SysEx Controls for Linux
April 7, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
This is a Libadwaita UI that allows you to configure certain Akai, Arturia and Korg devices. It currently allows for reading the controls (Buttons, Knobs, Pads, Keys, etc) and changing them and writing back to the device.
This is a Linux alternative to the MIDI Control Center software.
These devices are supported and tested:
- Akai MPK Mini
- Akai MPK Mini mk2
- Akai MPK Mini mk3
- Arturia BeatStep
- Arturia BeatStep Pro
- Arturia DrumBrute
- Arturia DrumBrute Impact
- Arturia KeyLab Essential 49 / 61 / 88 mk3
- Arturia KeyLab mkII 49 / 61 / 88
- Arturia KeyStep
- Arturia KeyStep 37
- Arturia KeyStep Pro
- Arturia MicroLab
- Arturia MiniLab
- Arturia MiniLab mkII
- Arturia MiniLab 3
- Korg nanoKEY2
- Korg nanoKONTROL
- Korg nanoKONTROL2
- Korg nanoPAD2
- Moog Matriarch
These might also work, but have not been tested yet:
- Akai MPD218
- Arturia KeyLab 25 / 49 / 61 / 88
- Arturia KeyLab Essential 49 / 61 / 88
- Arturia MiniBrute 2
- Arturia MiniBrute 2S
- Arturia SparkLE
- Arturia The Laboratory
- Korg nanoKEY
- Korg nanoPAD
It doesn't support the KeyStep / BeatStep Pro sequencer banks, BeatStep Pro presets and the DrumBrute/MiniBrute banks yet.
It only supports the global controls from KeyLab 25 / 49 / 61 / 88 and SparkLE / The Laboratory.
If you think some untested devices work well, please let us know. If not, let us know as well.
Installation
From Flathub
flatpak install flathub hu.irl.sysex-controls
From Arch User repository
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sysex-controls
From source
Install dependencies on Fedora variants
sudo dnf install meson gcc gtk4-devel libadwaita-devel alsa-lib-devel git
Install dependencies on Debian variants
sudo apt install meson gettext libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev libasound2-dev libxml2-utils git
Install dependencies on Arch variants
sudo pacman -S base-devel git meson gtk4 libadwaita alsa-lib
Get the source
git clone https://github.com/soyersoyer/sysex-controls
Build
cd sysex-controls
meson setup builddir
meson compile -C builddir
Install
The resulting binary doesn't need to be installed, ./builddir/src/sysex-controls works also.
meson install -C builddir
Run
Run sysex-controls from your application launcher or from terminal:
sysex-controls
Uninstall
You can uninstall the program later by running
sudo ninja uninstall -C builddir
Screenshots
