mackieKONTROL!

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
bandbajao
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mackieKONTROL!

Post by bandbajao » Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:32 am

Got my padKONTROL this morning. It's nice 8). Bling-bling.

Live 6 does not have this baby listed as a control surface. Here's how to use the padKONTROL to control Live without *any* MIDI mappings in your template. This is based on Machinate's post.

Set up one scene (say, S01) exactly like this:

Pad 01: G#5
Pad 02: C7
Pad 03: D5
Pad 04: F7
Pad 05: D7
Pad 06: C#7
Pad 07: D#7
Pad 08: E7
Pad 09: E5
Pad 10: G5
Pad 11: D6
Pad 12: B6
Pad 13: G6
Pad 14: G#6
Pad 15: A6
Pad 16: A#6

- All pads should transmit on Channel 1.
- The pedal should transmit on Channel 9 (do this, even if you don't have a pedal).
- Set Knob 1 to send CC#60.
- Set Knob 2 to Pitch Bend, and (this is important) - disable each pad from the pitch bend. Enable ONLY the pedal switch. (You can do this easily using the 'Parameter Edit Window' in the Librarian for Knob 2.)


Before you can get this to work - a couple of final steps:
Open Live preferences, and set it as follows:
- In the control surfaces section: MackieControl (control surface), padKONTROL 1 Port A (input), padKONTROL 1 CTRL (output)
- In the Midi ports section:
-- Input: padKONTROL 1 Port A - Track ON, Sync OFF, Remote ON
-- Output: padKONTROL 1 CTRL - Track ON, Sync OFF, Remote ON

Ola! You now have a mackieKONTROL! Ta-da!

You can now use this scene for most of the transport functions in Live:

Pad 01: Back To Arrangement
Pad 02: Scroll Up
Pad 03: Toggle View
Pad 04: Trigger/Stop active scene
Pad 05: Scroll Left
Pad 06: Scroll Down
Pad 07: Scroll Right
Pad 08: Trigger/Stop active clip
Pad 09: Undo
Pad 10: Redo
Pad 11: Toggle Looping
Pad 12: Record
Pad 13: Rewind (moves the cursor in Arrangement View)
Pad 14: Fast-Forward (moves the cursor in Arrangement View)
Pad 15: Stop
Pad 16: Play
Knob 1: Scrub back and forth (in Arrangement View)
Knob 2: Master Fader


I'm working on the mute/solo/arm on a per-track basis for unlimited tracks, utilizing the MCU's 'Bank prev/next' implementation. Will post another scene soon.

Michael-SW
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Post by Michael-SW » Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:07 pm

That was an extremely helpful and clearly written post. Instant classic. Should immediately be added to the sticky thread at the top of this forum.

Thanks!

bandbajao
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Post by bandbajao » Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:45 pm

Thanks :wink:

Here's a quick reference:
Image

Herne
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Post by Herne » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:17 pm

Seconded for the sticky.
Very helpful.
Thanks bandbajao 8)

lofi77
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Post by lofi77 » Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:53 pm

very helpfull!!

i have a mikrokontrol keyboard, do you have any solutions with that gear?

fatrabbit
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Post by fatrabbit » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:14 pm

Great post - i'd like to get a padKONTROL soon... hopefully i'll remember this was here.

bandbajao
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Post by bandbajao » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:06 pm

lofi77 wrote:very helpfull!!

i have a mikrokontrol keyboard, do you have any solutions with that gear?
I have a microKONTROL, too. But the pads weren't any good for banging beats, so I got the padKONTROL.

You can essentially set up the pads on the mK and the settings in Live exactly similar to what I've specified for the pK, and then a couple of additional steps for the encoders and faders -

Set up the faders 1 - 8 to transmit Pitch Bend on channels 1 - 8. This will allow you to control the levels on the first 8 channel strips in Live.

Then set up two pads to transmit A#2 and B2 on channel 1. This will be your bank left/right. When you hit bank right, the faders will map to the next 8 channel strips, and so on, for an unlimited number of strips.

Set up the encoders to transmit General Purpose CCs 1/2/3/4 for the first 4 encoders, and CC 20/21/22/23 for the next 4, all on channel 1. These will now function as V-Pots.

Set up two more pads: F2 on channel 1, and F#2 on channel 1. These will be the toggle switches for Send and Pan. When you toggle Send, the encoders will function as Send knobs, and when you toggle Pan, the encoders will function as you-guessed-it-very-well-thank-you.

[Following applies to both mK and pK]
You can set up 4 sets of 8 pads as follows (on two banks, of course):
C-1 to G-1 [8 pads] ...Arm strips 1-8
G#-1 to D#0 [8 pads] ...Solo strips 1-8
E0 to B0 [8 pads] ...Mute strips 1-8
C1 to G1 [8 pads] ...Select strips 1-8: this is an alternative to using the cursor keys I described above)
ALL should transmit on channel 1.

For all the 4 sets above, you can use the Bank Left/Right pads (A#2 and B2 on channel 1) to switch to next/prev sets of strips in multiples of 8.

[Note: You should also be able to use the piano keys for this - that will save you the trouble of switching banks, when, say you need to use features from both banks. I haven't tried this, though]

Be warned, however, that the V-Pot thingy above could turn kludgy because of Korg's crappy implementation of the rotary encoders - values could jump all over the place when you witch between Pan and Send. The rest should work OK.

bandbajao
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Post by bandbajao » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:27 pm

And here's a good scene for those of you who like to load up Impulse and bang away, but control clips without the mouse and keyboard. Again, works with both mK and pK.

Same as the bank in my first post, except that you keep the Transport controls to a bare minimum, and use 8 pads for Impulse

[Undo] [Up] [Redo] [Arm]
[Left] [Down] [Right] [Clip]
[*] [*] [*] [*]
[*] [*] [*] [*]

The [*] are Impulse Pads.
The [Arm] here should be set between C-1 and G-1, transmitting on MIDI channel 1, depending on which channel strip you're using (i.e. C-1 if your Impulse is on the first Track, G-1 if it's on the eight track).
This way, you can switch Arm on/off, say, when you're layering beats, and you also need to tryout an alternate combination before you layer another set on.
So you can go - Arm; bang,bang,bang; Un-Arm; bang,uh-oh,bang,bang; Arm; bang,bang,bang - see what I mean?
The [Undo] and [Redo] buttons here can be used if you want to delete the last layered set of beats, or you can go on hitting undo until the notes in the clip are blank.

[Note: You need to set up your blank clips in advance.] - the [Clip] button will not create a new clip for you - it can only trigger an existing clip.

Contra
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Post by Contra » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:02 am

thanks for the one with the impulse in mind....

as for now i have scene one setup(nnot the way u stated, but am gonna try that soon)

pad 1=tap tempo
pad 2=play
3= stop
4=record(set to toggle)
5=overdub(set to toggle)
6=return to arrangement
7=open
8=open

9=starts scene 1
10=scene 2
11=scene 3
12=scene 4
13=scene 5
14=scene 6
15= one clip of maybe a drum changeup/instrument changeup
16= same as pad 15.

left knobis tempo (just in case tappin aint what i wanna do)
right knob is global groove amount


on scene 12(odd scene to use)

is my impulse scene
pads 9-16 are the impulse drums

i may use 1-8 for things specifically on the impulse dont know what
knob 1 and 2 are for beat repeat on the drums....

my plan is to map out more controls on scene 2

and then scene 3 to 11 use to map out 2 octaves of different scales,

then 13 - 16 (dont know yet)

i like improving music on the spot per se more than djing tracks, (for now)

pz.

Michael Hatsis
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Post by Michael Hatsis » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:23 am

heres a link to a template for the Kontrol49. the minipads send out mackie commands on port 2 ( similar to bandbajao s setup ) and the faders and knobs are set up for Lives Automap protocol for devices and racks. There is some documentation in the archive.

Contra
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Post by Contra » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:14 am

mike, no love for us padkontrollians?!?!?!?

bandbajao
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Post by bandbajao » Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:16 pm

Contra - Your setup looks good, but I guess the point of my posts was to show that Live can be setup as a beatbox without having to MIDI-map everytime, or store mappings in the set/template. Maybe I'm an 1d34L15t...

Michael Hatsis
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Post by Michael Hatsis » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:25 am

Contra wrote:mike, no love for us padkontrollians?!?!?!?
Heres a template i use for the PadKontrol. Its Hybrid Mackie/Live Automap setup. Its similar to bandbajao's template above but the X-Y pad controls 2 Parameters in Lives Devices or macros. Using this template you can control all of he parameters in a selected device with just the X-Y pad.

Heres the setup:

Scene 9 -
pads 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,11,13,14,15,16 - send out mackie control functions
pad 4 - bank up
pad 12 - bank down
pad 9 - device lock/unlock
X-Y pad - controls selected device/rack parameters 1 and 2 using Lives Automap
Knobs 1 & 2 - controls parameters 3 and 4 using Lives Automap

Scene 10 -
pads - same as scene 9
X-Y pad - controls selected device/rack parameters 3 and 4 using Lives Automap
Knobs 1 & 2 - controls parameters 5 and 6 using Lives Automap

Scene 11 -
pads - same as scene 9
X-Y pad - controls selected device/rack parameters 5 and 6 using Lives Automap
Knobs 1 & 2 - controls parameters 7 and 8 using Lives Automap

Scene 12 -
pads - same as scene 9
X-Y pad - controls selected device/rack parameters 7 and 8 using Lives Automap
Knobs 1 & 2 - controls parameters 1 and 2 using Lives Automap

You can download it HERE

Theres more documentation in the zip file.

bandbajao
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Post by bandbajao » Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:29 pm

Excellent! Just what I was looking for... thanks, Mike!

Contra
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Post by Contra » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:08 am

im glaad to see pad kontrol love up in here!

:D

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