McMillen QuNeo looks to be everything I want in a controller

[Matt_Quinn]

Is the remote script share-able? That would at least convince me to keep the QuNeo & sell my MPD18.

I haven't even delved into COMA mode/midi mapping at all, crazy I've been waiting for this thing for months & now that's it's here, I have like no time to use it. Argh.

[Warrior Bob]

Oh yeah! I'd be happy to share it with you, if it's of any interest. I'm at work at the moment so I can't get to it until later, but I'll post it when I get home.

Are you on Windows or OSX? I can bundle some basic instructions for installing it if you've never messed with them before. I just learned yesterday myself.

[regretfullySaid]

It's too bad they didn't include the user remote functions as a default in their custom remote script. This means you have to use an extra slot in the Control Surfaces in the Preferences . Also they didn't provide the uncompiled (.py) remote script so you'll have to make one from scratch or go through decompiling which I did but it has errors.

What I did was paste preset 9 onto the rest of the presets and replace the parts I want to change with notes and cc's they aren't using.
I'm using Clyphx X-controls for custom functions which is more dynamic than static mapping.
This also means I need to take up another 2 slots in the Surface Control preferences, one for Clyphx and another for Clyph_XT.
So out of the 4 Control Surface slots that are used (not counting Macrobat) 3 need to have QuNeo as I/O. Not cool.

Their default Live script is inconsistent and unstable, I'm pretty underwhelmed on the s/w side, which means I'm going to have to learn python and the live framework in order to get the kind of functionality I Want like the nativeKontrol stuff.

That being said, h/w wise and the feel of it is nice. I'm having fun with it; I'm just spending all my time setting it up along with my Live template before I can really get into it. I also decided to use Autohotkey to have midi shortcuts for "Slice to MIDI" templates and "Crop Sample" which I'm using with TouchOsc on my ipod. I wanted to do that with Quneo but Live can't share midi devices with Autohotkey:/

[Warrior Bob]

It's too bad they didn't include the user remote functions as a default in their custom remote script. This means you have to take up and extra slot in the Control Surfaces in the Preferences . Also they didn't provide the uncompiled (.py) remote script so you'll have to make one from scratch or go through decompiling which I did but it has errors.

I'm using the UserConfiguration.txt script, which I believe is used to compile a Python script automatically by Live. I'm using it in lieu of the included remote script (the compiled one designed for QuNeo presets 9&10) so I'm only taking up one control surface slot.

Can you really double up on control surface scripts, using more than one for the same hardware device? I didn't know that.

[Warrior Bob]

Is the remote script share-able? That would at least convince me to keep the QuNeo & sell my MPD18.

Here is my bare-bones User Remote Script for QuNeo for Drum Racks.

This script assumes you're using QuNeo preset 1, straight from the factory.

- The 16 drum pads map to whatever is visible in the Drum rack device
- The four horizontal sliders' locations are mapped to the first four Rack Macro knobs
- The four vertical sliders' locations are mapped to the last four Rack Macro knobs
- Everything else (sliders' CCs in other banks, all other controls) are untouched, so you have to use Live's mapping to map them to whatever you want. CoMA mode makes this way easier.

Installation:
The zip file contains a folder called WB-QuNeo, which contains the script. You need to put this folder into your User Remote Scripts folder for Live.

For me, on OSX 10.6.8, I found this folder at:
/Users/warriorbob/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 8.3/User Remote Scripts



On Windows, I can't say for sure since I've never tried it, but this article I found on Google suggests:

On Windows Vista/Windows 7, my Live preferences live in:
[Windows boot drive] > Users > Peter > AppData > Roaming > Ableton > Live 8.04 [or your version] > Preferences > User Remote Scripts
(Yours may be in Local rather than Roaming, depending on whether you installed Live for all users. On XP, the path is similar, but in your boot drive’s Documents and Settings.)

Put this folder in the right spot, open Live, and choose "WB-QuNeo" from the control surface chooser. It should automatically identify your "QUNEO" device for input and output if it's plugged in.



If you don't want to see my initials all the time, you can change the name of the folder - that's what Live uses for the name of the script.

The biggest problem I haven't been able to get around yet is the LED feedback - the feedback from Drum Rack macros appears to go to the wrong LEDs. I have no idea what's wrong. The input works fine though.

Hope this is useful to you! Feel free to ask if you have any problems or questions about it and I'll do the best I can to help.

[Matt_Quinn]

Thanks dude! Wil try it out tonight!

I played around a bit more last night, and was bummed because I could not get the pads to really trigger any kind of rolls - I tend to use my right index finger & left index & middle fingers to do fast rolls in tight spaces. Always worked fine on my MPD, but the QuNeo picks up *maybe* 1 out of 3 taps? I tried putting it in MPD emulation mode, and tried adjusting the Global 'Sesitivity dial' in the editor, but no luck. The pads got more sensitive, ie triggered with less pressure, but they aren't picking up the notes fast enough. I might try to make a video of it tonight if I can't straighten it out.

[Warrior Bob]

I think the QuNeo uses a fundamentally different methodology for recognizing taps than the MPD does. Once you've pressed a pad down, it won't register any new "hits" until you've let go - instead, these come through as varying pressure. The MPD, on the other hand, I think will register a new note every time it gets a sudden displacement. I'm speculating here, since I haven't ever used an MPD for more than about two minutes.

For what it's worth, I don't believe the "MPD" mode in the editor does anything more than just set the pad sensitivity to something that mostly matches an MPD. It would be cool to have a togglable "new notes on extra hits" mode that we could set in the editor. Maybe this could be possible in an editor/firmware update sometime in the future?

I am working around this on my own by the old standard tricks of assigning a sample to more than one pad (if I have to), and just being quick about getting my other fingers off of the sensor. This works so far for me and my music, but if you're reliant on quick single pad rolls like that, I think the QuNeo (much as I like it) is the wrong controller to use - its strength is more in its crazy data-everywhere continuous pressure sensors. Tools for the job, and all.

Sorry that script isn't more fully featured, but I don't yet speak Python One way or another, I hope it helps you make something cool!

[regretfullySaid]

Guys, check something out that's potentially devastating. Press a pad with Pressure activated, then hit Undo a few times.

[MattKMI]

@shadx312, please elaborate on the nature of your problem, so (if we need to) we can look into it at the KMI office?

[regretfullySaid]

Thanks Matt, mentioned it in a thread already but will make a new one.

Looks like I got a reply from Marco...

If you move a knob of your controller that is assigned to a parameter in Live you will be able to undo this setting with one undo step, even if you have performed more that one action using this same control.

This behavior depends from how your controller device is sending MIDI CC messages out though. Please use a MIDI monitor software to verify how many and which CC messages are send by pressing this expression pad.

You could for example install this Vst plugin:
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MIDIMonitor/

Once downloaded, just copy the Vst in your plugin directory and load one instance of the Vst into your MIDI track.

Please take a screenshot of the MIDI monitor list so that we can have a look to the stream of MIDI data generated by your controller.

Sending pix and follow up at KM forum and Marco Ableton email; its consistent behavior with pressure, note and x/y all on.

[MattKMI]

I'm going to try wht you mentioned, but I'm still unclear about what the issue is...

Maybe testing will clear it up, but I'd love to know more about the process of generating this issue.

[regretfullySaid]

Ugh forgot to finish posting the thread at the KMI forum, I'm prepping for a wkend trip; scattered.

It might be only if you have pads in Drum mode and you have all Note, Pressure, X & Y on. At least Pressure was mapped to a macro at the time (I'd been playing around with different settings of what's mapped and what wasn't for a macro) and after that there's a million undos for each little movement, instead of just the last one and then undo going to something else before that, like removing an added chain or whatever else it was that wasn't related to the pressure hit. So basically the Undo is clogged with pressure movements from one hit.

[fiveplustwo]

I don't really think it's KMI's fault for how Ableton handles its Undo functions.

[regretfullySaid]

I know, I never said it was KMI's fault. That's why I made a minor mention of it in an unrelated post at their forum, because I assumed it's a problem on Abletons end, but Matt mentioned to bring up the issue so that's what I'm doing.

[Korhan]

Ableton's Undo buffer limitation has been an issue for a long time. If you have controllers that send dense MIDI data (such as wiimotes), your live set will crash once the undo buffer reaches a size of 2GB. Ableton has expressed their indifference to the problem many times. They simply don't care.