Programming Novation LaunchControlXL not able to set the LED's from MIDI Messages

[freddieventura]

Hi,
So this is a pretty specific question but hope there is someone who can guide me.
I'm developing a utility to be integrated with "Novation LaunchControlXL" so I'm using the programmers-reference guide https://resource.novationmusic.com/site ... -guide.pdf

Which indicates the interpretation of the MIDI Messages from Computer(DAW) to Controller and viceversa.

It states two ways of changing the LED's colors from the DAW to the Controller:
- By sending "SysEx" messages of the following typology:
F0 00 20 29 02 11 78 [Template] [Index] [COLOUR] F7
[Template] Would be one of the 16 templates (8 the modifiable ones for Users)
[COLOUR] : 14 for RED , 60 for GREEN , etc...
[INDEX] : From 0 , to 2F according to the Position witin the Grid of the LED you want to update


- Legacy (compatible with Launchpad) By sending note-on Messages
144 [LEDPOSITION] [COLOUR]
[LEDPOSITION] : I'm not pretty sure exactly how this matches but it should be Note 00 Top Left

So I'm able to do it the first way "SysEx" by sending the following message for instance changing the Top-left first LED to RED

[] MIDI 240 0 32 41 2 17 120 0 0 15 247
--
GRID POSITION
Whereas if I do (sending a NoteOn to the 1st MIDI Channel to the same position it wont work)
MIDI 144 0 15
Neither if I try with the sameone but taking the posision of the CC , or even updating the CC manualy (which is quite a wrong approach I guess)
MIDI 144 13 15
MIDI 176 13 15

Anyone successfull on doing this?

Thanks

[Greenapples2019]

Hi, I tried to do exactly the same and found that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. A couple of things if you haven't already tried them (sorry if this is really basic and you've already done them all):
1. Make sure the LCXL mode is set to the right one for the commands (so in your example it's User mode 1)
2. In the Ableton preferences, check the ins/outs for the LCXL are correct
3. Try adding a letter to the end of the MIDI, depending on which control surface your LCXL is in Ableton. So if it's the first one set in preferences, try MIDIA rather than MIDI
4. How are you triggering the MIDI command? I linked it to one of the LCXL buttons and found that sometimes it wouldn't work at all, or that one command would work but another command with similar syntax wouldn't. Or that quitting Ableton and starting again would suddenly make it work.
5. Could you set the lights on the LCXL in the Editor, so you have different user modes, and then trigger the different user modes with a sysex command? I found that changing the user modes works pretty much all the time, so now I use that rather than trying to change the LED colours within a user mode.

I understand your frustration; it should work but doesn't seem to do it properly. Unless I'm also doing something wrong!

Cheers
D