Show a live MIDI value on your Stream Deck

Most Stream Deck keys send something. This one doesn't — it just shows a number coming back: the patch your amp switched to, where a fader is sitting, a meter. It's theMIDI Readout action in MIDIRover, and it needs no scripting.

Worth saying why this page exists. Wanting a key that displays a value is a common request, and the usual answer has been "write a script". On the main rival plugin's own forum, five different people asked for it across seven weeks and every one was pointed at its scripting language:

"all I want to do is have StreamDeck [sic] dynamically display the 3-digit label … without having to push a button."

Here it's a dropdown.

What you'll need

• Any Stream Deck — this is a key action, no dial required.
• MIDIRover, with a Feedback input selected. This is the part people miss: a readout has nothing to show until MIDIRover is listening.
• Software that actually sends MIDI back. This is the real limit, and it rules out the obvious case: Neural DSP plugins are receive-only — they never transmit, so they can't tell a key anything. Host one in a DAW and let the DAW report, or use hardware / another controller that does send.
• Windows: a virtual MIDI port — the free loopMIDI. macOS: an IAC Driver bus, switched on in Audio MIDI Setup — nothing to install, but MIDIRover's own port will not do here: your software can listen to it, it cannot send into it.

1. Turn on Feedback

Drop any MIDIRover action on a key, open its settings and set Feedback to the port your software sends on. It's one shared setting for every MIDIRover key, so you only do this once.One port is enough for both directions — MIDIRover recognises and discards its own output, so you don't need a second one. Detail in thetwo-way feedback guide.

2. Add a MIDI Readout key

Drag MIDI Readout onto a key. Then pick two things — what to watch, and how to draw it.

3. Choose what to watch

• Control Change — a fader, knob or expression position. Pick the channel and CC number.
• Note velocity — how hard a note was struck. A note-off shows 0. Note numbers are listed musically (60 · C4), the same as the Note action.
• Program Change — the patch or preset number your gear switched to. There's no number to pick: a Program Change carries its own.

For Program Change there's a Numbering option, because most hardware labels the preset it calls 0 as "1". Set 1–128 and the key matches your amp's front panel. It changes the display only — nothing about the MIDI changes.

4. Choose how it looks

• Value + Name — your label on top, the number below. The default.
• Value only — just the number, as large as it fits.
• Value + Bar — a horizontal meter plus the number.
• Value + Arc — a round gauge plus the number.

Bar and Arc add a Range setting — the low and high ends of the gauge, 0–127 by default. Narrow it when the interesting part of a parameter lives in a small window. A value outside the range pins to the end, and the printed number stays the real one.

The key looks blank — which one is it?

A readout with nothing to show is the most likely thing to go wrong, so the key tells you which problem you have instead of going dark:

• It says "Feedback off". No Feedback input is selected. Go back to step 1.
• It shows something like CC22 ch2, greyed. A Feedback port is selected and the key is waiting. Those are the exact numbers it wants, so check them against the sending side: the channel and the CC or note must both match. If your software is sending on channel 1 and the key watches channel 2, this is what you see.
• It shows the greyed numbers, but the port itself has gone. Same picture, different cause: the key only knows whether a port was chosen, not whether it is there right now. If the Feedback dropdown has snapped back to Off (no feedback) without you touching it, the port you picked is not present — restart loopMIDI or re-create it under the same name, and MIDIRover reopens it by itself within a few seconds.
• It shows a number. It's working.

Still stuck? The plugin log names the first message that arrives — channel and number included — so you can compare it against the key. TheMIDI not working guide covers ports and channels generally.

What it deliberately doesn't do

• It never sends. Pressing it does nothing — that's the point, and it's why its settings have no MIDI Port row. The only port it uses is the shared Feedback input.
• It doesn't remember across restarts. Restart the plugin and the key returns to "waiting" until the next message. A readout reflects what's happening now; showing a stale number from an hour ago would be worse than showing none.
• Dials aren't supported yet. It's a key action for now. A Stream Deck + touch-strip version is on the list.

Next steps

• The manual entry — every setting in one table.
• Two-way feedback — the same input also makes toggle lights and sweep keys follow your DAW.
• Sweep a parameter — the sending half, if you want a key that rides a value as well as one that reports it.

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MIDIRover is not affiliated with Elgato or Neural DSP. Stream Deck is a trademark of Elgato.