the one bound to Pads 1 to 8 is listened to. If your controller cannot send a chosen value per button, use notes.

And set those buttons to momentary, not toggle. On a trigger control the app acts on the press and ignores value 0, because that is what a button sends when you let it go. A switch set to toggle sends 127 on the first press and 0 on the second, so every other press does nothing. Momentary, which sends 127 each time, works every time. The rule is value 0 exactly, not anything under 64: a velocity-sensitive pad sending its hit strength is still a press. Controls that read the value, like Jam, Intensity or the Live Pads, take every value including 0.

Program change is the most limited of the three, because only one control in the whole map can sit on Program Change at a time, and out of the box that is Soundset. Move that one somewhere else first.

One set of controls, two lists

Open list, Previous, Next and Load selected drive the Live Pad Sets normally, and the Songs while Song Mode is on. One foot controller layout covers both: open the list, step to what you want, load it.

Those four are relative, they depend on where the highlight already is, which suits a pedalboard in front of you. Load set or song by number is the only absolute one: the value you send is the position, counting from zero. Nothing has to be open first, and if the Live Pads screen is not showing, the app switches to it and loads the set.

Sending a value outside the range does nothing at all. The app will not wrap around to the first pad or jump to the nearest one, so a stray message from elsewhere in your rig cannot switch your rhythm mid-song.

The whole map is built in, nothing to install. Try it free for 7 days

Note map

What each drum sends, and what plays it

These are the notes the kit sends to your DAW or hardware, and the same notes that play it in Sound Module mode. They are General MIDI positions, so a part recorded from Funk Drummer lands on sensible drums in any other instrument.

Track	Ghost	Accent	Special
Ride	51	51	53
Hi-Hat	42	42	46
Cross Stick	37	37	37
Snare	38	38	40
Kick	35	36	36
Tom 1	48	48	50
Tom 2	45	45	41
Crash	49	57	55

Where two columns share a note, the difference is velocity, not pitch: the hi-hat closes on 42 whether you play it soft or accented, and opens on 46.

Velocity picks the hit

A drum is not one sound. When a note arrives, its velocity decides which of the three hit types plays: below 70 it is a ghost note, up to 118 it is a regular hit, and above that it is the accented or special one. The cross stick starts its ghost range a little lower, at 60, and the crashes ignore the question entirely and always play at full.

This is why a part recorded from the drummer's MIDI out replays identically when you send it back in: the velocities that came out are the velocities that choose the same hits going back.

Sound Module in detail

Clock

The clock has its own door

Funk Drummer publishes two MIDI endpoints, not one. The general port carries notes and controls. Funk Dr Clock carries only MIDI Clock, for tempo and transport.

This catches people out: clock sent to the general endpoint will not sync the app, and nothing on screen complains. It has to reach the clock endpoint. In MIDI Setup, MIDI Clock In and MIDI Clock Out have their own tables, separate from the connection lists, and those tables hide anything that cannot carry clock so you cannot pick the wrong thing by accident.

One host to know about: Logic Pro cannot be slaved to incoming MIDI Clock at all. Its sync options are internal, Ableton Link, MTC or manual. To lock Logic and Funk Drummer together, use Ableton Link, which both speak.

Funk Drummer in Logic Pro

The MIDI Setup screen in Funk Drummer on iPad, showing the control map, the note assignments and the MIDI In and Out connections — MIDI Setup on iPad. The control map on the left, the selectors and faders on the right, connections underneath, and the clock behind its own button.

Binding something of your own

Tap a row in the map, then move the knob, press the pad or step on the switch you want to use. The app captures the message type, the number and the channel, and the row updates. Tap the row again to clear it.

Turn on Show controls and each assigned pad briefly displays the exact message that triggers it, so you can copy the numbers into your controller without counting. On notes it shows the note name, on control change the shared number and that pad's value written as CC36:3, and on program change the program number.

When you have it right, export the map. It is a file: keep it, load it on your other device, or hand it to somebody with the same pedalboard.