Allen & Heath MIDI Control is a free companion app for Mac that lets you map hardware MIDI controllers to parameters on Allen & Heath mixing consoles, unlocking hands-on physical control of digital desk functions from any compatible MIDI device.
What is Allen & Heath MIDI Control?
Allen & Heath MIDI Control is a Mac utility that bridges the gap between general-purpose MIDI hardware and Allen & Heath's range of professional digital mixing consoles. Rather than being locked into whatever faders and encoders came built into your desk, it lets you designate knobs, buttons, and faders on an external MIDI controller to drive console parameters — channel sends, EQ bands, DCA assignments, and more — over a network connection.
If you've ever sat behind an Allen & Heath SQ or dLive and wished your favourite controller could reach deeper into the mix engine, this is the piece of software that makes that possible without any scripting or third-party middleware.
What does Allen & Heath MIDI Control do best?
The app excels at turning a modest MIDI controller into a purpose-built extension of your Allen & Heath surface. Where generic DAW remote solutions are broad and shallow, MIDI Control understands the specific parameter space of Allen & Heath consoles natively — which means you're mapping to real console objects rather than poking at generic OSC addresses and hoping for the best.
- Custom MIDI maps: create and save per-show profiles that survive reboots and venue changes.
- Bidirectional feedback: motorised faders and LED rings on your controller reflect console state in real time, so what you see matches what the desk knows.
- Network-first design: communicates with the console over Ethernet rather than a legacy MIDI cable, keeping latency low and cabling clean.
- Multi-device support: a single running instance can juggle more than one MIDI input device simultaneously — useful when a monitor engineer wants a compact controller at FOH.
I've used it on a touring theatre rig where the stage-box was out of reach during tech rehearsals. Mapping a 16-knob USB controller to the in-ear mixes from the stalls saved a lot of unnecessary sprinting.
Is Allen & Heath MIDI Control free?
Yes — the application is free to download directly from Allen & Heath's website. There is no subscription, no feature tier, and no licence key required. It's positioned as a first-party productivity tool for console owners rather than a standalone commercial product, so the expectation is simply that you own the hardware on the other end of the connection.
Who should use Allen & Heath MIDI Control?
Live sound engineers and installed-AV operators who already own an Allen & Heath digital console are the obvious audience. If you're running an SQ-series desk in a house-of-worship, a dLive system in a mid-size venue, or an Avantis in a broadcast suite, this tool extends your physical control footprint without the cost of additional manufacturer-supplied hardware.
It's also genuinely useful for studio engineers who want a tactile mixing surface without committing to an expensive dedicated controller — provided you already have an Allen & Heath interface in the signal chain. Accessibility-focused engineers sometimes use it to route console control to adapted MIDI hardware for operators with limited mobility.
Beginners looking for a general MIDI utility or users without Allen & Heath hardware will find this app completely useless — it speaks a protocol that assumes the desk is already on the network. For pure MIDI routing on Mac, look instead at MIDI Monitor, MIDIFire, or the built-in Audio MIDI Setup utility.
How does Allen & Heath MIDI Control compare to similar tools?
The closest alternatives are Yamaha's MIDI controller apps for their CL/QL series and the custom OSC layers that live-sound engineers cobble together with TouchOSC or Lemur. Against those, MIDI Control wins on setup speed — console discovery is automatic over the local network, and you're mapping parameters within minutes rather than parsing OSC address documentation.
On the Mac software side, apps like Protokol (for MIDI monitoring) or Bome MIDI Translator Pro (for generic remapping) can technically achieve overlapping results, but they require substantially more manual configuration and have no awareness of Allen & Heath's specific console model hierarchy. For an engineer already in the Allen & Heath ecosystem, the first-party tool is the obvious starting point.
Where MIDI Control falls short compared to Bome or TouchOSC is flexibility outside the Allen & Heath world — it does one thing, for one brand, and that's by design.
