Mastering MIDI Control: A Step-by-Step Guide to Linking Your Behringer Wing and Waves SuperRack

As a live production tech in a church environment, I know how crucial it is to have a workflow that is both powerful and efficient. Juggling faders, cues, and streams is a demanding job, and any automation we can build into our system frees us up to focus on creating a better mix.

Today, we’re diving deep into a game-changing integration: controlling Waves SuperRack Performer directly from your Behringer Wing console using a simple MIDI over USB connection.

If you’re already using SuperRack for external plugin processing—and if not, I highly recommend exploring it—this tutorial will take your setup to the next level. We’ll move beyond just routing audio and start sending control data. Imagine changing the key of a vocalist’s Auto-Tune, swapping compressor settings between a soft verse and a powerful chorus, or completely reconfiguring an effects chain for the next song, all with a single button press or automatically as part of your show file.

This guide assumes you have a basic understanding of routing audio from your Wing to SuperRack Performer. We’ll be focusing exclusively on the MIDI control aspect. Let’s get started.

The Foundation: Initial Setup on the Behringer Wing

Before we can send any commands, we need to tell the Wing how to send them. This involves enabling the correct MIDI transmission settings on the console. You’ll need a standard USB-A to USB-B cable physically connecting the Wing’s USB remote port to a USB port on your Mac or PC running SuperRack.

Step-by-Step Wing Configuration:

1. On your Behringer Wing, press the SETUP button.
2. On the screen, navigate to the REMOTE tab.
3. You will see two crucial settings that need to be configured. Locate External MIDI Control and set its value to USB. This allows the Custom Control buttons to send MIDI data out via the USB cable.
4. Next, locate Scene MIDI transmitter and also set its value to USB. This allows Snippets within your Show file to send MIDI data out through the same USB connection.

With these two settings enabled, your Wing is now ready to transmit MIDI commands using both the manual and automated methods we’re about to cover.

Method 1: On-the-Fly Manual Control with Custom Buttons

This first method is perfect for when you need to manually trigger a change in SuperRack. It’s like having a custom-built remote for your plugins right on the console’s surface. We’ll program a Custom Control button on the Wing to send a specific MIDI message that SuperRack will be listening for.

Step 1: Programming the Wing’s Custom Control Buttons

1. Navigate to the Custom Controls section on your Wing. Press the CUSTOM CONTROLS button and use the page buttons to find an empty page. For this example, I’ll use page 6.
2. Press the VIEW button to see the on-screen layout of your custom control bank.
3. Press the on-screen button corresponding to the physical button you wish to assign (e.g., the top-left button).
4. In the assignment menu that appears, scroll down and select MIDI CC Push. This tells the button to send a MIDI Control Change (CC) message when it’s pressed.
5. You will now see options for MIDI Channel and MIDI CC. For simplicity, let’s leave the Channel set to 1 and the MIDI CC set to 0. This button will now send MIDI CC message #0 on channel 1.
6. Let’s program a second button. Select the button next to the first one and again assign it as a MIDI CC Push.
7. This time, set the MIDI CC to 1. Now you have two distinct buttons sending two unique MIDI messages: CC 0 and CC 1.

Step 2: Configuring and Mapping in Waves SuperRack

Now, let’s switch over to your computer and teach SuperRack what to do when it receives these messages.

1. In Waves SuperRack Performer, navigate to the SETUP page.
2. In the bottom left corner under the I/O section, you’ll find the MIDI section. If you don’t have a controller set up, click the ‘+’ icon to add a new MIDI Controller.
3. Click the gear icon next to your new MIDI controller to open its settings.
4. A new window will appear. First, you must tell SuperRack where to listen for MIDI. Under MIDI Ports, you should see entries for the Behringer Wing. Enable all of the Wing’s MIDI ports by clicking on them. They should light up to indicate they are active.
5. Now, we’ll map your Wing’s buttons to SuperRack’s internal “User Keys.” In the mapping window, click on an unassigned User Key you want to program, for example, User Key 14. It will light up, indicating it’s in “learn” mode.
6. Go back to your Behringer Wing and press the first custom button you programmed (the one sending CC 0). You will see the MIDI code populate next to User Key 14 in the SuperRack window, confirming the link is made.
7. Repeat the process for your second button. Click on User Key 15 in SuperRack to put it in learn mode, then press your second custom button on the Wing (sending CC 1). Its unique code will now be assigned to User Key 15.

Step 3: Assigning User Keys to SuperRack Snapshots

You’ve successfully linked physical buttons to virtual User Keys. The final step is to tell those User Keys what action to perform. The most common use is to recall a Snapshot.

1. First, create your Snapshots. Go to the OVERVIEW page in SuperRack. Set up your plugins exactly as you want for a specific moment (e.g., for “Song 1,” have your Auto-Tune plugin active).
2. In the Snapshots window, click Store New and name it “Song 1.”
3. Now, create a second state. For example, bypass the Auto-Tune plugin.
4. Click Store New again and name this snapshot “Song 2.”
5. Now, let’s link these to our User Keys. Go back to the SETUP page and then click the SETTINGS tab.
6. On the right side, you’ll see the User Keys Assignments list.
7. Find User Key 14. In the dropdown menu next to it, select Snapshot > Recall Snapshot > 1: Song 1.
8. Find User Key 15. In its dropdown, select Snapshot > Recall Snapshot > 2: Song 2.

That’s it! Go back to the Overview page. When you press your first custom button on the Wing, SuperRack will instantly load the “Song 1” snapshot. Press the second button, and it will switch to “Song 2.” You now have manual, tactile control over your entire plugin rack.

Method 2: Fully Automated Control with Show Snippets

Manual control is great, but the real power comes from automation. If you use the Wing’s Show Manager to run your services song-by-song, you can embed these MIDI commands directly into your show file. When you load the snapshot for “Song 1” on the Wing, it can simultaneously and automatically trigger the “Song 1” snapshot in SuperRack.

Step 1: Building the Show Structure on the Wing

This method relies on the powerful link between Snapshots and Snippets in the Wing’s Show Manager.

1. Open your SHOWS library. We’ll assume you have a show built with a console snapshot for each song (e.g., “Song 1,” “Song 2,” etc.) that recalls your fader levels, mutes, and routing.
2. Now, go to the SNIPPETS library. Create a new, completely blank snippet. To do this, simply press RECORD, make no changes, and then press SAVE. Name it something logical, like “SuperRack 1.” Create another blank snippet called “SuperRack 2,” and so on for each song.
3. Go back to your SHOW list. Select your “Song 1” snapshot, then select the “SuperRack 1” snippet, and press the LINK button. This ties them together. Now, do the same for “Song 2” and “SuperRack 2.”
4. When you press the GO button to fire the “Song 1” snapshot, the linked “SuperRack 1” snippet will fire automatically right after it.

Step 2: Embedding the MIDI Command into the Snippet

Here is where the magic happens. We’ll tell that blank snippet to do one thing: send a specific MIDI command.

1. In your SHOW list, select the “SuperRack 1” snippet.
2. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a button labeled Send MIDI. Press it.
3. A text box will appear. Here, you will type in a specific MIDI Hex code command. The format you need is: B0 00 7F
   • B0: This is the hex code for a MIDI Control Change (CC) message on Channel 1. It remains constant.
   • 00: This is the CC note number. This is the part you will change for each snippet. This corresponds to the CC 0 we used in Method 1.
   • 7F: This is the velocity or “value” of the message, with 7F being the maximum value (127). It remains constant.
4. Press enter to save the command.
5. Now, select the “SuperRack 2” snippet, go to Send MIDI, and enter the command: B0 01 7F. Notice the only change is the note number, which is now 01.
6. Continue this pattern for all your songs, incrementing the MIDI note each time (02, 03, etc.).

Step 3: The SuperRack Connection (It’s Already Done!)

The great news is that the SuperRack side of the configuration is identical to Method 1. The MIDI note 00 being sent from your snippet is the exact same message that was being sent from your custom control button. As long as you have already mapped User Keys to those MIDI notes (CC 0, 1, 2, etc.) and assigned those User Keys to recall your snapshots, you’re ready to go.

Now, when you run your show on the Wing and press GO for “Song 1,” the console will recall your faders and mutes, then automatically fire the linked snippet, which sends the B0 00 7F command over USB. SuperRack receives this command, triggers the corresponding User Key, and loads your “Song 1” snapshot with the Auto-Tune enabled. All in a split second, completely hands-free.

Endless Possibilities

These two methods are your gateway to a deeply integrated and highly efficient mixing environment. Whether you need the manual precision of a custom button or the hands-off reliability of full show automation, you can now make dozens of complex plugin changes with a single, simple action on your console. This saves time, reduces the chance of error during a live service, and ultimately empowers you to create a more dynamic and polished mix.

I hope this guide gets you started on this exciting journey. Happy mixing