Setting up Novation Nocturn for Lightroom

This document describes the process of setting up Novation Nocturn controller with a
MIDI mapping that is suitable for use in Lightroom. Nocturn is not a native MIDI
controller, but it’s Automap driver software implements MIDI ports. This means that
Automap has to be running at all times, otherwise the Automap MIDI port is not visible.
Because of this, the initial setup process is also a bit more complicated.

Here’s the software you need:

Automap

First, you need to install Automap software. I used 4.3.0 for the screenshots, but
the process should be similar with any version.

Start AutomapServer from Applications. Plug-in Novation Nocturn controller if it
is not yet connected.

Open Preferences menu (shortcut ⌘,) and
select “Software Setup” tab.

On the left, there is an option “Advanced” (this is the generic MIDI interface, I don’t
know why they call it advanced). Select it.

Under “MIDI ports”, select “Automap MIDI” as both input and output.

On “MIDI Channels”, tick channel 1 (when you are more advanced, you can come back and tick more channels)

Next, move over to “Mixer/Plugin Mappings”.

On this display, you should see the channel 1 selected on the previous screen. Highlight
it, and click “Edit mapping…”

This is the same view you would get when you press view button on the controller. Click
“Choose”.

Now you need to find the automap mapping file for Knobroom. It is shipped with
the plugin package, but since OS X treats it as a package, it is a bit complicated to access.
My suggestion is that you open a separate Finder window, navigate the Knobroom directory
(right click and select “Show Package Contents”), inside it you will find directory called
“mapping” which has Nocturn_All_CC_Encoder_8Note_Buttons.automap file. Drag this file to Automap’s
“Choose File” dialog, and click “Choose”. Now the knobs are configured.

You can rename the mapping as “Knobroom” by clicking the name field.

Now the Nocturn is configured, it is sending sensible data on MIDI channel 1, next we have
to configure Lightroom mapping.

Lightroom

Start Lightroom, open “File” -> “Plug-in Manager” from the menu. First you have to
install Knobroom plugin. Click on “Add”.

Navigate to folder where you have extracted the downloaded Knobroom zip package, select
Knobroom.lrplugin, click “Add Plug-in”

Now the plugin is installed, but it has no mapping of MIDI controls to Lightroom sliders.
On the right side of the screen, you can see different configuration sections. Section “MIDI Mapping”
is where we configure which MIDI message does what in Lightroom. For Nocturn, Knobroom comes with a
ready-made mapping file.

Click “Import mapping”, and select Nocturn.json, click “Choose”.

Now you have loaded preset and we are almost done. Later on, if you wish to change the
mappings, you can use the little pulldown menus to select a MIDI control and how it
is mapped inside Lightroom.

Now we can start the actual plugin. Click “File” -> “Plug-in Extras” -> “Start Knobroom”.
The last dialog will show up, and this is the only action you have to do when you start working, other steps were just setting up.

Select “Automap MIDI” as both ports (if you can’t see them you probably do not have Automap running)

Knobroom is now running. If you open “Develop” view and history section, you should see entries starting with “Knobroom”

Hope you like it!

15 thoughts on “Setting up Novation Nocturn for Lightroom

  1. Auto Sync of settings – not with knobroom?

    In LR4 i can select several pictures and adjust develop parameters for all of them at the same time when feature “auto sync” is activated. For example, when i slide the exposure slider all the activated images will react to it.
    Using knobroom to move the slider lets only the first image react.
    How com and how can i change this because i use it quite often to work on similar pictures in one step?

    thanks.

    martin

    1. Plugin doesn’t know the state of LR UI buttons, so there is no way to know if auto-sync is enabled or not. Currently, settings are applied only on single photo.

      Perhaps there could be a global preference to enable setting multiple photos? Having a separate MIDI button toggle seems like too much hassle to me.

  2. Novation Nocturn with Lightroom is VERY cool! I installed it using the instructions posted and it works amazingly well. Time to tweak the knobs a bit though…..

    HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

    THANK YOU to whomever set this up!!!!

  3. Hi guys, looking to set up this amazing looking app. Trouble is I cant get the Automap software – all I get on the link is a white screen in the browser ???? any ideas

  4. Sorted that problem software all installed – now have a BCF2000 but Automap says No Device – any ideas???

    Have contacted software company as well but nothing back as yet

    1. You don’t need Automap, BCF2000 is a real MIDI device.

      Automap is Novation’s software which provides MIDI compability for their controller devices.

  5. Hi Jarno,
    I’m trying to get the BCF2000 to work with Lightroom 5.2. While I can get to manually map all the sliders and knobs I can’t get the buttons to do anything, like presets or navigation. CC allows me to assign a function to each slider/knob, but none of CC, note or PC allows me to assign a function to a button.
    Is this possible?
    Thank you

    1. I found the problem was the controller wasn’t at the factory presets, resetting it fixed it and now I can use the buttons. For anyone with the same problem check out http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/paddy/index.php?title=Paddy_user_guide#Reset_a_Behringer_controller at the section “Reset a Behringer controller”.
      I’m coming from using it with Paddy for Lightroom, and in Knobroom I’m missing some stuff Paddy could do like restarting a setting by pressing the button built-in on a knob.
      Are they any extra options/features unlocked if I register?

  6. Hi,

    Knobroom is simply awesome! I have set it up with Novation Nocturn, and I am very happy with it.

    One thing that I could not get it to work, is the on screen notification using growl. I have 3 pages of controls and I often lost and confused on which page I am working on.

    Could you please let me know how I could implement growl into my plugin?

    Many thanks!

  7. hi, I’ve i have a novation nocturn usb midi controller and i have installed the knob room plugin I’m trying to get it to work with lightroom 5 and have seen reports that it does,but i can’t for the life of me get it to work, i see that its been a while since anything has been updated on the site and was wondering if this is something that is that is being worked on I’m happy to donate to help with development

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