I'm almost embarrassed to ask about this, as I've been composing and producing full-time for four years now and it seems like pretty basic info. But I never learned about MIDI CC's and it seems like every place I go assumes some basic level of knowledge about them that I just don't have. I know CC11 is an important one, right? Expression? I'd love a newbie-level tutorial on what it is, how to adjust it with a physical controller and how it will help my music sound better. Thanks!

My terms may be a little wrong here but the essence of it is ok i'm pretty sure. Midi messages are broken up into status bytes and data bytes. There's 1 status and 2 data bytes per midi message. Look on google for a midi date cheat sheet for the contents of each byte. Midi controllers (CC's), are just numbers assigned to certain things inside these midi messages and bytes. There's a different controller number for each 'thing' contained in a midi message. Here is a list of all the 'things' (assignments), contained in a midi message and their respective controller number: 0 Bank Select (coarse) 1 Modulation Wheel (coarse) 2 Breath controller (coarse) 4 Foot Pedal (coarse) 5 Portamento Time (coarse) 6 Data Entry (coarse) 7 Volume (coarse) 8 Balance (coarse) 10 Pan position (coarse) 11 Expression (coarse) 12 Effect Control 1 (coarse) 13 Effect Control 2 (coarse) 16 General Purpose Slider 1 17 General Purpose Slider 2 18 General Purpose Slider 3 19 General Purpose Slider 4 32 Bank Select (fine) 33 Modulation Wheel (fine) 34 Breath controller (fine) 36 Foot Pedal (fine) 37 Portamento Time (fine) 38 Data Entry (fine) 39 Volume (fine) 40 Balance (fine) 42 Pan position (fine) 43 Expression (fine) 44 Effect Control 1 (fine) 45 Effect Control 2 (fine) 64 Hold Pedal (on/off) 65 Portamento (on/off) 66 Sustenuto Pedal (on/off) 67 Soft Pedal (on/off) 68 Legato Pedal (on/off) 69 Hold 2 Pedal (on/off) 70 Sound Variation 71 Sound Timbre 72 Sound Release Time 73 Sound Attack Time 74 Sound Brightness 75 Sound Control 6 76 Sound Control 7 77 Sound Control 8 78 Sound Control 9 79 Sound Control 10 80 General Purpose Button 1 (on/off) 81 General Purpose Button 2 (on/off) 82 General Purpose Button 3 (on/off) 83 General Purpose Button 4 (on/off) 91 Effects Level 92 Tremulo Level 93 Chorus Level 94 Celeste Level 95 Phaser Level 96 Data Button increment 97 Data Button decrement 98 Non-registered Parameter (fine) 99 Non-registered Parameter (coarse) 100 Registered Parameter (fine) 101 Registered Parameter (coarse) 120 All Sound Off 121 All Controllers Off 122 Local Keyboard (on/off) 123 All Notes Off 124 Omni Mode Off 125 Omni Mode On 126 Mono Operation 127 Poly Operation

Thank you for posting this. Very helpful!