To use your controller with your DAW and plugins, you need to make sure that your controller is set-up in your DAW. With some DAWs, Logic for example, when you plug in your controller the connection is automatic, you don’t need to do anything. With other DAWs, you might need to turn ON an option within your DAW's Preferences, for your controller's MIDI signals to be received by your DAW's MIDI input (output is not necessary even for 2-way communication). Please refer to your DAW's user manual for details.
Your controller is sending MIDI CC messages and it can be mapped to plugins using their MIDI mapping functions (more plugin-specific information can be found under the “Using your controller with plugins” section of this manual). To specify which instance of a plugin you want to control, simply route the MIDI to the right track. This is usually done by scrolling (or clicking) from one track to another to put a specific track in "record-arm". In some DAWs, you can specify which MIDI devices are used as input on a specific track, so you can filter per device and sometimes also per channel. Please refer to your DAW's user manual for specific details.
Please refer to the “Using your controller with plugins” section of this manual for specific plugin instructions.