Getting the initial state of a MIDI controller

Most examples using MIDI hardware are using a keyboard, which has a defined initial state - all keys are unpressed. But I am working with a midi controller that has sliders and knobs (Korg nanoKONTROL 2) and I’m wondering if it would be possible to read the initial position of these controls without having to move them to receive their initial value.
So is there a way to ask my controller to send the state of controls?

Hi @hypertexthome,

welcome to our community!

Sadly the answer to your question is that in general it’s not possible to get the initial state of a MIDI controller without it actively sending values. This is a limitation of the MIDI spec which I believe may be re-addressed and fixed with MIDI 2 for future controllers if that ever sees the light of day.

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To follow on from @samaaron if you use the virtual TouchOSC controller then you can send OSC commands from Sonic Pi to initialise the position of sliders and rotary controls as you wish. I have done this quite a bit in various projects. However for hardware controllers this is not usually possible.