Gamepad MIDI v1.5.0: Multiple Players

Gamepad MIDI now runs up to four controllers at once. Each one is its own player, with its own mappings, its own preset, and its own MIDI port.

Two people, two controllers, two instruments — from one instance. Or one person with a pad in each hand.

What's New in v1.5.0

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Multiple Players

Add up to four players. Each gets independent mappings, its own preset, and its own MIDI output port — so your DAW sees them as separate instruments.

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Pick Your Controller

Choose which controller drives which player from a list. No more guessing at connection order, and no fighting over a pad that another player already has.

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Circular Stick Area

Choose how a stick behaves at the edges. Circular gives even motion the whole way around — better when one stick drives two parameters as an XY pad.

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Per-Player Presets

Each player runs its own preset. Change one player's sound mid-session and the others carry on exactly as they were.

Four controllers, four instruments

Gamepad MIDI opens with a single player, exactly as before. A + button adds another, up to four.

Every player is fully independent. Its own mapping set, so one controller can play drums while another rides filter cutoff. Its own preset, so switching one player's sound leaves the others untouched. And its own virtual MIDI port — Gamepad MIDI 1 through Gamepad MIDI 4 — so your DAW routes each to a different track without any extra setup.

You pick which physical controller drives each player from a dropdown. A controller already claimed by another player is greyed out, so two players can never end up fighting over the same pad. Unplug a controller and its player keeps everything; plug it back in and it returns to where it was.

Square or circular sticks

A stick can reach a square area or a circular one, and the two trade against each other.

Square, the default and what Gamepad MIDI has always done, pushes the corners out so both axes reach full range at once. Ideal when each axis drives its own parameter and you want the whole range from both.

Circular keeps the distance from centre even at every angle. You give up the corners, but motion around the circle stays smooth and continuous — which is what you want when a single stick is an XY pad across two parameters at once.

The setting lives on the Left Stick and Right Stick tabs, and travels with the preset.

Fixes and under the hood

✓Touchpad button toggles work again. The touchpad button was sending its mapping twice per press, which flipped toggle-mode CCs straight back and made them look dead.
✓Updated controller engine. Gamepad MIDI now runs on SDL 3.4, bringing newer controller support and a fix to motion-sensor timing.
✓Interface tidy-up. Spacing and borders cleaned up throughout the mapping editor.

Upgrading

Your existing setup carries over untouched. All presets load as they are, and your current mappings become Player 1. Stick behaviour is unchanged unless you switch a stick to circular yourself.