PACKET STUDIO
Desk integration

A desk that knows what is on air

Packet Studio talks to your studio desk over USB MIDI, using behaviour we measured on a real unit. You keep working on the desk; the screen keeps up.

What the desk does

Fader start

Each player follows a desk fader: it starts a little above the bottom and stops at the bottom. Start and stop points are adjustable. It only arms once the fader has been seen at the bottom, so a fader that is already up never starts anything. On stop, re-cue or eject.

Fader buttons

The buttons above the faders can start, or start and stop, their player.

Pads

Learn a pad in one press and choose what it does: carts, Play, Stop. Pad colours follow Packet Studio: carts in their colour, flashing while playing, Play green and Stop red.

Play pad warns you

The Play pad flashes before an on-air song's segue: slowly from 30 seconds, faster from 10, very fast from 5. You know when to talk without looking.

Mute and PFL in sync

Desk mute and PFL show on each player and stay in step both ways. A short press toggles; a long press is momentary.

MIC LIVE

Choose which faders are mics by moving them. A MIC LIVE box goes red when a mic fader is up and its channel is not muted. Packet Studio never changes a mic channel.

Desk levels

Faders, headphone levels and the monitor and main knobs, shown next to the QuickCarts.

Only what is heard counts

A player whose fader is down or muted shows OFF AIR, and the play is not counted in as-played reports.

Works on macOS and on Windows, where a desk's MIDI port may appear under a generic name. We are starting with one widely used desk, measured in October 2026, and recheck it after firmware updates.

More desks coming

The desk layer is built around learn mode rather than fixed maps, so other MIDI surfaces should follow. Tell us what is in your studio when you join the beta, and it will shape the order.

Other sound cards and interfaces already work: Packet Studio routes to any audio device your operating system offers, including several at once.