akai midimix led feedback

hey forum!

i am trying to get the "mute" and "rec arm" LEDs on the akai midimix to toggle in ableton live. the requested midimessage (according to the unofficial specs document) is a "Note On with velocity zero" (???). ableton live is sending a "Note Off" message. so i made a translator that translates any "Note Off"  (80 pp pp) into "Note On" (90 pp 00).

now the strange things start: depending on how i try to insert the value "velocity zero" in outgoing, the translator refuses to accept the value (velocity range is given from 1-127)

i did manage eventually somehow and according to my attched translator file all should work. but, it only does when:

a: midi monitor of the translator is on, and
b: the buttons have to be midi assigned to a dial in live. means, if i want to toggle cue/solo in live with the midimix rec/arm buttons and get led feedback, i have to also assign these buttons to the macros of a disabled "dummy audiorack".

my goal is to get these freakin leds to work according to my custom midi assignment.

any help is appreciated

cheers

rjega

Hi, if you change the outgoing message from Note-on pp velocity 00 to Raw MIDI 90 pp 00 it should work.

Bome MIDI Translator does not recognize Note-On with velocity 0 as a valid MIDI message.

 

Also, Ableton Live does not universally echo the right messages when trying to manually MIDI map certain LEDs. I was able to map the select buttons manually however it doesn't look like Solo or Record Arm mapped things correctly. It is possible that you will need to either control your LED's with MT Pro directly (which will not map back from Ableton to the LED) or to set up a MIDI Remote Script for the MIDIMIX.  A simple mapping of this sort would be possible using Remotify.  Go to http://remotify.io to to set up a MIDI Remote Script or contact Akai Pro to see if they already have one you can use.

 

See the attached file that I used to test with.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

 

 

The following post on the Ableton Site indicates the type of Mapping Ableton Live expects.

 

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209774945--Toggle-and-Momentary-MIDI-functions-in-Live

 

thanks for the fast response!

i kinda made it work, hope it will work coherent. if not, i know where to reactivate this thread.

all the best

sorry to pick this topic up again so fast, but further testing still gives me different outcome wether the translator's "capture midi" is open (works as expected) or closed (does not work at all). that seems like a strange thing to me. what exactly is the influence of capture? why does it even have an influence?

Hi,

Capture MIDI will have no influence on the translators other than it will capture the exact MIDI message you send (including fixed note and fixed velocity).  In some cases you need to override these after capture to meet your needs.

If you post you project file and describe in more detail the expected and actual behavior, I  should be able to help more.  Did you try using a MIDI remote script?  You can still use MT Pro without one, however as I mentioned, Ableton Live does not always send MIDI messages when manipulating the on-screen controls so you might only be able to make the behavior work the way you want by the controls on your MIDI Mix.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Try the attached.

Assign Aliases as appropriate when prompted

The first prest handles MIDIMIX local LED feedback for all buttons. I bitmap the buttons so that I only use one global variable "ga".  Feedback from Ableton Live is not provided since it is unreliable if using manual MIDI mapping mode, so you need to always just use your MIDI MIX.

The second preset handles all MIDIMIX controls to Ableton Live

 

In my example, I just used the default factory MIDIMIX mapping. If you change the mapping, it may break the bitmap logic I put in in the buttons feedback.

 

I did not use an Ableton Live MIDI remote script. I just manually mapped the buttons, knows and faders in Ableton Live.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

okay, i made a short video that hopfully explains my issue in detail.

https://rjega.ddns.net/s/2AZt842FGnKPr9Q

any help is highly appreciated!

cheers

Could you post your project file that you did in the video. I will have a look. From the video, I wan't able to determine your input and output port settings you have at the project, preset or translator level. Actually at the translator level it looks like you have them set to the default output but that really doesn't tell me anything.

I see you project file. Please for incoming message you capture any note but you don't set it to pp so the value of pp will not be defined. When using capture MIDI, it sets the incoming note to pp by default which is why it is working with capture MIDI on.

 

I'm still not sure why it works when setting your macro as clicking the cue button within Ableton live will still not update the LED state.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

i set the incoming note variable to "pp" and now it is working as expected, exept the need to map additionaly to the macros of the "dummy rack". but overall functionality is given.

OK, yes, it appears that the dummy rack issue is something with Ableton Live and not Bome that allows it to feedback notes. The version of the project file I sent you earlier will not require the dummy rack however you will need everything both to and from your controller mapped through MTP and use a virtual port on Ableton Live for both in and out.