Pitch Bend, Aftertouch, NRPN & SysEx — when you need them
For most rigs, three message types do almost everything: Control Change toggles and sweeps parameters, Program Change recalls presets and scenes, and Note triggers or holds things. That covers roughly 95% of what you'll ask a plugin or amp sim to do — so start there. This page is about the other 5%: the less-common messages MIDIRover can send through its Advanced MIDIaction when a specific parameter or piece of gear asks for them.
Start with CC, Program Change and Note
Before reaching for anything here, remember that plugins like Neural DSP are entirely MIDI-Learnbased: you right-click a control, enable MIDI Learn, and send it a message — no CC map to memorise. A CC learned to a button toggles it; a CC learned to a knob or slider tracks it directly; a Program Change can be learned to any switchable control. If you haven't wired that up yet, the Neural DSP setup guide and the user manual walk through it. Only come back here when the basics genuinely can't reach the parameter you want.
Pitch Bend
Pitch Bend is a 14-bit message (values 0–16383), where 8192 is centre— no bend — 16383 is full up and 0 is full down. Because a key is a single press, it sends the valueonce and the bend stays there. To make a "bend-and-release", pair a second key set to 8192 so pressing it snaps back to centre. Use it for a fixed dive or rise, or to reach a synth parameter that only listens on the pitch-bend channel. If you want to ride a value smoothly rather than jump to a fixed one, that's a job for a Sweep key or a dial instead — see using a Stream Deck as an expression pedal.
Channel Aftertouch
Channel Aftertouch sends a single pressure value (0–127) for the whole channel — this is the global "how hard am I leaning on the keys" message, not the per-note kind. What it actually does is up to your gear or patch: many synths route pressure to vibrato depth, a filter, or a swell. Pick the channel, set the pressure, and the key sends it.
NRPN
Some gear exposes parameters beyond the 128 standard CC numbers through NRPN — a14-bit parameter address plus a 14-bit value (each 0–16383). MIDIRover sends it the standard way, as the four-message sequence CC 99 · 98 · 6 · 38: CC 99/98 select the parameter (MSB then LSB) and CC 6/38 set the value (MSB then LSB). You supply the parameter number and value; which parameter is which is entirely device-specific, so read it off your unit's MIDI implementation chart rather than guessing. MIDIRover sends the four messages in order and stops if one fails, so a value can never land on the wrong parameter.
SysEx
System Exclusive is raw, manufacturer-defined data — everything from a preset dump to a proprietary parameter that has no CC at all. You paste the hex bytes exactly as your gear's MIDI implementation chart lists them. MIDIRover adds the F0 start and F7 end bytes for you if you leave them off, and accepts whatever separators the chart uses — spaces, commas, periods, colons, semicolons or dashes. If any token isn't valid hex, the field shows a red outline and nothing is sent, so a typo can never fire off a truncated, wrong message. SysEx strings are specific to each device, so always copy them from that unit's documentation — there's no universal list to fabricate from. (The field's placeholder is a harmless universal "GM System On" message you can use just to confirm the pipe works.)
Sending them: the Advanced MIDI action
Drop an Advanced MIDI action on a key, then choose the Type — Pitch Bend, Aftertouch (channel), NRPN or SysEx. The fields change to match: Pitch Bend and NRPN take numeric values, Aftertouch a pressure value, and SysEx a hex string. Set the channel (not needed for SysEx, which carries its own routing) and pick your MIDI Port — that choice is shared across every MIDIRover key. Press the key to send. You can name channels so a key reads, say, 10 · Drums, and the name shared across all your keys. For the full field-by-field reference, see the MIDIRover user manual.