Reset to defaults

Reset to defaults blows away the current mapping and reloads the bridge's factory preset — a sensible piano-ish layout with the right stick on filter cutoff and the touchpad on XY. Use it when a mapping experiment has spiralled and you want a clean slate.

Every musician hits this button. Usually around midnight, after forty minutes of "wait why is the kick coming through the wrong channel". Better to nuke and rebuild than waste an hour bisecting a borked patch.

What you need

Nothing special, but if you've spent an hour tweaking and you might regret nuking it, run export and import preset JSON first. The reset is destructive for the active mapping — saved presets are untouched.

One-click reset from the editor

Open the preset dropdown, then Reset active mapping to default. A confirmation modal pops. Confirm, and the bridge rewrites the active buffer with the factory preset and reloads on the spot.

This only resets the active working buffer, not your saved presets. Your previously named presets stay in the folder, just deselected.

The factory default mapping

{
  "name": "Default",
  "version": 1,
  "buttons": {
    "cross":    { "type": "note", "note": 60, "channel": 1, "velocity": 100 },
    "circle":   { "type": "note", "note": 62, "channel": 1, "velocity": 100 },
    "square":   { "type": "note", "note": 64, "channel": 1, "velocity": 100 },
    "triangle": { "type": "note", "note": 65, "channel": 1, "velocity": 100 }
  },
  "sticks": {
    "left":  { "x": { "type": "cc", "cc": 1 },  "y": { "type": "cc", "cc": 7,  "invert": true } },
    "right": { "x": { "type": "cc", "cc": 74 }, "y": { "type": "cc", "cc": 71, "invert": true } }
  },
  "triggers": {
    "L2": { "type": "cc", "cc": 11 },
    "R2": { "type": "cc", "cc": 64 }
  },
  "touchpad": { "mode": "xy", "x": { "type": "cc", "cc": 16 }, "y": { "type": "cc", "cc": 17, "invert": true } }
}

Note 60 is middle C (C4). Left stick = mod wheel + volume. Right stick = filter cutoff + resonance. Triggers = expression + sustain. Touchpad = generic CC 16/17 for whatever you want to MIDI-Learn it to.

What the factory defaults give you

Control	Sends	Why it's the default
Face buttons	Notes 60–65 (C4–F4)	Diatonic on C major — works with any key without re-mapping.
Left stick	CC 1 (mod), CC 7 (volume)	Universal — every synth respects mod and volume.
Right stick	CC 74 (cutoff), CC 71 (resonance)	GM2 filter pair — works in every soft-synth.
L2 trigger	CC 11 (expression)	Standard breath-controller equivalent.
R2 trigger	CC 64 (sustain)	The piano sustain pedal, where everyone expects it.
Touchpad X / Y	CC 16 / 17 (free assign)	Reserved for user MIDI-Learn — no plugin claims them.

Reset via the command line

If the GUI is unreachable (rare — but happens on a frozen Bluetooth session), you can reset from a terminal:

# macOS / Linux
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/UniversalControllerMIDI/active.json
# Windows (PowerShell)
Remove-Item "$env:APPDATA\UniversalControllerMIDI\active.json"

On next launch, the bridge sees the missing active.json and recreates it from the factory preset. Your named presets in presets/ are untouched.

Full nuke — reset all presets

If you want to clear every preset, not just the active mapping, head to Settings → Advanced → Reset all user data. This deletes the entire presets folder and any haptics state. Irreversible — only the JSON files in your trash bin save you.

Common scenarios

When to actually press the reset button:

• Mystery silence: MIDI monitor shows traffic, DAW shows nothing. Reset, then re-bind one control at a time to isolate which binding was misrouting.
• Stuck notes: A held Note On is never followed by Note Off because a binding's release condition is wrong. Reset, then send an All Notes Off (in Settings → Send Panic) to clear the synth.
• Borrowed laptop: Plugging your controller into a colleague's machine running the bridge — reset first so their patches don't fire your DAW.
• Tutorial reset: Following a YouTube walkthrough? Reset so your screen matches theirs step-by-step.
• Pre-record reset: Resetting before tracking ensures every session starts from the same baseline — no "I forgot I had CC 74 inverted" surprises.

What's next

Start fresh: pick a binding from map a button to a MIDI note, or grab a community starting point from download from the marketplace.