LMMS • Forums

I've had the good fortune of receiving an Akai MK3, and since I poked around in LMMS back in the day and love the FOSS ethos, I'd rather use it than the bundled MPC software.

However, I've been unable to figure out how to map the drum pads to LMMS, and searching old posts here it seems that's unsupported.

Given the popularity of drum pads I'm hoping there's a way to do this in more recent versions of LMMS. Is there?

rg4w wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 24, 2025 5:14 am

searching old posts here it seems that's unsupported.

You can try this:
The basic principle in connecting anything to a MIDI-keyboard-feature is:
Find the lmms-component you want the HW-MIDI-feature to control It would be a preset with a percussion-sound
Right click on the the lmms-preset and a list will pop up.
In the list select "Connect to controller", a "Connection Settings" box will pop up.
Make sure MIDI controller and Auto Detect are lit up, then activate the HW-MIDI-feature on your MIDI-keyboard!
Often it will show as ch1, controller 2
Click OK and the HW-MIDI-feature should now control the lmms-component you selected.
you can set up any other lmms-component control on a MIDI keyboard the same way. It sets it up as a different controller (CC) number.
But how to connect each of the pads on your keyboard, that i am not sure can be done..
I am a bit blindsided here, because i do not own a MIDI-Keyboard.
Perhaps someone with a similar keyboard will chime in, and explain.

Besides that, since you are new in Forum
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