It's 1:55am, but I finally have some good progress to report!

I've managed to get a few buttons connected directly to the Pi to pass MIDI instructions to the MODEP software.

This is handled by a Python script on startup, opening a virtual MIDI port for the script to send commands.

It works great with the software, and it's really easy to set up a control to be handled by the physical buttons.

I've also tweaked the Jack server running on the device, reducing the issues ideas having with sound quality dramatically.

Next step is to add a few more buttons and an encoder or two into the script, and prepare for an analog expander chip that's on its way. This will read potentiometer values from expression pedals.

I also want to build a nice case to put this in too :)

Woohoo!