# Pitch bend via touch screen to outboard gear?

**URL:** <https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274>\
**Category:** Using Zynthian\
**Tags:** feature-request\
**Created:** [October 8, 2022, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274 "2022-10-08T08:18:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jude](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Jude](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/Jude)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2022, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274/1 "2022-10-08T08:18:02Z")

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Hi folks, I’m trying to figure out how to use the zynthian as a midi effects processor for my synth. My synth lacks pitch bend so I’d like to configure the XY touch screen on the zynthian to work as a pitch bend ribbon. I can think of a weird workaround but what is the most direct way of doing this? Thanks!

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**Author:** ![le51](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/le51/32/1706_2.png) [@le51](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/le51)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2022, 8:35am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274/2 "2022-10-08T08:35:04Z")

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You assign it per instrument:  
[https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian\_UI\_Users\_Guide#XY-Controller](https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian_UI_Users_Guide#XY-Controller)

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**Author:** ![riban](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/riban/32/2331_2.png) [@riban](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/riban)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2022, 8:55am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274/3 "2022-10-08T08:55:19Z")

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XY acts on instrument parameters. I don’t think it can be sent to external devices.

You may be able to do this by adding a MIDI chain with a midi pitchbend parameter - I haven’t looked at whether there is one.

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**Author:** ![jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/jofemodo/32/2_2.png) [@jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/jofemodo)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274/4 "2022-10-11T21:29:47Z")

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This could be a funny MIDI tool: an engine, LV2 or standalone, that allows using the zynthian’s physical UI (aka encoders + touch screen) as a MIDI controller. It should allow to map CC to pitch bending and channel press. The simpler approach could be simply showing all the 127 x CCs + pitch bending + channel press = 129 / 4 = 33 pages of controllers. Of course we could think of better ways of doing it. For instance, we could have a config page for configuring the 4 controllers and a control page for “using” the configured controllers.  
Wishful thinking 😌

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**Author:** ![MrQuarc](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MrQuarc](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/MrQuarc)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pitch-bend-via-touch-screen-to-outboard-gear/7274/5 "2026-07-28T19:19:10Z")

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But also we can’t use the XY-Controller to pitchbend the internal instruments, right? As i understand, it directly controls instrument controls. But it would be cool, if it could internally send any MIDI CC, and if wanted this MIDI CC could be again learned to a specific instrument control.  
(My MIDI-Keyboard has a to poor pitchbend-ribbon. To control this directly in the Zynthian XY-Controller could be very nice.)