There are a couple of places where the default fader order doesn’t match the Lightroom slider order (for example, the Tone Curve faders), which makes it difficult to remember which is which, but with the new customization feature, you’ll be able to switch them round quite easily. The first dial makes large adjustments, and the second makes finer adjustments. The only oddity is the Temperature control, which is split across 2 dials because the slider range is so wide. Personally, I found the layout of the Behringer BCF2000 quicker to learn than the nanoKONTROL. If you purchase a second hand midi controller, you may need to figure out how to reset it. The setup process is very simple, with a standard installer that puts the plug-in in the correct location. If the midi controller is at its factory defaults, there’s no additional setup to do. If you’re looking for blazing speed on a high volume of photos, midi controllers aren’t the tool for the job, in my opinion, as there’s too much hand movement involved. They’re better suited to slower, more thoughtful editing, allowing you to focus entirely on the photo without having to look at the sliders. There’s a slight lag initially, just to give Lightroom time to fully load the photo. LrControl uses a Lightroom plug-in, so it’s quite responsive. This is particularly useful where specific commands, such as the Previous button, aren’t currently available on the midi controller. This means you can change the behavior of various sliders and dials to suit your own needs, which will be a welcome addition.īecause LrControl uses a separate device, rather than your standard keyboard, it doesn’t override any of Lightroom’s normal keyboard shortcuts. I’ve been testing the 1.4 release, due for release later this week, which adds customization. That said, other software is available, which would allow you to use the same midi controller in other programs. These omissions are purely a sign of its early stage of development, and having talked to the developer, I’m sure they’ll be added in due course.īecause LrControl uses a Lightroom plug-in, it only works with Lightroom. LrControl can’t apply Develop presets yet either, which may be an issue for heavy preset users. It’s also missing a few checkbox toggles, such as Constrain Crop, so you may still need to reach for the mouse occasionally. There are still some missing functions that I consider essential – most notably, the Previous and Sync buttons. If you have an inexpensive and small midi controller, this is the compromise you make. half way), and then down to your desired brightness. For example, if the fader is at the bottom, and you want to darken the photo, you have to move it upwards, past the current setting (e.g. It feels quite odd to move the slider in the wrong direction before you can move it in the right direction. This ignores your fader movement until you reach Lightroom’s current slider value. On devices which don’t have motorized faders, such as the nanoKONTROL2, you can use a button to enable “pickup mode”. This can be quite disconcerting, and is hopeless if you’re trying to tweak photos that you’ve already edited. This can be avoided by using devices such as the Behringer XTouch Mini, with its endless encoders (dials), or the Behringer BCF2000 with its motorized faders that automatically move to match the Lightroom settings for the selected photo. If you moved the Exposure fader right to the bottom on the previous photo, when you start to move it on the next photo, Lightroom’s Exposure slider jumps to -5 and the picture goes dark. This means that the fader position doesn’t match the slider position when you switch photos. This means a huge number of controls can be fitted into a small space on your desk. Press another button, and the faders change the Effects panel sliders (and LrControl very helpfully opens the applicable panel too, so you can see what you’re doing). When you press one button, the faders affect the Basic sliders. Hardly ideal! To solve this issue, midi controllers use the concept of layers – essentially switching sets of controls, like a modifier key. If you had a fader for every slider in the Develop module, you’d need a controller that took up your entire desk, and you’d need very long arms. At the time of writing, LrControl can affect about 160 different Lightroom sliders/buttons, depending on the number of buttons, dials (encoders) and sliders (faders) on your midi controller. The LrControl functions are almost entirely focused on the Develop module, apart from star ratings and flags. The new kid on the block, LrControl from Peltmade, is looking like a very promising and economical option for midi controllers on both Windows and Mac.
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