Using Lightroom with KB Maestro and a MIDI Controller

macOS
1

Hi everyone,
I am a long time Mac Power Users and Automators listener and have been wanting to share this automation for quite some time. This is my first Keyboard Maestro project and I am still amazed at how well it works!

I use Lightroom (not Classic) to edit my images. I have always found dragging sliders with a pointer very clumsy and unintuitive. There is dedicated hardware with knobs and sliders for this (Loupedeck), but they always seemed quite expensive without really offering the layout I was looking for.

So I tried to make it work with an affordable MIDI controller (Behringer X Touch Mini) and Keyboard Maestro, and it works even better than I imagined. I made a clip (unlisted YouTube Video) to demonstrate it:

I have been using this setup for over two years now and it is rock solid. The Lightroom interface has changed once in that time, but adapting to that is not too much work.
If you are interested, I am happy to go into detail :slight_smile:

2

I know it’s a few months later but this is very useful to me. what does keyboard maestro help you with specifically?

3

Hey :slight_smile:
Keyboard Maestro is the bridge between the MIDI controller and Lightroom. The MIDI controller is just an input device that sends events when a knob is turned or a button is pressed. This is picked up by Keyboard Maestro. Keyboard Maestro then enters the corresponding value into Lightroom. Lightroom has no automation capabilities, so Keyboard Maestro simply types the values into the fields. It’s a finicky workaround, of course, but it works well for me.

Does that answer your question? I can go into much more detail when I have more time in the next few days.