MIDI foot control
Turn pages, switch songs,
fire cues — no hands.
Strofa has full CoreMIDI support. USB and Bluetooth MIDI pedals both work. Map any MIDI message to any action. Auto-fire cues load automatically when you open a song.
CoreMIDI
USB and BLE MIDI. Both work without setup.
Strofa uses a native Swift module (strofa-midi) built on CoreMIDI — Apple's low-level MIDI framework. It receives MIDI messages from all connected sources simultaneously and dispatches them to Strofa's action system.
USB MIDI: connect any USB MIDI device to the iPad via a USB-C hub or Apple Camera Connection Kit. Class-compliant devices work immediately — no driver install. This includes most standard foot pedals, pedalboards and USB MIDI keyboards.
Bluetooth LE MIDI: pair any BLE MIDI device in the Strofa MIDI settings screen. The connection is remembered and restored automatically on app launch. You don't need to go through iOS Bluetooth settings.
You can have both active at the same time — a USB pedal for page turns and a BLE controller for cue firing, for example. MIDI messages from both sources route through the same action system.
- CoreMIDI native module — all standard MIDI message types
- USB MIDI via Camera Connection Kit or USB-C hub
- BLE MIDI — paired and remembered in Strofa settings
- Multiple devices simultaneously
- Note On, Note Off, CC, Program Change — all mappable
| MIDI message | Ch | Data | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC 64 | 1 | ≥64 | Page down |
| CC 65 | 1 | ≥64 | Page up |
| CC 66 | 1 | ≥64 | Next song |
| CC 67 | 1 | ≥64 | Prev song |
| Note 36 | 1 | — | Start scroll |
| Note 37 | 1 | — | Metronome ♩ |
In the MIDI settings screen, tap an action and press the pedal button you want to assign. Strofa listens for the next incoming MIDI message and maps it automatically. No need to look up channel and CC numbers.
Mapping & auto-fire
Map any pedal to any action. Fire cues automatically.
Every action in Strofa is mappable to a MIDI message: page down, page up, next song, previous song, start/stop scroll, start/stop metronome, toggle full screen, and more. Open the MIDI screen in Settings and use learn mode — tap an action, press the pedal, done. No manual channel or CC number entry needed.
The most powerful feature is auto-fire MIDI cues. Each song can have a list of MIDI messages that fire automatically the moment you open the song. A Program Change to switch your amp to the clean channel, a CC to set the reverb level, a Note On to trigger a backing track on an external device — all before you play a single note.
Auto-fire cues are stored on the song and sync with the cloud. If you're running a Live Session, cues fire on the leader device when the song loads — followers' devices receive the new song but don't fire their own cues (since follower devices don't typically have the same rig connected).
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