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Stardust

Device Profiles

Auto-detect your hardware and pre-label every knob, fader, and pedal — no manual MIDI Learn for known devices.

📋 Planned · v0.6.0

What it does

A device profile is a JSON file describing a piece of hardware (keyboard, footswitch, expression pedal, MIDI controller). When Stardust detects a known device (via USB manufacturer/product ID), it auto-applies the profile:

  • Every control is labeled (Knob 1, Fader 3, S1 button, etc.)
  • Common mappings are pre-suggested (sustain pedal → CC 64, expression → CC 11)
  • Visual representation in the UI shows the actual control layout
  • Device-specific quirks are handled (e.g. Roland sustain slot, see below)

The result: you plug in your RD-2000, Stardust says “Roland RD-2000 detected and configured,” and you can start MIDI Learn-ing parameters immediately with friendly names.

Profile file format

JSON, located in device-profiles/ directory. Example:

{
  "name": "Roland RD-2000",
  "manufacturer": "Roland",
  "midi_ids": [{ "manufacturer": "0x41", "product": "0x6A" }],
  "controls": [
    { "type": "fader", "label": "Fader 1", "cc": 80, "channel": 1 },
    { "type": "knob", "label": "Knob 1", "cc": 70, "channel": 1 },
    { "type": "button", "label": "S1", "cc": 64, "channel": 1, "behavior": "momentary" },
    { "type": "mod_wheel", "cc": 1, "channel": 1 },
    { "type": "pitch_bend", "channel": 1 },
    { "type": "sustain", "cc": 64, "channel": 1 }
  ],
  "quirks": {
    "sustain_slot_as_footswitch_safe": true
  }
}

Shipped profile library

v0.3 minimum (development hardware)

For end-to-end testing of the device-profile system:

  • Roland RD-2000 — 88-key stage piano with 9 faders, 9 knobs, S1/S2
  • Boss FS-5U — single footswitch
  • Roland EV-5 — expression pedal
  • Roland DP-10 — sustain pedal

v0.5 full library

Keyboards:

  • Roland RD-2000, RD-88, RD-08
  • Nord Stage 3, Stage 4, Electro 6, Grand
  • Yamaha Montage M, MODX, CP88, CK88
  • Kawai MP11SE, MP7SE, VPC1
  • Korg Kronos, Nautilus, SV-2
  • Casio PX-S series

Footswitches / pedals:

  • Boss FS-5U, FS-6, FS-7
  • Roland DP-10, DP-2, EV-5, EV-7
  • M-Audio EX-P
  • Yamaha FC7
  • Moog EP-3
  • iRig Blueboard (Bluetooth, 4-button)
  • Behringer FCB1010 (programmable foot controller)
  • AirTurn BT-105, BT500, Quad6

MIDI controllers (for sound design):

  • Akai MPK series, MPD series
  • NI Komplete Kontrol S-series
  • Arturia KeyLab series
  • Novation Launchkey, LaunchControl

Custom profiles

Users can extend by creating custom JSON profiles. Profiles can be:

  • Stored in user’s local device-profiles/ folder
  • Shared via the community sharing hub (see Community Sharing)
  • Downloaded from the marketplace if creators publish them

Device-specific quirks

Some hardware has known issues that we explicitly handle:

Roland sustain-slot footswitch hack

Roland keyboards’ sustain jack sends CC 64 (sustain pedal messages). A common workaround is to plug a momentary footswitch (e.g. Boss FS-5U) into the sustain jack and use it to advance patches — but the sustained CC 64 = 127 causes multi-patch-advance bugs in most hosts.

When a footswitch is configured in a sustain slot (via the device profile or user designation), Stardust applies:

  • Debounce (default 150 ms)
  • Minimum patch-advance interval (default 200 ms, configurable per-Show)
  • Stuck-high CC 64 detection (treats sustained 127 as a single edge)

See MIDI Learn for related handling.

Other handled quirks

Documented per device in the profile JSON. Examples:

  • Nord Stage 3: encoder behavior (sends relative not absolute values)
  • NI Komplete Kontrol: NKS handshake for plugin browsing
  • Yamaha keyboards: Music Synthesizer Group (MSG) extensions

Visual representation

Each device has an optional visual schematic — a stylized SVG showing the device’s control layout. Clicking a control in the schematic opens its settings panel. v0.5+ feature; community-contributable.

For MVP, generic widgets (<KeyboardWidget>, <FootswitchWidget>, <ExpressionPedalWidget>) cover all functional needs even without device-specific schematics.

See Widget Registry.

Auto-detection

When a device is plugged in (USB):

  1. Stardust reads USB device descriptor (vendor ID, product ID)
  2. Matches against midi_ids in all loaded profiles
  3. If match: profile auto-applied, UI toast: “Roland RD-2000 detected”
  4. If no match: device appears as “Unknown MIDI Input — Manufacturer X” with all controls available via raw CC

For Bluetooth devices (AirTurn, iRig Blueboard), we use the device name string as the match key — Bluetooth doesn’t expose vendor/product IDs the same way.

Phase status

PhaseWhat’s available
v0.3RD-2000, FS-5U, EV-5, DP-10 (test rig)
v0.4Auto-detection + smart defaults in MIDI Learn
v0.5Full device library (above)
v1.0+Visual schematics
v2.0+Community profile sharing hub