# Best way to add a MIDI plugin that uses a drawing pad

**URL:** <https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/best-way-to-add-a-midi-plugin-that-uses-a-drawing-pad/12483>\
**Category:** Software\
**Tags:** midi\
**Created:** [October 3, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/best-way-to-add-a-midi-plugin-that-uses-a-drawing-pad/12483 "2025-10-03T03:17:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![tunagenes](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/tunagenes/32/7279_2.png) [@tunagenes](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/tunagenes)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 4:39am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/best-way-to-add-a-midi-plugin-that-uses-a-drawing-pad/12483/2 "2025-10-03T04:39:10Z")

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I think what you want to write is a Control Device Driver, see:

> [@NEW: Control-device manager + controller device "drivers"](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/new-control-device-manager-controller-device-drivers/8593):
>
> Hi @zynthianers! I’m proud of announcing the new control-device manager and driver subsystem is merged on testing branch. This is nice step forward in our road towards world domination grin The concept behind this is simple to explain with some examples: You plug your “Novation Launchpad Mini MK3” to zynthian, and it 's recognized and configured to manage the zynpad. The pads are colored like the zynpad ones. You can play/stop sequences, change scene, etc. LED feedback works great and you …

Which you would write in Python, perhaps using MidiDings for any time critical needs:

> [@Driver for Ableton Push 1 - First Steps](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/driver-for-ableton-push-1-first-steps/12166/42):
>
> I’m working in a solution that would allow ctrldev drivers to load a mididings module between the device and the zynthian router (zmip). This would allow to pre-process the MIDI stream coming from the device in real-time.You could for instance, implement your “scale” code in real-time, sending the result in a separated MIDI channel for the chains. You would manage UI and device feedback from the conventional driver’s python side. For those of you that doesn’t know mididings: I’m close to hav…

The alternative would be a LV2 plugin, but I don’t think it would be as flexible, but we shall see what others think…

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